SAMUEL J. TILDEN

Tilden won the popular vote but was one vote short of the number he needed in the electoral college so the election was thrown into the House of Representatives. The Southern Democrats made a craven deal with the Republicans, whereby they would abandon Tilden and Vote for Rutherford Hayes, and Hays and the Republican Majority in Congress would remove all Federal Troops from Southern States. The Federal Troops were the only force that protected Black rights won after the Civil War, and the South wanted to disenfranchise the Blacks. Hays became president and kept his part of the immoral bargain. With the exception of this act that put the nail in the coffin of civil rights in America and sold out the Blacks for another 80 years. (Without Federal Troops, the KKK was the dominant force in the South.) Rutherford was a good President. But race was at the heart of this disputed and unfortunate election.

This quotation is valuable because it illustrates the classic implementation of the political spoils system before there was civil service with a merit system. This was not only typical of how people get government jobs, but it was the virtually the only way. In the language of the day, this letter from the Governor to a major political boss says: “Give this fellow a job. He is a loyal party man. Don’t give him a good job—a minor job will do, He is not that important.”

This quotation is valuable because it illustrates the classic implementation of the political spoils system before there was civil service with a merit system. This was not only typical of how people get government jobs, but it was the virtually the only way. In the language of the day, this letter from the Governor to a major political boss says: “Give this fellow a job. He is a loyal party man. Don’t give him a good job—a minor job will do, He is not that important.”

Tilden won the popular vote but was one vote short of the number he needed in the electoral college so the election was thrown into the House of Representatives. The Southern Democrats made a craven deal with the Republicans, whereby they would abandon Tilden and Vote for Rutherford Hayes, and Hays and the Republican Majority in Congress would remove all Federal Troops from Southern States. The Federal Troops were the only force that protected Black rights won after the Civil War, and the South wanted to disenfranchise the Blacks. Hays became president and kept his part of the immoral bargain. With the exception of this act that put the nail in the coffin of civil rights in America and sold out the Blacks for another 80 years. (Without Federal Troops, the KKK was the dominant force in the South.) Rutherford was a good President. But race was at the heart of this disputed and unfortunate election.