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| Discussing Florida's vote of 1876 |
Sure, you remember what happened in Florida during Bush v. Gore, but do you know what happened during Hayes v. Tilden? Back in 1876, vote-counting controversies in Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina not only required a special electoral commission, they nearly restarted the Civil War.
Tilden Takes an Early Lead
By 1876, post-Civil War Reconstruction had been underway for a decade, and federal troops had been removed from political duty in every state except Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina. The country was celebrating its centennial. No one had any reason to suspect that the year's presidential election would nearly plunge the nation back into chaos.
The two big political parties we know and love had risen to prominence in the previous fifty years. The Republican Party nominated Governor Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio for president. The Democratic Party nominated Governor Samuel J. Tilden of New York. American men went to the polls on November 7 (women weren't allowed to vote until 1920). At first, they seemed to deliver the election to Tilden.
On November 8, newspapers across the country proclaimed Tilden president-elect in banner headlines. Like the predictions of their TV news progeny more than a century later, however, those prognostications proved premature.
Contradictory Results
The popular vote was close: Tilden won it by a margin of less than 250,000 votes (out of 8.3 million). The Electoral College vote was even closer. Tilden had 184 undisputed electoral votes, one short of a majority, to Hayes's 165. Trouble was, the remaining twenty electoral votes--enough to put either candidate over the top--were hotly disputed.
Both parties claimed victory in Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida, where voters divided sharply along racial lines--and where federal troops were a hot-button issue. Accusations of voter fraud flew from all sides, and before long different local governing bodies were certifying different "official" election results, and different slates of electors, for the same states.
Democratic certifiers threw out enough Republican votes to certify a Tilden victory. Republicans did the same in favor of Hayes. The dispute became so serious that Democratic papers ran headlines shouting "Tilden or War!" and General William Sherman moved four artillery companies to Washington to ensure order.
Who Will Break the Tie?
The Constitution doesn't cover what to do when states can't make up their minds about whom they've voted for. So, to deal with the problem, Congress created a special fifteen-member commission--including five senators, five House members, and five Supreme Court justices--charged with deciding which electors to accept.
Fourteen of the commission's members split evenly along party lines. The key fifteenth member was Justice David Davis, a one-time Republican who by 1876 was considered an independent with Democratic inclinations. The Democrats believed Davis would give their candidate a fair shake.
Just as the law creating the commission was passing Congress, however, the Illinois state legislature unexpectedly appointed Davis to the U.S. Senate, and he promptly resigned from the commission. His replacement was Justice Joseph Bradley, a tried-and-true Republican who ended up voting for Hayes in every case.
House Democrats threatened a filibuster to prevent Republican electors' votes from being entered, but they backed off after Hayes promised to remove federal troops from the South, effectively ending Reconstruction. The Electoral College made Hayes president on March 2, 1877, less than three days before his inauguration.
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