Election Comparison: 1876 and 2016
The presidential elections of 1876 are considered among the most disputed elections in the US history. In the electoral voting the Democrat Samuel J. Tilden outvoted the Republican Rutherford B. Hayes but the electoral-college overturned the results and declared Hayes the winner.
Overview of 1876 Election
Candidates’ Backgrounds
Samuel J. Tilden (1814-1886) was born in New York. He studied first from Yale and then studied Law from the New York University, and became a professional lawyer. Tilden was exceptionally good at his job. He was known for his money management skills. Before officially entering politics representing the Democratic Party he served as the New York City’s Corporation Counsel.
Rutherford B. Hayes (1822 –1893) was also a lawyer by profession, and ran for the presidential seat representing the Republican Party. Born in Ohio, he studied Ancient Greek and Latin at the common schools. He studied Law in Columbus then moved to Harvard Law School and graduated with an LL.B. During the 1860s civil war broke out, Hayes volunteered as a soldier. His first significant political victory was winning the election as the Governor of Ohio.
Major social and political issues surrounding the election
The major issues surrounding the 1876 elections were corruption and financial panic of 1873. These issues were debated frequently and the candidates focused their election campaigns on these issues. An important event surrounding the election cycle was the future of the state of Colorado, as it was legally declared a state during this time.
Campaign Strategies
Both the candidates used similar campaigning strategies of attacking each other to gain popularity. In a sense both Hayes and Tilden were similar to each other for they were good lawyers with professional repute. Both the candidates were in favor of civil service reforms. The custom of that time was that the surrogates ran the campaigns and the respective candidates used to stay in their hometowns. The economic times were tough and Hayes had a huge task ahead of him to clear his image. He did not want to share the responsibility for the financial distress as the Republican Party was in power during that time. The Democrats knew that the Republicans had a weak position in this regard, which they fully exploited. To Democrats the “false policies” of the Federal Government were responsible for the depression (Silbey, 2009, p. 47). The two major states of New York and Indian held key importance in winning the elections.
Propaganda Tactics
The Republican campaign focused on convincing the public that electing democrats would be unethical for the Southern Democrats were the ones that invoked the civil war. The Republicans also campaigned by scaring the public, specifically the black community in the south, that a Democratic administration might be hard on their recently won civil rights. The democrats focused their attention on corruption and careless financial policies that caused the 1873 financial crisis. The Northeast, which had a significant number of immigrants was mostly in favor of the democrats.
Effects on the Outcome
It was a very controversial election, probably the second most controversial in the US history (Nester, 2014) since the results were allegedly overturned despite a clear winner. It is hard to state clearly what affected the election most because the race was extremely close and there could have been a winner from either party as the forecasts did not predict a clear winner prior to elections.
Comparison between 1876 and 2016 Election Campaigns
Despite the fact that over a century has passed the environment is still similar to the one from 1876. This is the year of election 2016 and from the way things are shaping up, it will probably be between the Democrats Hillary Clinton and the Republican Donald Trump. At the moment Trump’s campaign focuses on reforming free trade agreements that are choking the U.S. economy, curbing illegal immigrants and putting a temporary ban on immigrants on Muslims. While Hillary’s major focus remains on improving the middle class income, affordable college education and reforming the Healthcare Act.
One difference between the two elections is that the competition within the parties is fiercer today. The Democratic Party is one example where Bernie Sanders did more damage to the success of Hillary Clinton than The Republican Party. Sanders has repeatedly accused Hillary of having deep ties with The Wall Street, implying that she is not sincere in improving the income of the middle class. Another difference between the elections is that Hillary Clinton has the support of many delegates and super delegates, which proved to be crucial in weakening Sander’s chances of running for the presidency.
An interesting way to compare would be to look at slogans in the two elections and how they were designed to appeal to voters. During the 1876 campaign, the Democratic slogan was “Tilden and Reform!” (Barry, 2009). They also appealed to all the American voters by statements such as;
“white men, colored men, Democrats, Republicans, American citizens, all come join with us in our great struggle for reform and redemption” (West, 2010, p. 110)
On the other hand, Rutherford Hayes gained popularity under the slogan, “Hurrah! for Hayes and Honest Ways!” (Barden, 2009). Hayes also had a unique slogan for the South “home rule” (Tulloch, 2006), which was an implication that there will be less military intervention in the South under his rule.
Coming to 2016, Hillary’s slogan is “Hillary for America” and her chant is “I’m with Her”. While Donald Trump’s slogan is “Make America great again”, which was first used by Ronald Reagan. In a sense Trump wants to identify himself with Reagan. This slogan appeals to reform and redemption the way Democrats appealed in 1876.
Another difference between the two elections is the use of social media to collect and evaluate data to predict the outcome of the election (Wang et al., 2016). During 1876, there was no internet, and majority of political activity was carried out on the streets and reflected in the daily newspapers. Today, the reaction of voters is so prompt that one bad sentence from any candidate spurs a debate between millions of people on Facebook and Twitter in a matter of minutes. Also, Candidates do not need to call a press conference to reach out to the public. They can simply type a message and send it via social media to their followers.
In the 1876, there was no such popularity of using scare tactics to collect votes as terrorism was not as big of a threat as it is today. Also, the LGBT community was living in hiding, they were not as vocal as they are today with Gay Pride marches and communities. Today they have emerged as a significant force in narrative building. This also puts the question on the candidates regarding their views about the LGBT community. The most crucial opinion in this regard is if they support the same sex marriages under the US law or not.
Comparing the candidates from 1876 to the ones in 2016, there is a stark contrast. Both Hayes and Tilden were quite similar to each other; they both were lawyers and had reputations for honesty. In the case of Clinton vs. Trump the differences are stark; Clinton had to work hard to become a significant political figure. Other than being an accomplished attorney she had remained the US secretary of states, US senator and the First Lady. In stark contrast, Donald Trump is a business tycoon specializing in real estate. He is a billionaire and shows extreme views regarding illegal immigrants, which seem to be attracting a huge following the US.
Comparing the two elections, there are many similarities. The basic style of campaigning is the same. However, one difference seems to be that there was less mudslinging between candidates. One factors remains to be seen regarding the controversy surrounding the electoral vote cunt and the announcement of the winner. In the age of internet and rapid communication of information, it will be interesting to see if such a controversy occurs and how the American public will react to it.
References
Barden, C. (2009) Presidents Hayes, Garfield and Arthur: Meet the Presidents. OH: Teaching and Learning Company.
Barry, F. S. (2009). The Scandal of Reform: The Grand Failures of New York's Political Crusaders and the Death of Nonpartisanship. Rutgers University Press.
Nester, W. (2014). The Age of Lincoln and the Art of American Power, 1848-1876. Potomac Books, Inc..
Silbey, J. H. (Ed.). (2009). The American Party Battle: Election Campaign Pamphlets, 1828-1876 (Vol. 1). Harvard University Press.
Tulloch, H. (2006). The Routledge Companion to the American Civil War Era. Routledge.
Wang, Y., Feng, Y., Li, Y., Zhang, X., Niemi, R., & Luo, J. (2016). Pricing the Woman Card: Gender Politics between Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump. arXiv preprint arXiv:1605.05401.
West, J. L. (2010). The Bloody South Carolina Election of 1876: Wade Hampton III, the Red Shirt Campaign for Governor and the End of Reconstruction. McFarland.
