Fraud of the century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden, and the stolen election of 1876
by Morris, Roy
Title: Fraud of the century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden, and the stolen election of 1876
Author: Morris, Roy
Year Published: 2003
Publisher: Simon & Schuster
Copyright: Copyright Simon & Schuster. Excerpt provided for educational and research purposes only.
Summary: In this work of popular history and scholarship, acclaimed historian and biographer Roy Morris, Jr., tells the extraordinary story of how, in America's centennial year, the presidency was stolen, the Civil War was almost reignited, and black Americans were consigned to nearly ninety years of legalized segregation in the South. "The bitter 1876 contest between Ohio Republican governor Rutherford B. Hayes and New York Democratic governor Samuel J. Tilden is the most sensational, ethically sordid, and legally questionable presidential election in American history. The first since Lincoln's in 1860 in which the Democrats had a real chance of recapturing the White House, the election was in some ways the last battle of the Civil War, as the two parties fought to preserve or overturn what had been decided by armies just eleven years earlier." "Riding a wave of popular revulsion at the numerous scandals of the Grant administration and a sluggish economy, Tilden received some 260,000 more votes than his opponent. But contested returns in Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina ultimately led to Hayes's being declared the winner by a specially created, Republican-dominated Electoral Commission after four tense months of political intrigue and threats of violence. President Grant took the threats seriously: he ordered armed federal troops into the streets of Washington to keep the peace."--BOOK JACKET.
Front endpapers include statistical information on the election of 1876 and voting irregularities that occurred in Oregon, Louisiana, Florida and South Carolina, as well as biographical information on the two presidential candidates, Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden. Other notes refer to the Republican and Democratic National Conventions, the Centennial Exposition in Philadelphia which was visited by both candidates, and intimidation of black voters by white citizens in South Carolina. The election in 2000 is described as farcical, while the election of 1876 is characterized as nothing less than a tragedy; it amounted to the dismantling of Reconstruction. -- Notes on back endpapers refer to the Texas Pacific Railroad connection, the Wormley Hotel agreement, an assassination attempt on Hayes, and his swearing-in ceremony. The following questions are also part of the notes: "Power of the bloody shirt - what is it?" - "What was the Whiskey Ring scandal?" - "How much political violence was there during the campaign?" - "How many blacks were eligible to vote in 1876?" -- Annotations by Brian Lamb in the margins and underlining of pertinent phrases throughout the book.
Citation: Morris, Roy, “Fraud of the century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden, and the stolen election of 1876,” Booknotes, accessed March 1, 2015, http://booknotes.gmu.edu/items/show/145.