Election of 1876 essays

Election of 1876 essays Why Hayes Should Not Have Won the Election The position of President is the most important position in the United States government. Wouldnt you think that we should have the very best man in that position that we can get? I, Samuel Tilden, feel that the Election of 1876 was a disgrace to the history of our government. I still believe that I should have won that election because of corruption of the voting process itself, he didnt have the organization a president should have and because the people wanted me to win, not Rutherford. I certainly believe that the chosen president should reflect the peoples choice. One reason why Hayes should not be president is because of the Election of 1876 itself. When the votes were counted and sent in to Washington, I was the clear winner; 203 to 165 electoral votes (Haworth 76). However, the vile Republicans decided to change the votes of the three states they still controlled by throwing away Democratic votes! Obviously this isnt how the leaders of the United States should be acting. You cant change what the people want by throwing out votes. Later, when Congress held a meeting to decide whom the winner should be, there was an unfair amount of Republicans over Democrats, so we were bound to lose. We accepted the Compromise of 1877 because another Civil War would not be worth it (Robinson 111). After Hayes became president, he didnt know what to do with his new position. He didnt have the confidence a President of the United States should have. Of course, he had a couple of ideas he wanted to try, such as wiping out the color line and abolishing sectionalism, but his major plans didnt work (Haworth 125). When he assigned a southerner as postmaster general and withdrew troops from the south, the last two Republican states turned Democratic. Hayes was quoted saying, I am reluctantly forced to admit that the experiment was a failure ...