Rutherford B Hayes Opponent In His Election
Rutherford B. Hayes was the 19th president of the United States. He was elected in a controversial presidential election where he lost the popular vote to his opponent Samuel Tilden but managed to win the presidency by one electoral vote. |
Hayes was the man who came from no where to garner Republican nomination during the Republican Convention. Earlier, James G. Blaine was the front runner. Hayes was not that well known but his reputation of being honest preceded him. This was a welcome break for the Republicans, especially after the scandals that plagued the Grant presidency.
Therefore, there were many who did not expect Hayes to win the presidential election against his Democrat opponent, Samuel J. Tilden. In fact, Tilden was the favorite and he proved this by winning the popular vote by 250,000 votes.
On Election Day, each candidate needed to get 185 votes in order to win the election. Tilden managed to get 184 votes while Hayes had 165 electoral votes. Out of the four states; electoral votes that were to be contested, three states, namely Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina, were in the South under military control. The fourth state was Oregon.
In order to decide the outcome of the election, the House of Representatives and the Senate set up an Electoral Commission to conduct an investigation and declare the winner. The commission had 15 members, five from the House, five from the Senate and five from the US Supreme Court. There were 7 Democrats, 7 Republicans and one independent Justice in the commission. However, the independent justice was elected to the Senate and thus resigned his seat in the court, and thereby in the commission. He was replaced by another Supreme Court Justice who was a Republican and the commission voted 8 to 7 in favor of Hayes and giving him all 20 contested electoral votes.
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