Fraud of the Century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden, and the Stolen Election of 1876 [Deckle Edge] [Hardcover]

Roy Morris Jr. (Author)

Book Description

Publication Date: February 4, 2003

In this major work of popular history and scholarship, acclaimed historian and biographer Roy Morris, Jr., tells the extraordinary story of how, in America's centennial year, the presidency was stolen, the Civil War was almost reignited, and black Americans were consigned to nearly ninety years of legalized segregation in the South.

The bitter 1876 contest between Ohio Republican governor Rutherford B. Hayes and New York Democratic governor Samuel J. Tilden is the most sensational, ethically sordid, and legally questionable presidential election in American history. The first since Lincoln's in 1860 in which the Democrats had a real chance of recapturing the White House, the election was in some ways the last battle of the Civil War, as the two parties fought to preserve or overturn what had been decided by armies just eleven years earlier.

Riding a wave of popular revulsion at the numerous scandals of the Grant administration and a sluggish economy, Tilden received some 260,000 more votes than his opponent. But contested returns in Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina ultimately led to Hayes's being declared the winner by a specially created, Republican-dominated Electoral Commission after four tense months of political intrigue and threats of violence. President Grant took the threats seriously: he ordered armed federal troops into the streets of Washington to keep the peace.

Morris brings to life all the colorful personalities and high drama of this most remarkable -- and largely forgotten -- election. He presents vivid portraits of the bachelor lawyer Tilden, a wealthy New York sophisticate whose passion for clean government propelled him to the very brink ofthe presidency, and of Hayes, a family man whose midwestern simplicity masked a cunning political mind. We travel to Philadelphia, where the Centennial Exhibition celebrated America's industrial might and democratic ideals, and to the nation's heartland, where Republicans waged a cynical but effective "bloody shirt" campaign to tar the Demo-crats, once again, as the party of disunion and rebellion.

Morris dramatically recreates the suspenseful events of election night, when both candidates went to bed believing Tilden had won, and a one-legged former Union army general, "Devil Dan" Sickles, stumped into Republican headquarters and hastily improvised a devious plan to subvert the election in the three disputed southern states. We watch Hayes outmaneuver the curiously passive Tilden and his supporters in the days following the election, and witness the late-night backroom maneuvering of party leaders in the nation's capital, where democracy itself was ultimately subverted and the will of the people thwarted.

"Fraud of the Century" presents compelling evidence that fraud by Republican vote-counters in the three southern states, and especially in Louisiana, robbed Tilden of the presidency. It is at once a masterful example of political reporting and an absorbing read.

Editorial Reviews

Amazon.com Review

Stop me if you've heard this one: election night comes and goes and the race between two American presidential candidates is too close to call. The popular vote supports the reticent Democrat, but the well-connected Republican is named president after a lengthy and controversial fight over recounts and electoral votes. Of course, we're speaking of the 1876 contest between Rutherford B. Hayes and Samuel Tilden as chronicled in Fraud of the Century by historian Roy Morris Jr. Morris spends much of the book setting the stage by illuminating the characters of both the folksy Hayes from Ohio and the urbane New Yorker Tilden. Though quite different, both men are presented as principled and, ironically enough, committed to wiping out corruption and chicanery. This helps the reader understand the players when the post-election mayhem ensues. The Electoral College is unable to declare a winner after Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida submit multiple "official" ballots with different victorious candidates. Numerous shady deals are worked out to Hayes's favor while forces loyal to Tilden threaten to march on Washington and install their man by force, if necessary. The most damaging result of the mess, according to Morris, is the pervasive mood of distrust and acrimony on the part of Congress, a mood that would contribute to the South's notorious Jim Crow laws. History buffs will appreciate Morris's extensive research but everyone enjoys a good political thriller. --John Moe

From Publishers Weekly

For those who think the election of George W. Bush over Al Gore in 2000 represented the nadir of American electoral politics, Morris (The Better Angel: Walt Whitman in the Civil War) provides some muchneeded historical perspective. In 1876, New York Democrat Samuel Tilden almost certainly won the popular vote over Ohio Republican Rutherford B. Hayes. But contested returns in Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina, as well as a legal issue in Oregon, eventually led to a 15-member congressional commission awarding Hayes all 20 contested electoral votes, giving him an improbable one-vote victory in the Electoral College. Well researched and written in clear prose, Morris's account details the stunning sequence of political dirty tricks-including overturning Tilden's nearly 8,000-vote lead in Louisiana-as well as the personalities that conspired to steal the election from Tilden. Although he maintains the decency of both candidates, Morris revives the political legacy of Tilden, portrayed here as a courageous and principled politician who stood up to the corruption of New York's Tammany Hall. Tilden chose to concede the election rather than drag the nation down a dangerous path. "It was an act of supreme patriotism," Morris concludes, "for a man who had won, if not the presidency, at least the election." In sharp contrast to the contested election of 2000, dominated by hanging chads and confusing ballots, Morris's account of the 1876 election reminds us that character can triumph over politics.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

See all Editorial Reviews

Product Details

• Hardcover: 320 pages
• Publisher: Simon & Schuster; 1St Edition edition (February 4, 2003)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0743223861
• ISBN-13: 978-0743223867
• Product Dimensions: 9.5 x 7.7 x 1 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.3 pounds
• Average Customer Review: 3.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (26 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #1,076,231 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Discover books, learn about writers, read author blogs, and more.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

24 of 27 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The Most Corrupt Election, March 3, 2003

By 

R. Hardy "Rob Hardy" (Columbus, Mississippi USA) - See all my reviews
(TOP 100 REVIEWER)    (HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fraud of the Century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden, and the Stolen Election of 1876 (Hardcover)

Americans all over the country went to bed after election night thinking that the Democrats had won the White House. The Democratic candidate won the popular vote, and while this was conceded by all, the antiquated Electoral College system made the popular vote of decidedly secondary importance. There were races in such states as Florida where the balloting was contested, and outright fraud at many levels was claimed. Election officials headed south to try to provide trustworthy re-counts, but more important were the deals made secretly between the press, the state officials, and the eager Republicans who intended to put their man in office. Only after a Republican member of the Supreme Court cast his vote was there a certified Republican victory, but the outcome will ever be suspect of polling chicanery. So it was that Americans elected a president in 1876. The parallels to the 2000 election are often surprising, but those coincidences are not the point of _Fraud of the Century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden, and the Stolen Election of 1876_ (Simon & Schuster) by Roy Morris, Jr. The election was indeed stolen, but Hayes's eventual victory and its cost to public confidence in governmental capability meant that Reconstruction was ended and Jim Crow came into power.

Both Hayes and Tilden went to bed on election night assured that Tilden had won. Final returns showed that Tilden had won the popular vote by 250,000, and had 184 of the 185 electoral votes sewn up; there were four states which were late in reporting, and one electoral vote from any of them would have given Tilden the election. It seemed a done deal, but Republicans refused to give up. Alternative counts were produced, and Congress set up an Electoral Commission of fifteen members. Southern Democrats started making deals with Hayes's men, and were promised that federal troops would be withdrawn from the states still under reconstruction governments. Blacks who had helped bring the Republicans into office were cut out of the deal, which ensured that black Americans in the South would be held back from participating in politics until the modern civil rights movement. Four months after the election, and just before swearing in, Hayes was declared the winner. It was the most corrupt election in our nation's history, and yet Morris shows that the two candidates were decent men forced by circumstances to play roles in it. Tilden, especially, shines; he clearly saw what would be good for the nation, and acted unselfishly, even though he had been defrauded by the Republicans. Morris says, "It was an act of supreme patriotism on the part of a man who had won, if not the presidency, at least the election."

_Fraud of the Century_ is a rousing story, full of dirty tricks and rascals. Certainly it has relevance to recent events, but the 1876 election has been mostly forgotten. Morris has dramatically brought it forward as an example of how the Electoral College previously complicated and reversed popular will, with serious repercussions for subsequent history. Lively and well researched, without polemics regarding current events, the book rightly puts our last election in historical context.

9 of 9 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A Rousing History of a Misunderstood Era, June 23, 2003

By 

Chris Beer (Virignia) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Fraud of the Century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden, and the Stolen Election of 1876 (Hardcover)

Roy Morris's history of the 1876 election is a rousing work that brings to life the incredible politcs of America's Victorian Gilded Age. Despite how history has treated the politicians of this era, Morris explains well that both combatants, Ohio Gov. Rutherford B Hayes and New York Gov. Samuel Tilden, would have been worthy of the White House in any era. Morris's respect for Gilded Age politicians was the high point of the book for me. He shows us more than the non-entities history has treated them. Hayes, a real Civil War hero (as opposed to other CW Generals, like "General" Ben Harrison) who was a cagier politician than often given credit for. Tilden, a sickly and brilliant bachelor, a disciple of Martin Van Buren and maybe America's last Jacksonian, is shown as a methodical and brilliant reformer who blew up the Tweed Ring.

Morris also excells at looking at the real issues of the campiagn: government reform, fighting Grantism, and most of all----Reconstruction. The story of the this miserable election bears little resembles to the 2000 election. In 2000, the basic story was a bunch of old people did not vote right. Nobody did anything. In this election, you not only had contested states, but SOUTHERN states who 16 years before had left the union. Since then, carpetbag regimes had taken overm causing near strife across the south. One must remeber that Civil War seemed more imminent in 1876 than 1860. At the heart of this fight was the growing feeling in the North that continued occupation and negro rights was just not worth it anymore.

My one qualm with the book is Morris seems to be blinded by the consequences of blacks by this election. He seems to overlap his sympathy for Tilden to include the former confederate, white Democrats in the South. He minimizes the violence in an attempt to build a case against Hayes and the Republicans. I felt that Morris could have been more critical of the Bourbon southern democrats in this work. All in all, however, it is a wonderfull read. We find that America was robbed of two great men in this election. Tilden never entered the White House, and the talented Hayes was never able to execute his full potential due to the circumstances of his election. A fascinating book.

9 of 10 people found the following review helpful:

4.0 out of 5 stars A singular account, November 24, 2003

By 

Seth J. Frantzman (Jerusalem, Israel) - See all my reviews
(HALL OF FAME REVIEWER)    (REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Fraud of the Century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden, and the Stolen Election of 1876 (Hardcover)

This is a wonderful account of a forgotten crises, the election of 1876. This was the election that created the `Southern Block' of unrepentant deep south governors and ended reconstruction, thus handing power back to the same people who had stood strong in the face of Lincoln in 1859. An amazing story of American politics as it was in the late 1800s. The machinations, the political machines, the `smoke filled rooms' and the `gray beards' who were king makers.

This is a riveting, if sometimes disorganized, story of the `stolen election' in which competing delegations from southern states created a crises that in some ways shows the weakness and towering strength of American democracy. The subsequent election of 1880, covered expertly in `Dark Horse' which serves as a good companion to this book, was also tumultuous. A wonderful read the opens up the whole theatre that was Americana in the 1870s. The personalities of Grant and others are exposed in this book as well.