The Election of 1876/Compromise of 1877

After the Civil War ended in 1865, the South was in shambles. Their cities and surrounding land had been scorched and pillaged. Their economy was in turmoil. There was tension among whites and newly freed slaves, causing fear among whites, resulting in the creation of organizations such as the Ku Klux Klan. To add to the melting pot of chaos, the Radical Republicans had control of the Presidency and the House, leading to a strict monitoring of the South. With all of this built up stress, the southern population had to do something to release it. This is why the first chance they had to, they made a statement.

Charleston, South Carolina after the Civil War

In 1876, the presidential race was nearing the end. The race was between republican nominee Rutherford B. Hayes of Delaware and democrat Samuel J. Tilden of New York. To give background on what was occurring during this time, Reconstruction was slowly becoming less and less popular. Failed policies of the Grant administration left the country with a poor economy and overall distrust in the government. This, plus the continual failure of Reconstruction policies started to cause dissent among citizens. With all of this in mind, the race was close. However, there was controversy.

Due to the southerners built up resentment as I mentioned earlier, the southerners did not want to risk more Reconstruction policies from the republics. To prevent this, many southerners did not allow republican voters to vote. They would use scare tactics to prevent people from voting. The KKK was prominent for standing outside of polls, daring black voters to vote. Because of this and other fraudulent acts, there was a total of 20 electoral votes that were being disputed over. Eight of the votes were from Louisiana, seven from South Carolina, four from Florida, and one singular vote from Oregon. These votes would be irrelevant if one of the candidates had already reached the 185 electoral votes, but Samuel J. Tilden only had 184, and Rutherford B. Hayes had 165. These votes were the decider between who won and lost the presidential race.

To dispute these votes, Congress formed the Electoral Commission of 15 people, 5 Senators, 5 Representatives, and 5 judges.

To determine who would win the presidency, a behind the scenes deal was made between Republicans and neutral Democrats. This would be known as the Compromise of 1877. The deal consisted of 5 parts:

1. Rutherford B. Hayes would become president

2. Democrats must respect the "civil and political rights of blacks"

3. ALL Federal troops must be removed from the South

4. Hayes had to appoint a Southerner to his cabinet 

5. Hayes must provide federal aid to the Texas and Pacific Railroad

The consequences of the Compromise of 1877

This compromise was ultimately a failure. This compromise unofficially ended Reconstruction in the South and gave Democrats reign of the South. This compromise caused a lot of tension, as many Northerners believed that this compromise completely nullified the purpose of the Civil War as the only thing that changed in the South was the abolishment of slavery. But this did not matter as the Southern states could now just pass laws to purposefully limit the freedoms of black people, which is precisely what happened. 

The Compromise of 1877 is a great example of corruption. In my eyes, doing a behind the scenes deal to ensure your candidate wins is very corrupt. Looking at history, corruption always hurts the citizens. In this case, this corruption completely undermined the Civil War. It makes me wonder what modern day obscenities have occurred that we have let go unscathed.