|
November 8, 2000 - Rutherford B. Hayes, the 19th president of America, is one of those presidents that no one has heard of. His name sounds like a Groucho Marx character. By most historical accounts, he was a decent human being who happened to become president via the closest and most fraudulent election in the country's history -- one that he probably didn't even really win. So America would do well to remember Hayes today, as the American presidential election may come down to as few as 1,000 votes in the state of Florida. Because although it may seem impossible to fix the national election as a whole, it could be possible to pull off something sneaky in Florida. Do you know how many mobsters live in Florida? Hey, I saw Good Fellas! Right now, even tampering with a few voting machines in some retirement community in the Florida Keys could decide the president. Even a LAME mobster could probably that pull off! Still don't think it could happen? Well, this is probably a good time to summarize the most corrupt and ridiculous presidential election in American history (so far) -- the election of 1876.
In 1876, Hayes was the Republican candidate. He was a passive but respected Civil War veteran who was governor of Ohio. His opponent was Samuel J. Tilden, a charismatic New York politician who had spent a decade fighting the corrupt political system there. Tilden won the popular vote: 4.2 million over Hayes' 4 million. Hayes went to bed assuming he had lost the election. But the next morning he discovered that four states, South Carolina, Florida, Louisiana and Oregon, were disputing some of their local results. Republicans from these states reported that their voters had chosen Hayes. Democrats said their voters had chosen Tilden. If that disagreement seems silly in today's relatively stable society, it helps to remember that this was just ten years after the Civil War ended. Republicans were still mostly associated with the north and Democrats with the south -- and they essentially were at each other's throats. Altogether, these states disputed twenty of their electoral votes. (In America, the popular vote doesn't pick the president directly. Each state is assigned a number "electoral votes" based on how many people live there, and popular vote within that state determines which candidates wins the electoral votes. Whatever. It's a mess). With those twenty, Hayes would win the election by a SINGLE ELECTORAL VOTE. People assumed that both the Republican and Democratic state governments in the three disputed states were lying. Both houses of Congress tried to decide the outcome. The House of Representatives, which was Democratic, said Tilden won. The Senate, which was Republican, said Hayes won. By New Year's Eve, America still didn't have a president. In those days, the new president didn't take office until March 6, so there was still time to decide. Congress appointed a special electoral commission. Inexplicably, Congress put eight Republicans and seven Democrats on the commission. Weeks of arguing followed. Some politicians called for another Civil War. On February 23, 1887, each commission member stuck with his party and decided on a vote of 8-7 that Hayes had won all twenty disputed electoral votes and was therefore the president. Popular view saw this decision as a joke. Rutherford was nicknamed "Rutherfraud". Tilden seemed to have given up, and helped convince his followers to support the decision. If you read the articles I've linked to above, you can see that most people agree that Tilden probably did win Florida -- which would have given the election to him and not Hayes. Many historians think that there was a deal brokered: Republicans would withdraw federal troops from the South which were enforcing Republican Reconstruction policies there if the Democrats let Hayes become president. How weird is that? In 1876, it came down to Florida. And here in 2000, it's down to Florida again. Man, that's creepy! What is wrong with that state? So I hope every journalist in America is driving, flying and running to Florida right now to make sure that the recount today (and maybe tomorrow) is legal. Because for the first time since 1876 -- the wrong man could be chosen president.  Will's full name is William Bradford Hines. Doesn't that sound like a 19th century president? Spite Home | Bile Cabinet Write Spite | Post A Message | |||||
