Compromise of 1877
In the year of 1876, a candidate, governor of Ohio, Rutherford B. Hayes, lost the popular vote to the governor of New York, Samuel J. Tilden. The first time in American history, the candidate who lost the popular vote was elected president. The Republicans controlled the electoral commission but Democrats controlled the House of Representatives. Democrats were willing to embrace Hayes if they received something in return. This was the birth of the Compromise of 1877: ordered extraction of federal troops from Louisiana and South Carolina, wanted federal funds to build a railroad from Texas to the West Coast in order to boost Southern rivers, harbors and bridges and Hayes to appoint a conservative Southerner to his cabinet. The Republicans agreed and Hayes had an untroubled inauguration.
This compromise between the North and South was the formal end to Reconstruction. African Americans would not be equals in society for quite some time.
This compromise between the North and South was the formal end to Reconstruction. African Americans would not be equals in society for quite some time.
A political cartoon by Joseph Keppler depicts Roscoe Conkling as a character Mephistopheles (the devil) while Rutherford B. Hayes strolls off with the prize of the "Solid South" depicted as a woman. The caption quotes Goethe: "Unto that Power he doth belong Which only doeth Right while ever willing Wrong."