The War of Presidential Succession

The election of 1876 was quite controversial. Republican candidate Rutherford Hayes won the electoral college by 1 vote, but lost the popular vote to Democratic candidate, Samuel J. Tilden. Could the result of this election lead to a second civil war? Perhaps the states that voted in favor of Tilden(at least those with Democraticly controlled legislatures or Democratic Governors) militarily support Tilden, and the others side with Hayes.

Would the pro-Tilden states secede, or would their governments simply say that they don't recognize Hayes as president/ president elect?

Any thoughts?
 
I recall it was rather heated, but I doubt Civil War. Maybe some Civil upheaval, riots, and a crisis of government, but not secession.

I think it may have been probable that the Democrats would always throw Tilden under the bus in return for the end of Reconstruction. You'd have to find a way of keeping them from making that bargain.
 
well its unlikely to happen every one remembers the Civil War no one wants to go back, if it did happen its the civil War all over, but shorter and maybe uglier, Tilden is a New Yorker, and New York was always luke-warm on the war but I'm not sure they're jump ship, the Army is hard core Republican as are a generation of vets, in the view of the military (and the Vets) the Dems are the rebels and the army control two southern states and the freemen will die to a man if they have to to keep their rights

we'll see Reconstruction 10X :D
 
The election of 1876 was quite controversial. Republican candidate Rutherford Hayes won the electoral college by 1 vote, but lost the popular vote to Democratic candidate, Samuel J. Tilden. Could the result of this election lead to a second civil war? Perhaps the states that voted in favor of Tilden(at least those with Democraticly controlled legislatures or Democratic Governors) militarily support Tilden, and the others side with Hayes.

Would the pro-Tilden states secede, or would their governments simply say that they don't recognize Hayes as president/ president elect?

Any thoughts?

Riots, civil strife, vitriolic speeches, calls for the elemination of the Electoral College & sabre rattling YES ... military intervention, secession and another civil war NO.
 
I Voted for Tilden Don't Belame Me.

At the time there were calls to organize an army to set the election right. Wile it didn't gain traction OTL I supose it could have coudht on in another one.
 
This was the election that ended Reconstruction and allowed the south to return to business as usual. :/


More accurately, it allowed the last two states, SC and LA, to do so.

The rest of the Old Confederacy (and the border States), had mostly returned to BAU years before - in Virginia's case as far back as 1869.
 
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More accurately, it allowed the last two states, SC and LA, to do so.

The rest of the Old Confederacy (and the border States), had mostly returned to BAU years before - in Virginia's case as far back as 1869.
Tennessee normalized quickly enough it wasn't even included in a military district.
 
The election of 1876

The most likely outcome i can see is that the new president after he is innagurated tells the south to shut up and quit complaining because they war.

A semi-non ASB option would be several southern leaders refusing to recogonize the new president, so he marches the army down south removes those dissenting politicans from office, ends a few riots and all goes back to normal.

An interesting option would be to have a new presidental election with different candidates as not to offend either side of the election dispute much.
 
The most likely outcome i can see is that the new president after he is innagurated tells the south to shut up and quit complaining because they war.

A semi-non ASB option would be several southern leaders refusing to recogonize the new president, so he marches the army down south removes those dissenting politicans from office, ends a few riots and all goes back to normal.

Not very likely.

As I mentioned earlier, nine of the eleven Confederate States have already shaken off Radical rule and got back to something like "business as usual". Are they really going to start another war, and risk having Radical governments reimposed on all of them, for the sake of Mr Tilden, whose inauguration would make little difference beyond hurrying things along somewhat in the two remaining States where Radical regimes are still hanging on by their fingernails? It's just not worth the candle.

After all Radical rule has little future even in SC and LA. The Democrats already hold the HoR, and are cutting off funds for military occupation in the South. From 1878, the regime change in the South virtually guarantees them control of the Senate as well. Reconstruction is already dead, and the only remaining issue is the best way to bury the corpse. Why jeopardise all that?

An interesting option would be to have a new presidental election with different candidates as not to offend either side of the election dispute much.

That possibility was seriously discussed in the New York Times. It raised the possibility that if inauguration day approached with the current deadlock unresolved, President Grant could resign a day or two before his term expired. Since there was then no Vice President (Henry Wilson having died in 1874) the President of the Senate, Thomas W Ferry, would become Acting President for the remainder of Grant's term, and would, constitutionally, be entitled to continue thereafter "until a President shall be elected".

If the deadlock over the 1876 election remained unresolved, a new election could be held in November 1877, under the provisions of the 1792 Presidential Succession Act.
 
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