An Interlude [Flashback to the contested election of 1876]

The United States in Our Own Times [book] ^ | 1920 | Haworth, Paul Leland

[edwinland]

Democrats criticized [Republican President Rutherford B. Hayes] even more vigorously than is the usual custom on the part of the opposition.

Favorite Democratic names for him were "the de facto President," "Old Eight to Seven," "The Usurper," and "The Boss Thief," while their newspapers never lost an opportunity to refer to the "Great Steal."

To a crowd of admirers assembled in front of his house at 15 Gramercy Park, in New York City, [Democrat Samuel J.] Tilden declared that he had been cheated out of the presidency by a "political crime," which the American people would not condone "under any pretext or for any purpose."

[edwinland]

What Democrats do when they think they've been cheated out of the presidency.

Spoiler alert: it's not "Enough is enough" or "Let's move on"

[SpaceBar]

People were nicer on the internet back then.

[edwinland]

And a roadmap for the Senate:

[After the election] “In order to gather political ammunition, the House of Representatives, which was controlled by the Democrats, created (May 17, 1878) what was known as the “Potter Committee” to investigate once more the elections in Louisiana and Florida. The Democratic members of this committee labored with zeal and took much testimony discreditable to their opponents, being greatly aided by several Southern Republicans who were disgruntled because they felt that they had not been properly rewarded by the Hayes administration. Long lists were also made of Repubicans connected with the Southern elections who had sine been given lucrative federal offices, and an attempt was made to show that the appointments had been made as rewards for corrupt services. One member of the committee, Benjamin F Butler, who was now an independent, said of the appointment that the most charitable construction was that “post hoc is not always propter hoc.”

[The Pack Knight]

I actually take a little comfort in the fact that none of this is actually unprecedented, and our country has indeed survived worse than what it is going through now.

[edwinland]

And an example of Democrats being Democrats, always keeping room for dirty tricks at polling sites:

Throughout the Hayes administration the Democrats controlled the House of Representatives, and during the last two years of it they controlled the Senate also. One of their main efforts was directed toward repealing the federal laws designed to protect the political rights of the Federal Southern blacks. By refusing to appropriate money for the army the House finally forced the Senate and the President to accept a bill (June 18, 1878) prohibiting the use of troops at the polls.