1876 United States Presidential Election (Brothers No More)

United States presidential election, 1876
All 274 electoral votes of the Electoral College; 138 electoral votes needed to win
	Electoral College results
President before election; George H. Pendleton; Democrat	Elected President ; Samuel J. Tilden; Democrat

The United States Presidential Election of 1876, the 23rd U.S. presidential election, took place on November 7, 1876. Democrat Samuel J. Tilden soundly defeated James G. Blaine and Roscoe Conkling despite not winning a majority of the popular vote.

Background[]

The second term of George H. Pendleton had proven to be an eventful and heated time in the United States. Pendleton largely focused his second term on establishing warmer relations with the Confederacy, a move that he thought would be popular with the war-tired populace. His actions actually had the opposite effect, and his meeting with C.S. President Stonewall Jackson on July 4, 1876, turned the country against his administration. This energized the base of the young National and American parties and gave them a real chance of winning the election. There was a movement to unite the two parties into one, but it fell through when they could not agree on a single candidate.

Democratic Nomination[]

The Democratic National Convention took place on June 27-July 2, 1876, in St. Louis. With Pendleton leaving office and victory once again seeming ripe for the taking (despite Pendleton's mistakes), many candidates lined up for a shot at the presidency. The three main candidates were Governor Samuel J. Tilden of New York, Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana, and Senator Thomas F. Bayard of Delaware. Tilden was famous for cleaning up the rampant corruption in New York's political system and had numerous other advantages as a candidate. He was a fresh face on the national stage, untainted by Pendleton's follies. He was a northerner, avoiding further accusations that the Democrats were Confederate-aligned. He was a reformer who wasn't afraid to speak against the old administration when he saw fit.

Pendleton's supporters organized in an effort to nominate a candidate closer to the incumbent's policies. This ended in them casting their votes for Pendleton himself, hoping to draft the incumbent into an unprecedented third term.

Hendricks and Bayard also had significant support. Tilden would end up winning the nomination on the 6th ballot when Hendricks agreed to drop out in exchange for the vice presidential nomination.

National Nomination[]

The National Party National Convention took place from July 4-9, 1876, in Chicago. James G. Blaine won the nomination almost unopposed; he had agreed in 1875 to run again for the party, despite his sour feelings from the last election. He felt that if he could win election and become solidified as the leader of the party, he could mitigate its more unsavory nativist elements. Henry L. Dawes of Massachusetts was nominated for vice president. It was felt that he was more strongly committed to party principles than Blaine, who was selected as the candidate mostly because of his national profile.

The convention coincided with the infamous meeting of President Pendleton with Confederate President Jackson. When news of this reached the convention, the floor was said to have gone into an angry frenzy. On the flip side, party leaders knew they had their chance to bring the National Party to national prominence.

American Nomination[]

The American National Convention took place from July 23-30 in Boston. The party was energized from the outrage caused by President Pendleton; they knew they had to capitalize with a strong candidate. There was a large movement within the party to nominate James G. Blaine for president, thus uniting the American and National Party tickets against Tilden. Party leaders saw differences between the two parties and pushed hard for any other candidate. Blaine's moderance and his party's support for civil service reform was seen as too incompatible with the American Party platform, and the National Party's nativism also pushed some off of the idea of a union. Eventually, it came down to Blaine and Roscoe Conkling of New York. A deal was struck that allowed Conkling to win the nomination. As part of this deal, National Party vice presidential candidate Henry L. Dawes was nominated as the American vice presidential candidate.

The Campaign[]

Both Blaine and Conkling's campaigns lambasted the Democrats for being Southern sympathizers and traitors. For the first time since the end of the war, the American people were developing a strong anti-Confederacy sentiment and supported the opposition parties' platforms of opposing them. Neither party had much to say against Tilden, who had maintained a clean record. They instead mostly attacked Pendleton, who never responded to the provocations. The Democrats pointed to how they had rebuilt America and saved it from falling apart. The opposition parties claimed that all they were doing was turning the U.S. into a Northern Confederacy, still beholden to slave power even with the South no longer part of their country. This struck a chord with the American people.

Tilden ran his own campaign and carefully avoided association with either Pendleton or the national Democratic Party as a whole. He presented himself as an outsider, a reformer who would clean up both his party and the federal government. He was silent on the issue of the Confederacy, believing that his northern heritage spoke for itself. He would not be beholden to the wishes of the traitors down South.

Both the opposition candidates knew that outright victory was near impossible with the split vote. Privately, they both rued that factional differences had prevented a united ticket. However, both men considered it hard to swallow the thought of collaborating with the other. Their hopes instead rested on their shared vice presidential candidate who could perhaps win a majority of electoral votes and get one of their own into the executive branch.

Results and Aftermath[]

The energized anti-Democrat base was enough to limit Tilden to 47.5% of the popular vote. However, the existence of two opposition parties divided the vote enough for Tilden to win in an electoral landslide. The opposition parties combined for over 50% of the popular vote and would have won at least 150 electoral votes if their votes were combined, with Pennsylvania being a very close toss-up. This would have been enough to win the election with or without Pennsylvania.

Colorado's population was firmly anti-Democrat, but there was no popular vote organized in the brand new state for this election. The Democrats held a small plurality of votes in the Colorado legislature over the divided opposition and they voted to award the state's electoral votes to Tilden.

The National and American Parties were greatly disappointed by the results and realized their mistake in not unifying. Henry L. Dawes, as the candidate of both parties, won 58 electoral votes for vice president, although this was not enough to earn the position.

The results of this election pushed the opposition parties to think strongly about a merger; this was officially accomplished when they joined in 1879 to form the National American Party. Tilden was determined to stray clear of Confederate influence, and he kept true to his vow for his whole first term. Despite the anti-Democratic wave, Tilden proved to be quite a popular president. His strong morality and eloquence greatly endeared him to Americans on all sides. With Tilden's personal popularity contrasting with the continuing desire to overthrow the Democrats, 1880 was shaping up to be a battle of massive proportion.