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Strategies & Market Trends : Piffer OT - And Other Assorted Nuts -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Lost1 who wrote (59357)	11/10/2000 12:59:34 PM
From: arno	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 63513

washingtonpost.com Election 1876 Hauntingly Familiar By Lawrence L. Knutson Associated Press Writer Thursday, Nov. 9, 2000; 3:17 a.m. EST WASHINGTON –– The presidential election was searingly close. The Democratic candidate won the popular vote but fell a single vote short in the Electoral College. And Florida became a key to victory. One hundred twenty-four years after the election of 1876 became one of history's footnotes, Florida again plays a critical role in deciding a startlingly close election and who takes the oath of office on Inauguration Day. In 1876, more than just the White House was at stake. The Civil War had ended just 11 years earlier. Reconstruction policies imposed after the North's victory remained in force. Federal troops continued occupation duty in some Southern states. A political bargain would end the election dispute between two large-state governors: Republican Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio and Democrat Samuel J. Tilden of New York. It would shape national and sectional politics deep into the 20th century. On Election Day, Tilden seemed destined to become the first Democrat to win the presidency since before the Civil War. He took 51 percent of the popular vote to 48 percent for Hayes, outdrawing the Republican by more than 250,000 of the better than 8 million votes cast. But Tilden had only 184 electoral votes, one fewer than the 185 required in 1876. Hayes had an electoral total of 165. Election Day ended with the electoral votes of Oregon and three southern states – Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina – claimed by both parties. Republicans accused Democrats of intimidating newly enfranchised black voters to prevent them from participating in the three deep-South elections. Democrats accused Republicans of fraud. To resolve the disputes, Congress formed a 15-member, bipartisan commission of Supreme Court justices, senators and House members to gauge the validity of two sets of election returns, one from the Democrats, the other from the Republicans. Events moved swiftly and confusingly, and once drafted, the commission had eight Republicans and seven Democrats. The commission began its work in the Capitol's Old Senate Chamber, starting with the Florida case. By eight Republican votes to seven Democratic ones, the commission accepted the Republican vote in each of the disputed states. Hayes was elected, unless both houses of Congress disagreed. Amid a popular uproar and accusations of election-stealing, Democratic senators launched a Senate filibuster. A summary of the compromise reached in the hard bargaining that followed is contained in "Historic Documents on Presidential Elections," edited by Michael Nelson: "Southern Democrats agreed to accept the commission's report (and Hayes' election) in return for Hayes' promise virtually to end Reconstruction – that is, to withdraw the remaining federal troops from the South, appoint a white Southerner to the Cabinet, support internal improvements in the Southern states and allow the region to return to white rule." Hayes was announced as the winner just 56 hours before his inauguration on March 4, 1877. He served one term and did not seek re-election. Tilden faded into obscurity, a footnote in American political history.