In 1876, Grant City Star Declared Wrong Winner of Presidential Race

On November 9th, 1876, it was the end of the world as we knew it and the people who plotted this country’s destruction were elected to power. That, at least, was according to the Grant City Star, a staunch Republican paper. 

Just like today, there were certain partisans on both sides who cheered on their politicians like it were a sporting match. For instance, if you’re a Democrat today, the world is likely coming to an end as Donald Trump is the President. Of course, before November 2016, the Republicans thought Barack Obama was our worst President ever and thought the world was coming to an end until Donald Trump won.

After the November 1876 election, the Grant City Star believed that Democratic challenger Samuel Tilden had won over GOP hopeful Rutherford Hayes, on America’s centennial year, no less. They composed the following lament in their November 9th, 1876 election:

A change has, in our opinion, been accomplished, and the hard times and Tilden’s “bar’lo’money” has inaugurated it. Taking a candid view of the election news that has been received, we are compelled to admit that they are all against us, and that Tilden is most likely the President-elect. Although we have made large gains in Congress, it is proper to believe that the next House will be Democratic, at least, and likely Rebel. For the first time in the history of the world, a government has been taken from the hands of those who saved it, and given over to those who sought its destruction.

Speaking of the defeat of the Republican Party in this election, the Chicago Inter-Ocean says, “We do not attempt to disguise our supreme regret at the result. We believe it to be a terrible misfortune, and as such we herald it. It comes with disheartening force to Republicans of the North, but it will fall with far more crushing effect on the loyal men of the South. Today, the humble and lowly of that section, lifted into the sunlight of manhood by Abraham Lincoln and the justice of a great people, will shrink back into the shadow of slavery and bow with trembling fear before a cruel and unrelenting oligarchy. Are the American people satisfied with their work? Is this to be the end and aim of that equality before the law which Lincoln proclaimed, and which the country pledged its honor to preserve? We shall see. But if the battle between freedom and slavery is to be fought again upon this continent, it will be with a mightier power and with a desperation beside which former contests will sink into insignificance.”

In the Ninth District, a perfect ignoramus has been elected over a man of learning and intelligence to represent us in Congress. Not withstanding the fact that his ignorance and duplicity was apparent to all (Democrats as well as Republicans), they elected him by a majority of 1,500.

In our own county, we have done better. The two most important officers in the county – Representative and Treasurer – have been elected by the Republicans, which constitutes a Republican victory, inasmuch as the Democrats claimed Indiana in October.

However, things were not as simple or as hopeless as the editor of the Grant City Star believed. The election results were disputed, and there was an acrimonious fight over them which dwarfed the Gore vs. Bush fracas of 2000. Finally, in the Great American Spirit of Compromise, a deal was struck – Rutherford Hayes would be seated as President, but Reconstruction would end. The Republicans had won after all. The unwritten fear was that if a deal were not struck, the Civil War would reignite, which nobody wanted. 

Subsequently, in 1878, Congress passed the Posse Comitatus Act, which codified the Compromise of 1877 which allowed Hayes to be seated as President. It limits the use of the Federal Military to enforce domestic policies within the US. The only exceptions are as provided for under the US Constitution or by act of Congress. In 1956, Congress added the US Air Force to the act, and regulations written by the Navy and the Marines prohibit those branches from being used as well. The act does not apply to the US Coast Guard or the US Space Force.

In 2006, President George Bush II sought to weaken the act and Congress passed the John Warner National Defense Authorization Act. It allowed the President to employ the Armed Forces to restore order in the event of a major disaster, epidemic, terrorist attack, or other serious public health emergency, when the President deems that violence has occurred to such an extent that the states are incapable of maintaining public order. That law was repealed in 2008.

The Posse Comitatus Act does not apply when troops are used to quell civil disorder, insurrection, and rebellion. For instance, President George Bush I used federal troops to quell the 1992 Los Angeles Riots that followed the acquittal of the police officers who beat Rodney King.