Presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes

Historical Context Essay

Lucas Paul Richert (University of Saskatchewan)

The Literary Encyclopedia. Volume 3.2.2: American (US) Writing and Culture: The Nineteenth Century, 1783-1900.
Vol. editors: J. Michael Duvall (College of Charleston), Emory Elliott (University of California, Riverside), Stephen E. Meats (Pittsburg State University), Tony Papanikolas (San Jose State University)

Domains

Changes of government, elections and reigns

Dates

Date of occurrence 1877-03-04-1881-03-04

Places

United States (Location)

Resources

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In 1876, Republican Rutherford B. Hayes won the presidency against his Democratic opponent, Samuel Tilden. The election was extraordinarily close and it initially appeared that Hayes won the popular and electoral college votes. However, Hayes' campaign team challenged the results in Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina. To resolve the matter, which became known as the Hayes-Tilden affair, a bipartisan group in Congress established the Electoral Commission to decide the issue. The Commission, as finally constituted, included 8 Republicans and 7 Democrats. The Commission was supposed to include an impartial independent, the Chief of the Supreme Court. David Davis, the chief justice, deigned not to participate. Thus, the Electoral Commission voted on a strict party basis and Hayes won…

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295 words

Citation: Richert, Lucas Paul. "Presidency of Rutherford B. Hayes". The Literary Encyclopedia. First published 20 January 2009 [https://www.litencyc.com/php/stopics.php?rec=true&UID=981, accessed 26 April 2024.]

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