The interest of the nation now centered around the action of the two returning boards.At the suggestion of President Grant, prominent Republicans went South to witness the count.Later prominent Democrats went also.These "visiting statesmen" were to support the frail returning boards in their duty.It was generally understood that these boards, certainly the one in Louisiana, were for sale, and there is little doubt that the Democrats inquired the price.But they were afraid to bid on such uncertain quantities as Governor Wells and T.
C.Anderson of Louisiana, both notorious spoilsmen.The members of the boards in both States soon showed the stiffening effect of the moral support of the Federal Administration and of the "visiting statesmen." Reassured as to their political future, they proceeded to do their duty: in Florida they threw out votes until the ninety majority for Tilden was changed to 925 for Hayes, and in Louisiana, by throwing out about fifteen thousand carefully selected ballots, they changed Tilden's lowest majority of six thousand to a Hayes majority of nearly four thousand.Naturally the Democrats sent in contesting returns, but the presidency was really won when the Republicans secured in Louisiana and Florida returns which were regular in form.But hoping to force Congress to go behind the returns, the Democrats carried up contests also from Oregon and South Carolina, whose votes properly belonged to Hayes.
The final contest came in Congress over the counting of the electoral votes.
The Constitution provides that "the President of the Senate shall, in the presence of the Senate and the House of Representatives, open all the Certificates, and the Votes shall then be counted." But there was no agreement as to where authority lay for deciding disputed votes.Never before had the presidency turned on a disputed count.From 1864 to 1874 the "twenty-second joint rule" had been in force under which either House might reject a certificate.The votes of Georgia in 1868 and of Louisiana in 1879 had thus been thrown out.But the rule had not been readopted by the present Congress, and the Republicans very naturally would not listen to a proposal to readopt it now.
With the country apparently on the verge of civil war, Congress finally created by law an Electoral Commission to which were to be referred all disputes about the counting of votes and the decision of which was to be final unless both Houses concurred in rejecting it.The act provided that the commission should consist of five senators, five representatives, four designated associate justices of the Supreme Court, and a fifth associate justice to be chosen by these four.While nothing was said in the act about the political affiliations of the members of the commission, every one understood that the House would select three Democrats and two Republicans, and that the Senate would name two Democrats and three Republicans.It was also well known that of the four justices designated two were Republicans and two Democrats, and it was tacitly agreed that the fifth would be Justice David Davis, an "independent." But at the last moment Davis was elected Senator by the Illinois Legislature and declined to serve on the Commission.Justice Bradley, a Republican, was then named as the fifth justice, and in this way the Republicans obtained a majority on the Commission.
The Democrats deserve the credit for the Electoral Commission.The Republicans did not favor it, even after they were sure of a party majority on it.They were conscious that they had a weak case, and they were afraid to trust it to judges of the Supreme Court.Their fears were groundless, however, since all important questions were decided by an 8 to 7 vote, Bradley voting with his fellow Republicans.Every contested vote was given to Hayes, and with 185electoral votes he was declared elected on March 2, 1877.
Ten years before, Senator Morton of Indiana had said: "I would have been in favor of having the colored people of the South wait a few years until they were prepared for the suffrage, until they were to some extent educated, but the necessities of the times forbade that; the conditions of things required that they should be brought to the polls at once." Now the condition of things required that some arrangement be made with the Southern whites which would involve a complete reversal of the situation of 1867.In order to secure the unopposed succession of Hayes, to defeat filibustering which might endanger the decision of the Electoral Commission, politicians who could speak with authority for Hayes assured influential Southern politicians, who wanted no more civil war but who did want home rule, that an arrangement might be made which would be satisfactory to both sides.
So the contest was ended.Hayes was to be President; the South, with the Negro, was to be left to the whites; there would be no further military aid to carpetbag governments.In so far as the South was concerned, it was a fortunate settlement better, indeed, than if Tilden had been inducted into office.The remnants of the reconstruction policy were surrendered by a Republican President, the troops were soon withdrawn, and the three radical states fell at once under the control of the whites.Hayes could not see in his election any encouragement to adopt a vigorous radical position, and Congress was deadlocked on party issues for fifteen years.As a result the radical Republicans had to develop other interests, and the North gradually accepted the Southern situation.
