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Title: The Vote That Made the President

Author: David Dudley Field

Release Date: October 11, 2009 [EBook #30231]

Language: English

Character set encoding: ASCII

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THE VOTE
THAT
MADE THE PRESIDENT.

BY
DAVID DUDLEY FIELD.

NEW YORK:
D. APPLETON & COMPANY,
549 & 551 BROADWAY.
1877.

COPYRIGHT BY DAVID DUDLEY FIELD. 1877.

THE VOTE THAT MADE THE PRESIDENT.

At ten minutes past four o'clock on the second morning of the present
month (March, 1877), the President of the Senate of the United States,
in the presence of the two Houses of Congress, made this announcement:
"The whole number of the electors appointed to vote for President and
Vice-President of the United States is 369, of which a majority is 185.
The state of the vote for President of the United States, as delivered
by the tellers, and as determined under the act of Congress, approved
January 29, 1877, on this subject, is: for Rutherford B. Hayes, of Ohio,
185 votes; for Samuel J. Tilden, of New York, 184 votes;" and then,
after mentioning the votes for Vice-President, he proceeded: "Wherefore
I do declare, that Rutherford B. Hayes, of Ohio, having received a
majority of the whole number of electoral votes, is duly elected
President of the United States for four years, commencing on the fourth
day of March, 1877."

Mr. Hayes was thus declared elected by a majority of one. If any vote
counted for him had been counted on the other side, Mr. Tilden, instead
of Mr. Hayes, would have had the 185 votes; if it had been rejected
altogether, each would have had 184 votes, and the House of
Representatives would immediately have elected Mr. Tilden. One vote,
therefore, put Mr. Hayes into the presidential office.

To make up the 185 votes counted for him, 8 came from Louisiana an