Crisis of 1876 Close Reading Packet
History Close Reading Inquiry
THE BALLOT IN CHAOS
The Controversial 1876 Presidential Election & The End of Reconstruction
Name: ______________________
Date: ______________________
Period: ____________________
Close Reading Protocol: Read the chunked text in the left column. Pay attention to the highlighted vocabulary words defined in the margin. Then, answer the text-dependent questions in the right-hand boxes.
Chunk 1: The Disputed Night
On election night, Republican presidential candidate and Ohio governor Rutherford B. Hayes was losing so badly that he prepared his concession speech before turning in for the night. His party chairman went to bed with a bottle of whiskey. “We soon fell into a refreshing sleep,” Hayes later wrote in his diary about the events of November 7, 1876. “[T]he affair seemed over.”
But after four months of fierce debate and negotiations, Hayes would be sworn into office as the 19th president of the United States. Historians often describe his narrow, controversial win over Democrat Samuel J. Tilden as one of the most bitterly contested presidential elections in history.
This week, the events of the 1876 presidential race have once again come under scrutiny. As Jason Slotkin reports for NPR, a group of Senate Republicans announced that they would vote to reject electors from states they consider disputed... Though these claims are unfounded, the lawmakers cite the 1876 election as precedent for their actions.
What sets the election of 1876 apart from other disputed elections is that lawmakers had ample evidence of widespread voter repression against newly enfranchised African Americans in the post-Confederacy South—and therefore good reason to doubt the veracity of election results.
1. The candidates were a reform-minded Democrat and a Reconstructionist Republican.
Hayes, a lawyer, businessman and abolitionist, was a war hero who had fought in the U.S. Army during the Civil War. He went on to serve in Congress and later as Ohio’s governor, where he championed African American suffrage.
Running on the Democratic ticket was Tilden, an Ivy League graduate who appealed to voters with a successful anti-corruption track record during his tenure as New York’s governor.
In the years since the Civil War ended in 1865, Democrats, whose voter base resided in the former Confederacy, had been partly shut out of the political sphere; now, with Republican Ulysses S. Grant facing charges of corruption, Tilden’s reform-minded candidacy seemed like a well-timed opportunity for Democrats to regain political power.
Target Vocabulary
Concession (n.): An acknowledgment or official admission of defeat in a race or contest.
Precedent (n.): An earlier event or action that is used as an official example or guide for similar future events.
Suffrage (n.): The legal right to vote in public political elections.
Question 1
According to Chunk 1, how did Rutherford B. Hayes view the election results on election night? Why was his victory eventually considered so "bitterly contested"?
Write your response below:
Unit: Reconstruction & The Gilded Age Page 1 of 4
The Ballot in Chaos Part I: Voter Suppression and Unclear Results
Chunk 2: Terror in the South
2. Voter suppression was rampant in the post-Confederacy South.
Many historians argue that if votes had been counted accurately and fairly in Southern states, Hayes might have won the 1876 election outright. “[I]f you had a fair election in the south, a peaceful election, there’s no question that the Republican Hayes would have won a totally legitimate and indisputable victory,” preeminent historian Eric Foner explains.
But the election process in Southern states was rampant with voter fraud—on the part of both parties—and marked by violent voter suppression against Black Americans. Under Reconstruction, African Americans had achieved unprecedented political power, and new federal legislation sought to provide a modicum of economic equality for newly enfranchised people.
In response, white Southerners rebelled against African Americans’ newfound power and sought to intimidate and disenfranchise Black voters through violence. In the months preceding the election, mobs known as “red shirts” patrolled voting stations and threatened, bribed and murdered Black voters.
3. Election results were a mess.
Just a few days following the election, Tilden appeared poised to narrowly clinch the election. He had captured 51.5 percent of the popular vote to Hayes’s 48 percent, a margin of about 250,000 votes.
Tilden needed just one more vote in the electoral college to reach the 185 electoral votes necessary for the presidency. Hayes, meanwhile, had 165. Election returns from three Republican-controlled Southern states—Louisiana, Florida and South Carolina—were divided, with both sides declaring victory.
Target Vocabulary
Enfranchised (adj.): Given the official constitutional right to vote.
Disenfranchise (v.): To deliberately prevent or strip a person or community of their right to vote.
Rampant (adj.): Growing or spreading in an uncontrolled, threatening way.
Question 2
Why does historian Eric Foner argue that Hayes would have won a "legitimate victory" under a fair Southern election? What does this imply about the actual election?
Question 3
Identify the "red shirts" and the methods they used to suppress Black voters. How did this impact the division of electoral votes in Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina?
Unit: Reconstruction & The Gilded Age Page 2 of 4
The Ballot in Chaos Part II: Backroom Compromises & Fraught Legacies
Chunk 3: The Secret Bargain
Hayes’ proponents argued that if Black voters hadn’t been intimidated away from the polls—and if voter fraud hadn’t been so rampant—Hayes would have won the contested Southern states. With a Republican-controlled Senate, a Democrat-controlled House, and no clear presidential winner, Congress was thrown into deep chaos.
4. Secret deals, backroom debates and new rules decided the election.
In an unprecedented move, Congress created an "Election Commission" of five senators, five House members, and five Supreme Court justices. In late January, the commission voted 8–7 along party lines that Hayes had won all the contested states—and therefore the presidency—by exactly one electoral vote.
Furious Democrats threatened a filibuster. So, in long, closed-door meetings, Democrats and Hayes’ Republican allies negotiated the Compromise of 1877: an informal but binding agreement that made Hayes president on the condition that he completely end Reconstruction in the South.
5. Hayes secured his win by agreeing to end Reconstruction.
Just two months after his inauguration, Hayes ordered the removal of the last federal troops from Louisiana. These troops had been in place since the end of the Civil War to protect and enforce the civil rights of newly freed African Americans.
With this deal, Hayes ended Reconstruction and ushered in a period of Southern "home rule." White supremacist governments quickly took power, racist Jim Crow laws were enacted, and the Ku Klux Klan flourished in the absence of federal intervention.
Target Vocabulary
Filibuster (n./v.): A tactic used in Congress to prolong debate and delay or prevent a vote.
Ushered (v.): Guided or marked the start of a completely new period or condition.
Inauguration (n.): The formal ceremony placing a leader into official political office.
Question 4
How did the Election Commission decide the winner of the 1876 election? Why did furious Democrats agree to back down and accept Hayes as president?
Question 5
What immediate action did President Hayes take to fulfill the Compromise of 1877? What were the long-term historical impacts of this decision on the American South?
Unit: Reconstruction & The Gilded Age Page 3 of 4
Synthesis & Assessment
LEARNING SHOWDOWN CHOICE BOARD
UDL Choice Task
Your Task: Select and complete ONE of the three options below to show what you've learned. Check the checkbox of your chosen option, read the instructions, and complete your work in the workspace at the bottom.
Option A: Bronze
The Editorial Journalist
Imagine you are a reporter in 1877. Write a strong, punchy newspaper headline and a 3-4 sentence front-page paragraph summarizing the disputed results of the 1876 election.
Focuses on key facts & summary.
Option B: Silver
The Cartoon Designer
Propose a political cartoon that represents the Compromise of 1877. In the box below, sketch or map your concept, then write a 2-3 sentence description explaining your visual metaphors.
Focuses on symbolism & metaphor.
Option C: Gold
The Legacy Evaluator
Historian Kate Masur calls this election a "huge crisis." Write a persuasive 4-5 sentence historical argument evaluating whether the Compromise of 1877 was a practical solution or a tragic betrayal.
Focuses on evidence-based claims.
Student Response Workspace Be sure to write clearly and complete all components of your option.
My Selected Option: [ ] Option A [ ] Option B [ ] Option C
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