National Geographic: The 1876 election was the most divisive in U.S. history. Here’s how Congress responded.

By Erin Blakemore

    As Congress gears up to certify electoral votes on January 6th, several Republicans from both houses have said that they will challenge counts from certain states, citing "widespread voter fraud". Many have given the example of 1876, when allegations of fraud from both parties led to political mayhem.

    In 1876, the Civil War was over, and the Republican-controlled government quickly passed laws limiting former Confederates and giving Blacks more freedom during a period called the Reconstruction. Because of this, they were overwhelmingly supported by the new Black voting population, which also elected several African Americans to Congress. The Southern white voters, who largely supported the anti-Reconstruction Democratic party, didn't like this and began to start trying to disenfranchise Black voters in the 1870s.

    But by 1876, the Republican party had lost popularity due to an economic depression and corruption. The election that year, between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel J. Tilden, was fierce, and on Election Day, both parties committed widespread fraud and voter intimidation to try to influence the outcome. After the votes were counted, Tilden appeared to have around 200,000 more votes than Hayes, but in Florida, Lousianna, South Carolina, and Oregon,both parties claimed victory and accused each other of tampering. Electors and governors sent in conflicting electoral vote counts to Congress.

"At the time, though, candidates let their party operatives promote them, and they staged a cutthroat campaign. Tilden’s opponents painted him as a diseased drunkard who planned to pay off the former Confederacy’s debts; Hayes’s enemies claimed he had stolen money from his brothers in arms during the war."

    People across the nation feared a second war as Congress debated countless bills in a deadlock before finally passing the Election Commission Act. A court with equal numbers of lawmakers from the House and Senate along with 5 justices debated each state, and the Republicans consistently won because of their greater numbers. The Democrats refused to accept the outcome.

"It would take a backroom deal—and a momentous political compromise—to settle the election. During a series of secretive meetings, Southern Democratic lawmakers promised to call off the filibuster and concede the election in exchange for an end to Reconstruction. Though the terms of the informal agreement remain unknown, it is thought to have included the withdrawal of all federal forces from the former Confederacy, increased federal funds for Southern states, the construction of a transcontinental railroad through the South, and the appointment of a Southern Democrat to Hayes’s cabinet."

    Unfortunately, the compromise that saved the nation had disastrous consequences for Southern Blacks. Without supervision, they were persecuted through the Jim Crow laws and faced massive disenfranchisement.

"A decade after the Hayes-Tilden election was finally decided, Congress passed the Electoral Count Act of 1887 in an attempt to avoid further electoral chaos by providing a consistent system for the delivery of electoral votes...During the joint session of Congress on January 6, members can object to the votes of individual electors or states’ overall returns. For an objection to be formally considered and voted upon, it must be lodged by both a member of the House and the Senate. That has only happened twice in history, and both objections failed."

    Although Republican lawmakers have sufficient numbers to object, the 2020 election is not nearly as close as 1876, and they will not change the results. All of Trump's lawsuits in various states have failed, and Vice President Pence's role is largely ceremonial. His job is to open the votes, not change or reject them.