Centennial Crisis: The Disputed Election of 1876 [Hardcover]

William H. Rehnquist (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: March 2, 2004

Near midnight on Election Day in November 1876, the returns coming into Republican National headquarters signaled a victory for the Democratic presidential candidate, Samuel J. Tilden. But alert Republican leaders saw that if all the states still doubtful or disputed went for their candidate, Rutherford B. Hayes would be elected.  Word was sent out to four southern states that their returns were crucial for a Hayes victory.  Thus Chief Justice William Rehnquist begins this remarkable account of one of American's greatest political dramas, a crisis that was not resolved for nearly four months, on March 2, 1877, only two days before Inauguration Day.      

In his gripping story, Rehnquist tells how each party maneuvered to buy votes in the southern states, how the country slid into Congressional, judicial and public turmoil, and how the creation in January of an Electoral Commission (comprised of five Democrats, five Republicans and five Supreme Court justices) was opposed by both candidates.  When that body's deciding vote was cast by Justice Joseph Bradley, public outcry reached such a fever pitch that the presidential swearing-in had to be held on a Sunday in near secrecry.    

Reaching beyond the history of a contentious election, the Chief Justice describes the political climate and economy of America in the 1870's, packing his narrative with biographical sketches of the central participants and opening a window on events in that decade that have long been overlooked.  In a compelling epilogue we learn the occasions when Presidents, ranging from George Washington to Lyndon Johnson, have asked Supreme Court justices to arbitrate disputes, settle treaties or serve on investigating commissions.  Almost always the justices were berated and attacked for their decisions.     

Would it be better for them to have refused the president’s request?  The Chief Justice has some surprising answers.

Editorial Reviews

From Publishers Weekly

It's fitting that Rehnquist, who as chief justice of the Supreme Court played his own role in the contested presidential election of 2000, would offer an account of a similar case 125 years earlier. But Rehnquist is a lesser narrator of popular history than he is a jurist; the only interest in this account may be his rueful regret over the lack of "tolerance" shown for political proclivities shown by the Supreme Court justices recruited to help resolve the disputed 1876 election. They were part of a commission appointed by Congress, which because of its own political division could not resolve the electoral impasse. Democratic presidential candidate Samuel Tilden won the popular majority nationwide, but fell a single vote short of the electoral majority of 185 needed to win. Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes took 165 electoral votes, and 20 votes were disputedâ€"19 from three states that still had Reconstruction governments (South Carolina, Louisiana and Florida), and one from Oregon. So Congress impaneled a commission of 10 congressmen and five U.S. Supreme Court justices who, voting along party lines, awarded the presidency to Hayes. Rehnquist narrates these well-known facts in a workmanlike but uncompromisingly dry manner, adding nothing new in fact or analysis. Readers interested in the election of 1876 would do better to consult Roy B. Morris Jr.'s critically acclaimed Fraud of the Century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden, and the Disputed Election of 1876, published last year. Illus. not seen by PW.
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Review

"Provocative. . . . An engaging and precise account of the bewildering political episode at once remote in time and in culture from our own contested election but strangely familiar as well." --The Washington Post

"Highly recommended. . . . Rehnquist takes the reader through the major congressional and Supreme Court debates of the 1860s and 1870s . . . fill[ing] in this tumultuous background with brisk, confident strokes. . . . He has a keen eye for good stories and quirks of character, and a forceful expository style." --The New York Sun

“An immensely readable work. . . . Rehnquist makes a convincing case.” --New York Post

"In this terrific and valuable work, Chief Justice Rehnquist re-creates one of the most dramatic presidential elections in American history. The wealth of biographical detail and the superb discussion of the intriguing issues involved bring the principal actors in this fascinating controversy to vivid life." --Doris Kearns Goodwin, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of No Ordinary Time: Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt

“As a historian Rehnquist is first-rate. The story of the Hayes-Tilden square-off of 1876 is perhaps the most surreal political imbroglio America has ever produced. And this is the most literate, judicious, and wise retelling of that bizarre election ever written.” --Douglas Brinkley, director of the Eisenhower Center for American Studies at the University of New Orleans

"Speak[s] pointedly to recent and current events. . . . Rich with subplots and engaging characters." --Austin American-Statesman

"Rehnquist narrates [the] events [of the 1876 election] clearly . . . [and] offers colorful portraits of the two presidential candidates and members of the Court." --The Nation

"Rehnquist hits his stride here, explaining how the commission worked and how the dispute was influenced by the concept of state sovereignty . . . and insightfully delving into the mystery of why one of the justices on the commission may have changed his mind at the last minute." --Fort Worth Star-Telegram

"An earnest book . . . [about] an intensely interesting period in American history." --Los Angeles Times

"Rehnquist takes readers behind the scenes of the controversy." --Florida Times-Union


From the Trade Paperback edition.

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Product Details

• Hardcover: 288 pages
• Publisher: Knopf; 1 edition (March 2, 2004)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0375413871
• ISBN-13: 978-0375413872
• Product Dimensions: 8.5 x 5.9 x 1.1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.1 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 2.8 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (11 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,076,557 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

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Most Helpful Customer Reviews

15 of 17 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A very good, if somewhat bloated history, April 26, 2004

By 

Kurt A. Johnson (North-Central Illinois, USA) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Centennial Crisis: The Disputed Election of 1876 (Hardcover)

In this book, William H. Rehnquist, Chief Justice of the American Supreme Court, looks at the disputed presidential election of 1876. In that election, which pitted Democrat Samuel Tilden against Republican Rutherford B. Hayes, disputes in the election in the states of Florida, Louisiana, Oregon and South Carolina resulted in each of those states sending in not one, but two competing sets of returns! As there was no constitutional provision to cover this eventuality, the two parties set up a commission to determine how the returns should be treated, and, as such, determine who would become President of the United States. The commission found for the Republican Party, which left the Democrats embittered, with charges of fraud and election stealing which have echoed down to this very day.

First of all, I must say that I found this to be a very good history. Mr. Rehnquist goes into great depth to give the reader a grasp on all aspects of the controversy, giving an enormous amount of information on the proceedings and the people involved. In fact, it is not too much to say that he gave too much information. As you go through the narrative, the constant, and rather lengthy, digressions begin to get a little wearying, making the history somewhat bloated and disjointed feeling.

But, that said, I did find this to be a very interesting look into that dispute, and I now understand a good deal about it that I never did before. The Chief Justice deals with it in a very even-handed manner, pointing out the hypocrisies and underhanded practices perpetrated by both parties; such as the Republicans' use of an all-Republican Returning Board in Louisiana to reject some 13,000 Democratic votes(!), and the Democrats' blatantly illegal double return from Oregon and the terrorist suppression of the African-American vote throughout the South, spearheaded by such groups as the Ku Klux Klan.

Overall, I found this to be a very good, if somewhat bloated history. If you are interested in reading an even-handed look at the disputed election of 1876, then I do recommend that you get this book.

6 of 7 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars Broader than just the 1876 election, but that's no condemnation, April 30, 2007

By 

Bruce R. Gilson (Wheaton, MD United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Centennial Crisis: The Disputed Election of 1876 (Hardcover)

This book, as it happens, came to my eyes just after I read another book also discussing the 1876 election, by Roy Morris, entitled "Fraud of the Century" (which I have also reviewed). The books could not have been more different. Morris' book is a partisan polemic who uses his book on the 1876 election as a way to criticize the result on the 2000 election, which he considers to be "stolen," just as he does the 1876 election. Rehnquist, of course, could (as one of the most important players in the drama that was the 2000 election) have used 1876 in the same manner to defend the 2000 result. But this is not what he does.

Instead, the book provides a lot of political background, so that one can put yourself in the position of an 1876 American. And he gives biographical information about the five Supreme Court Justices on the Electoral Commission, which essentially decided the result, as well as about David Davis, who was intended to be on the Commission, but felt he could not serve when the Illinois legislature chose him to a Senate seat. (Rehnquist points out that Davis' Senate term would not have begun until after the Commission rendered its decisions, so that he probably could have served, but he felt honor-bound to decline to serve.) I had always wondered why the Democrats controlling the Illinois legislature would "shoot themselves in the foot" by choosing Davis; this book actually makes it understandable.

Of course, there were fifteen members of that commission, five Senators and five Representatives as well as those five Justices. The Democratic-controlled Senate chose three Democrats and two Republicans while the Republican-controlled House reversed those numbers. (Among those Republicans was James A. Garfield, who became President four years later!) Since Rehnquist felt that those political people would obviously vote according to their partisan inclinations, he concentrates on the Supreme Court Justices. It might have been interesting, however, to know more about some of those Congressional members as well, I think.

Another thing that occupies Rehnquist in this book, and which some reviewers seem to have objected to his including, is a summary of the various times that Supreme Court justices have acted outside the judicial arena. But I think that Rehnquist is justified in doing this. He is in this book attempting to decide whether Justice Bradley especially, but also the other four Justices on the Commission, were doing something that judges should not do. And his conclusion, that it was probably not the sort of thing that a Justice should normally do, but in this case it probably was necessary to save the country, seems a reasonable one in the light of the circumstances.

I very much preferred this book to Morris' book, and I think, as befits the judicial position of its author, it comes much closer to impartiality. But it is probably as hard to write about 1876 impartially, even more than a century later, as to write about 2000 impartially. And so, while this book falls short of total impartiality, it comes closer enough to make it the better book by far.

8 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars An Excellent Narrative History from a Unique Point of View, July 14, 2004

By A Customer

This review is from: Centennial Crisis: The Disputed Election of 1876 (Hardcover)

The author presents the facts of case pretty much as a lawyer would. The presentation appears to be complete and detailed. But a professional historian would have taken a different tack. Personally, I feel that Chief Justice Rehnquist presentation was excellent.

I particularly liked the Chief Justice's analysis of what might have been Justice Bradley's thought processes in arriving at his opinions. I do not believe that a professional historian could have provided this type of insight into the situation.