Rutherford Hayes Presidency (1877-1881)

Question 1

The Disputed Election of 1876

Answer 1

• Grant was unable to run for president again due to his damaged reputation from multiple scandals
• Hayes was Republican and Tilden was a Democrat
• Tilden narrowly won the popular vote but presidential elections are decided in the vote of the Electoral College
• Democrats claimed that Tilden won enough states for him to win
• Republicans still held political power in them states and were able to disqualify enough Democrat voters as invalid to change the results and make Hayes the winner
• Massive electoral fraud on both sides producing a potentially disastrous political stalemate

Question 2

The 1877 Compromise

Answer 2

• Seemed that an entire post-Civil War settlement might unravel
• Congress made a special electoral commission
• Consisted of 15 members: 7 Republicans, 7 Democrats and 1 independent member
• Independent resigned as choosing either wouldn’t end well for them
• They were replaced by a Republican giving the majority to Hayes
• Hayes wanted to compromise to prevent any conflict with the South
• Promised to be a single-term president and not run for re-election
• Offered to remove all federal troops from the South and to provide federal aid
• Marked the end of Reconstruction and all Reconstruction acts introduced
• Took all force out of the 13th, 14th and 15th Amendment

Question 3

End of Reconstruction/Rise of the ‘Solid South’

Answer 3

• Democrats moved quickly to gain control of the remaining ‘unredeemed’ states: Louisiana, Florida and South Carolina
• Southern states became the ‘Solid South’
• A region of one-party governments, where the Democratic candidate was certain to win any/all elections
• Democratic stranglehold
• Enabled Southern Democrats to dismantle much of the reformist legislation pushed through by Reconstruction

Question 4

African Americans after the 1877 Compromise

Answer 4

• Democrats in the South were undoing many of the Reconstruction’s goals for African Americans
• Voting rights were undermined
• Discriminatory changes to the law damaged the economic position of black agricultural labourers by tying them more closely to landowners
• 13th, 14th and 15th Amendment were no longer relevant

Question 5

Attempted & Failed Civil Service Reform
(Spoils System)

Answer 5

• Hayes did much to restore political respectability, tried hard to root out the patronage and the ‘Spoils System’
• A necessary reform since most civil servant posts were given out to reward loyal supporters with the opportunity to make money, not to provide honest public service
• Hayes was opposed by a powerful group of Republicans who called themselves Stalwarts
• Led by ambitious Republican boss from New York, Roscoe Conkling
• Civil service reforms split the Republican Party
• Hayes sacked Chester Arthur, one of Conkling’s key supporters

Question 6

Hayes and the 1877 Railroad Strike

Answer 6

• Hayes was urged to to military force to suppress the strike due to the high records of vandalism by tearing up tracks, burning trains, etc
• Strikers destroyed more than $10 million worth of property
• Troops eventually restored order