Mr beat presents presidential elections in American [Music] history the 23rd presidential election in American history took place on November 7th 1876 boy was this one controversial let's get right to it President ulyses Grant actually considered running for a third term and he would have been the first to try but he ultimately decided against it this is probably a good idea since his Administration continued to be accused of corruption and faced many scandals plus the economy sucked the country was in the middle of the Great Depression well that's what they called it back then after the real Great Depression happened in the 1930s We Now call this financial crisis the Panic of 1873 so Grant was smart to decide against seeking a third term but who would take his place when the Republican National Convention assembled several candidates were on the ballot James Blaine looked to be the early favorite but many Republicans argued Blain couldn't win the general election eventually they settled with Rutherford Hayes the governor of Ohio Rutherford was another civil war hero having fought with bravery and even getting wounded five times during the war he was known as a reformer plus his beard was amazing the Republicans chose William wheeler a representative from New York as his running mate the Democrats were feeling much better about their chances now now that the economy was in Ruins and Grant's friends had messed up the Republican image they were fired up and passionately supported Samuel Tien the governor of New York Tien was known as a new type of democrat a bourbon Democrat bourbon Democrats were basically classical liberals who supported things like free trade and the gold standard and opposed things like imperialism the Democrats nominated Thomas hendris the governor of Indiana as tien's running mate so this election looked like a battle of Governors but wait there's more a new political party called the Greenback party had emerged to offer a third option they wanted inflation through printing paper money called greenbacks and were quite anti-monopoly bringing these two issues into the national Spotlight they nominated inventor and entrepreneur Peter Cooper for president Cooper was an interesting fellow I mean look at that beard I love it plus he designed and built the first American steam locomotive and he was definitely not a politician and he was like 180 years old okay he was actually just 85 Cooper was the oldest person ever nominated for president in American history okay enough about him his running mate was Samuel Fenton kery the former representative from Ohio as most third parties go they stood little chance meanwhile it was shaping up to be a very close race between Hayes and Tien the two actually didn't campaign much and left that to their supporters this election would Mark the first one in which the new state of Colorado could participate in however since it became a state in August its state legislature who happened to be Republican chose the electors in fact this was the last election in which any state picked its electors this way keep this in mind when we look at the results here in a bit and here are the results oh boy we have a mess here at first it appeared as if Tien was going to win by midnight he had 184 of the 185 Toral votes and he led the popular vote by 250,000 Republicans called Foul Play though saying that in southern states Democrats were using intimidation and bribery to get African-Americans not to vote Democrats also accused Republicans of not counting tillen votes but 20 electoral votes were disputed in four states Florida Louisiana Oregon and South Carolina Congress created an electoral commission to investigate and resolve the dispute the commission had five US representatives five senators and five Supreme Court Justices five of the members of Congress were Democrat and five Republican of the five justices two were Democrat and two Republican and David Davis the fifth Justice I mentioned him in the last episode actually he was an independent however Democrats in the Illinois legislature elected Davis to the US Senate in hopes that Davis would support Tien that plan backfired as David excused himself from the commission Davis was replaced by Justice Joseph Bradley hardly a political fellow but still someone more aligned with the Republicans and he would vote with them Bradley's vote broke the tie along party lines and in an 8 to7 ruling decided to award the disputed electoral votes to Hayes this made so many people angry that some even talked about a second Civil War to make the Democrats happy the Republicans agreed to withdraw all remaining federal troops from the south which officially ended reconstruction in other words the north would no longer micromanage the South and after this the South would attempt to go back to their pre- War ways especially with its discrimination against blacks this informal agreement became famously known as the compromise of 1877 so with 185 electoral votes Rutherford Hayes won becoming the 19th president in American history William wheeler became the 19th vice president in American history Samuel J Tien finished with 184 electoral votes Rutherford's victory was the smallest electoral vote victory in American history to add insult to injury tillen won the popular vote by more than 250,000 votes this is the only election in which a candidate for president received more than 50% of the popular vote but still didn't get elected tillen said quote I can retire to public life with the Consciousness that I shall receive from posterity the credit of having been elected to the highest position in the gift of the people without any of the cares and responsibilities of the office unquote understandably people began to question the Electoral College after this election don't forget Pete Peter Cooper had a solid showing for third place finishing with about 1% of the popular vote this election was certainly unique it was the first presidential election in 24 years in which a Democratic candidate won a majority of the popular vote it was one of four elections in which the dude who won the plurality or most votes did not win the election it had the highest voter turnout in American history it was the last one to occur prior to the end of reconstruction and it'd be another 20 years before a Southern state would again vote for a Republican Presidential [Music] hopeful I'll see you for the next election [Music] buddy true love will never meet again on the bunny bunny BS of the GL [Music]