Presidential Election of 1876: A Resource Guide

National Republican Chart 1876. 1 print: lithograph, color. New York: Published by H.H. Lloyd & Co., 170 Fulton Street , c1876. Prints & Photographs Division. Reproduction Number: LC-DIG-pga-03113

The digital collections of the Library of Congress contain a wide variety of material associated with the disputed presidential election of 1876, including manuscripts, broadsides, prints, political cartoons, sheet music, articles, and government documents. This guide compiles links to digital materials related to the presidential election of 1876 and the Electoral Commission of 1877 that are available throughout the Library of Congress Web site. In addition, it provides links to external Web sites focusing on the 1876 election and a selected bibliography.

1876 Presidential Election Results [1]

Library of Congress Web Site | External Web Sites | Selected Bibliography

American Memory Historical Collections

America Singing: Nineteenth-Century Song Sheets

For most of the nineteenth century, Americans learned the latest songs from printed song sheets. Not to be confused with sheet music, song sheets are single printed sheets, usually six-by-eight inches, with lyrics but no music.

• For Hayes and Wheeler we are marching on. By James Nicholson. Tune- Johnny comes marching home
• Our watchword. By James Nicholson. Tune- "Hold the Fort."
• Republican campaign song
• Republican campaign song. By James Nicholson. Tune- "Tramp, tramp, tramp, the boys are marching."
• Republican campaign song. Tune- "John Brown." [n. p.] [1876]
• We will not vote for Tilden. By James Nicholson. Tune-Benny Havens ho!'

An American Time Capsule: Three Centuries of Broadsides and Other Printed Ephemera

The Printed Ephemera collection comprises 28,000 primary-source items dating from the seventeenth century to the present and encompasses key events and eras in American history. While the broadside format represents the bulk of the collection, there are a significant number of leaflets and some pamphlets.

• 4 songs by James Nicholson, comprising Republican campaign song; The voice of the nation's dead; We will not vote for Tilden; 1876. Republican campaign song
• A certificate for the electoral vote for Rutherford B. Hayes and William A. Wheeler for the State of Louisiana dated 1876
• Carnival of blood! Republicans to be massacred at the polls! Secret Democratic circular. Tilden's desparate plan to carry a solid South ... New York 1876
• Counting the vote for President and Vice-President. Admit bearer to gallery of House of representatives. 557 March 2, 1877
• Credit of the nation in 1860 and 1876. The Democratic platform and Tilden's letter answered. By an official letter from the Treasury Department. [Washington, D. C. 1876]
• Democratic conservative ticket. 2d District. [cut] For President Samuel J. Tilden. For Vice-President Thomas A. Hendricks ...[n. p. 1876]
• For president. Rutherford B. Hayes. For Vice-president William A. Wheeler. For electors for the state at large Albert G. Porter Thomas H. Nelson. District electors [13 districts] [Indiana 1876]
• For President Samuel J. Tilden, of New York. For Vice-President, Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana ... For Governor, Charles Francis Adams, of Quincy ... 1876
• Gov. Tilden's letter of acceptance. Albany, July 31, 1876
• The Republican Presidential candidate. "Nominate the right man." [n. p., 1876]
• Republican star campaign song ... We'll go for Hayes and Wheeler. Air:- "Yankee Doodle" Melrose, Mass. 1876
• State of New York. Republican State Convention, held at Syracuse, March 22, 1876, for the election of delegates to the Republican National Convention, to be held at Cincinnati, June 14, 1876. [n. p., 1876]

A Century of Lawmaking for a New Nation: U.S. Congressional Documents and Debates, 1774-1875

This collection consists of published congressional records of the United States of America from 1774 to 1875. The collection also contains the full text of "The Proceedings of the Electoral Commission of 1877," which was published in the Congressional Record.

• The Proceedings of the Electoral Commission of 1877 - Congressional Record, Volume V, Part IV, 44th Congress, 2nd Session.

Historic American Sheet Music, 1850-1920

The Historic American Sheet Music collection presents 3,042 pieces of sheet music drawn from the Rare Book, Manuscript, and Special Collections Library at Duke University, which holds an important, representative, and comprehensive collection of nineteenth and early twentieth century American sheet music.

• The boys in blue will see it through; Campaign song and Chorus. 1876
• Tilden and reform. 1876

Music for the Nation: American Sheet Music, 1870-1885

This collection consists of over 47,000 pieces of sheet music registered for copyright during the years 1870 to 1885. Included are popular songs, piano music, sacred and secular choral music, solo instrumental music, method books and instructional materials, and music for band and orchestra.

• Give Hayes and Wheeler, three times three! / by G. Elmer Jones
• Hayes grand march / by E. Mack
• Hayes and Wheeler / by Guiseppe Riano
• Hayes and Wheeler grand march / by Carl Strandberg
• The Humbug reform / by R. M. Stapp
• National reform / by John Harloe
• Tilden and Hendricks march / by G. Wiegand
• Who shall be the man / by Henry Schroeder

The Nineteenth Century in Print: Books

The books in this collection bear nineteenth-century American imprints, dating mainly from between 1850 and 1880. They have been digitized by the University of Michigan as part of the Making of America project, a major collaborative endeavor to preserve and provide access to historical texts.

• Electoral count of 1877. Proceedings of the Electoral commission and of the two houses of Congress in joint meeting relative to the count of electoral votes cast December 6, 1876, for the presidential term commencing March 4, 1877
• The electoral votes of 1876: who should count them, what should be counted, and the remedy for a wrong count. By David Dudley Field
• Statement of facts relating to the election in Louisiana, November 7th, 1876. By E. A. Burke
• The vote that made the president. by David Dudley Field

The Nineteenth Century in Print: Periodicals

This collection presents twenty-three popular periodicals digitized by Cornell University Library and the Preservation Reformatting Division of the Library of Congress.

• The Hayes-Tilden Electoral Commission. [The Atlantic Monthly. / Volume 72, Issue 432, October 1893]

Chronicling America: Historic American Newspapers

Chronicling America

This site allows you to search and view millions of historic American newspaper pages from 1836-1922. Search this collection to find newspaper articles about the presidential election of 1876.

A selection of articles on the 1876 presidential election includes:

• "Suspense, Possibly Tilden, Hopefully, Hayes," National Republican. (Washington City, D.C.) November 8, 1876.
• "Glorious News!" National Republican. (Washington City, D.C.) November 9, 1876.
• "Hallelujah! Now You Can Crow! The Republican Party is Dead!" The Louisiana Democrat. (Alexandria, La.) November 15, 1876.
• "Counting the Electoral Votes," The Iola Register. (Iola, Kan.) January 27, 1877.
• "The President Signs the Electoral Bill," The Morning Star and Catholic Messenger. (New Orleans, La.) February 4, 1877.
• "The Battle for Power," National Republican. (Washington City, D.C.) February 12, 1877.
• "The Agony Over! Hayes Elected President," National Republican. (Washington City, D.C.) March 2, 1877.

Exhibitions

Voices, Votes, Victory: Presidential Campaign Songs

This exhibition presents a sampling of the rich collection of campaign songs housed in the Music Division of the Library of Congress. From pocket-sized songsters to sheet music, the wide variety of subjects reflect virtually every party platform and national issue on which presidential elections have focused.

• Campaign Marches from 1876 and 1880
• “Hayes the True and Wheeler, Too!”
• Rutherford B. Hayes Campaign Song

Prints & Photographs Division

Pictorial Americana: Selected Images from the Collections of the Library of Congress

Pictorial Americana, a Library of Congress publication, contains a chapter listing selected images related to the 1876 presidential election.

Prints & Photographs Online Catalog (PPOC)

Search PPOC to find additional prints, political cartoons, and other digital images related to the presidential election of 1876.

• The champions of the people's right
• Counting the electoral vote - David Dudley Field objects to the vote of Florida
• Grand National Democratic banner
• Honest Sam. Tilden, Campaign Song and Chorus
• National Democratic chart, 1876--For president, Samuel J. Tilden, for vice president, Thomas A. Hendricks
• The political farce of 1876
• Roll along, roll along, shout the campaign battle song
• A truce - not a compromise, but a chance for high-toned gentlemen to retire gracefully from their very civil declarations of war / Th. Nast.
• Washington, D.C.--the Electoral Commission holding a secret session by candle-light, on the Louisiana question, February 16th

External Web Sites

The American Presidency Project: Election of 1876

The American Presidency Project Web site presents election results from the 1864 presidential election.

HarpWeek: The Presidential Elections 1860-1912

This HarpWeek Web site features political cartoons from Harper's Weekly, Leslie's Illustrated Weekly, Vanity Fair, Puck, Judge, and American Political Prints, 1766-1876: A Catalog of the Collections in the Library of Congress. It provides explanations of the historical context and images of each cartoon, campaign overviews, biographical sketches, a review of the era's major issues, and other valuable information related to the 1876 presidential election.

Hayes vs. Tilden: The Electoral College Controversy of 1876-1877

This HarpWeek Web site examines the Electoral College controversy of 1876-77. It features an overview of the political situation, a timeline of events, political cartoons, and biographies.

Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center

The Rutherford B. Hayes Presidential Center includes the home, library, museum, tomb, and 25-acre park-like estate (called Spiegel Grove) of Rutherford B. Hayes. This site contains frequently asked questions about the disputed election of 1876, an essay on the election by Ari Hoogenboom, a copy of Samuel Tilden's concession speech, and a selection of images from the election. It also provides access to the full-text of The Diary and Letters of Rutherford B. Hayes, Nineteenth President of the United States, which includes entries related to the election of 1876 in volume III.

Selected Bibliography

Haworth, Paul Leland. The Hayes-Tilden Disputed Presidential Election of 1876. Cleveland: The Burrows Brothers Co., 1906.
LC Call Number: JK526 1876 H4 [Catalog Record] [Full Text]

Holt, Michael F. By One Vote: The Disputed Presidential Election of 1876. Lawrence: University Press of Kansas, 2008.
LC Call Number: E680 .H75 2008 [Catalog Record]

Morris, Roy. Fraud of the Century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden, and the Stolen Election of 1876. New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003.
LC Call Number: E680 .M85 2003 [Catalog Record]

Polakoff, Keith Ian. The Politics of Inertia: The Election of 1876 and the End of Reconstruction. Baton Rouge: Louisiana State University Press, 1973.
LC Call Number: E680 .P73 [Catalog Record]

Rehnquist, William H. Centennial Crisis: The Disputed Election of 1876. New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 2004.
LC Call Number: E680 .R44 2004 [Catalog Record]

Robinson, Lloyd. The Stolen Election: Hayes Versus Tilden, 1876. 1968; rpt. New York: Tom Doherty Associates, 2001.
LC Call Number: E680 .R64 2001 [Catalog Record]

Younger Readers

Schlesinger, Arthur M., Jr., ed. The Election of 1876 and the Administration of Rutherford B. Hayes. Philadelphia: Mason Crest Publishers, 2003.
LC Call Number: E680 .E43 2003 [Catalog Record]

Vaughan, Harold Cecil. The Hayes-Tilden Election of 1876: A Disputed Presidential Election in the Gilded Age. New York: Watts, 1972.
LC Call Number: E680 .V3 [Catalog Record]

Notes

1. Presidential Elections, 1789-2008. (Washington, D.C.: CQ Press, 2010), 138, 228.