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ANN KENEVAN on January 30, 2025

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ANN KENEVAN

On this day in 1877 Presidential Electoral Commission the successful resolution of a grave constitutional crisis. The... View MoreOn this day in 1877 Presidential Electoral Commission the successful resolution of a grave constitutional crisis. The presidential election of 1876 was one of the most contentious in our nation's history. Democrats nominated New York Governor Samuel Tilden, a noted reformer. Republicans nominated Ohio Governor Rutherford Hayes, a Civil War general. Initial returns portending a Tilden victory, Hayes prepared to concede. Tilden had won the popular vote, 51% to 48%. However, in three states – Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina – both parties claimed victory. If all three went Republican, Hayes would win by one Electoral Vote.The Constitution provides that Electoral Votes are counted, in a joint session of Congress, by the President of the Senate. Vice President Wilson having died, that task would fall to the Senate President pro tempore, also a Republican. To prevent one of their opponents deciding, in effect, the election result, Senate Democrats blocked any joint session.Senator George Edmunds (R-VT) and Representative George McCrary (R-IA) proposed a bipartisan solution to the impasse. January 29th 1877 – five weeks from the inauguration day – President Ulysses Grant signed into law their Electoral Commission Act. Which candidate had won would be decided by three Republican and two Democrat Senators, three Democrat and two Republican Representatives and five Supreme Court Justices. Voting 8 to 7, the commission awarded all disputed states to Hayes, making him the 19th President of the United States.Democrats accepted defeat with several conditions. The new administration would have to accept their party's claimants for the governorship of those three states, thus bringing an end to Reconstruction. The postmaster general, who controlled most federal government patronage jobs, must also be a Democrat. Page 120 of Back to Basics for the Republican Party explains that the GOP held the moral high ground in this battle. Had it not been for Democrat vote fraud preventing most African-Americans from voting, Hayes would have easily won the three states in question.

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January 30, 2025