Real Thought

I can’t believe that it has been a year since my tribute to William Henry Harrison! My, how time flies when you are having fun! It seems like only yesterday that President Harrison was gracing this site. He still is, of course, just buried in the archives. It was a hard choice this year, to find a president who was obscure and did nothing of merit as president but I think I found a suitable candidate. This year’s presidential pick is none other than Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio.

President Hayes, of course, was elected in the most fiercely debated and hotly contested election in US History; that being the Tilden-Hayes election of 1876. In that election, the electoral votes of Louisiana, Florida and South Carolina were disputed on the grounds that some of the electors from those states were not qualified to be electors because they had been former Confederate officials. Hayes had already lost the popular vote by a margin of about 264,000 votes and seemed doomed to defeat. A federal election commission was formed to examine the disputed electoral votes consisting of eight Republicans and seven Democrats. The disputed votes were awarded to Hayes by a margin of eight to seven leaving Hayes with an electoral victory of 185-184 votes.

Hayes went on to serve an undistinguished single term which is mostly remembered for his failed efforts to bring the Democratic “Solid South” into the Republican fold. Of course, that was not achieved until Ronald Reagan’s election in 1980.