What's that? You've never heard of Tilden? That's not surprising, unless you're a history buff, or are from Brooklyn where there's a high school named for him, or Nebraska where there's a town named for him (the hometown of Baseball Hall-of-Famer Richie Ashburn). He didn't get to become President, because the Republicans stole the Electoral Votes of Louisiana (8 of them), South Carolina (7) and Florida (4), plus 1 of the 3 in Oregon.
So the final count, not made official until the Electoral Commission made its ruling on a pure party-line vote of 8-7 on March 2, 1877 -- 2 days before the Inauguration -- was Hayes 185, Tilden 184.
Hayes, nicknamed "Rutherfraud," "His Fraudulency" and "Old 8 to 7," announced he would serve only 1 term, and kept his promise. Tilden was convinced he was robbed, but did not run again in 1880 or 1884, due to ill health, and died in 1886.
But was he robbed? The Democrats, then the nation's conservative party, may have engaged in serious intimidation of newly-enfranchised black voters in Southern States. It's possible they tried every bit as hard to steal those States on Election Day as the Republicans did afterward. We may never know who truly deserved to win. Regardless, there is absolutely no known evidence that either Hayes or Tilden participated in any election fraud on his own behalf.
The book shown above, Fraud of the Century, was published in 2003. Its author, Roy Morris Jr., is the editor of the magazine Civil War Quarterly. He has also written biographies of Union General Philip Sheridan, poet Walt Whitman, and authors Mark Twain, Ambrose Bierce and Gertrude Stein; and a dual biography of Abraham Lincoln and his 2-time election opponent Stephen A. Douglas.
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