Rutherford B. Hayes – 1822-1893

In the election of 1876, Democrat Samuel J. Tilden outpolled Republican Hayes in the popular vote and looked as if he would win an electoral majority as well; however, Republicans contested the result— charging (among other things) that the black vote had been suppressed in the South—and the election was ultimately decided by Congress in a deal that gave Hayes the presidency in exchange for his pledge to bring an immediate end to Reconstruction (including military government) in the states of the former Confederacy. Hayes was installed in office, ended Reconstruction, and, to his credit, set about cleaning out the corruption of Ulysses S. Grant’s two terms. However, he was always afflicted by the stigma of the backroom deal and was universally mocked by the title, “His Fraudulency.”