It seems counter-intuitive, but would a Tilden victory in the 1876 election have been better for civil rights in the long-run? Because of Hayes' bargain, the republican party essentially disappeared in the South, and the GOP moved so far rightwards on reconstruction that blacks and former radicals became political orphans. With a Tilden victory, the Republican party would have remained, by default, the party of integration. Would this ha?ve made the party less willing to abandon blacks to the redeemers of the south