THE ELECTORAL VOTES OF 1876 -- Who Should Count Them, What Should Be Counted, and The Remedy for a Wrong Count

New York: D. Appleton and Company. Very Good-. 1877. First Edition. Original Printed Wrappers. 22, (2) pages; Short quarter inch closed tear at margin of outer edge, faint tide mark affecting lower inner corner at bottom edge. OCLC 560364071 SUBJECT: The country faced a major electoral challenge with the disputed Hayes-Tilden presidential election of 1876. While Democratic candidate Samuel J. Tilden won the popular vote by a margin of 250,000, the Electoral College ballots of four states were called into question. To resolve the dispute, Congress created a special electoral commission to review the ballots and determine the outcome of the election. The 15-member commission held its first public hearing on February 1, 1877. Throughout the month-long hearings, the room was packed with spectators expecting high drama and great oratory. The press followed the proceedings closely. Frank Leslie’s Illustrated Newspaper and Harper’s Weekly both covered the event in depth and included numerous engravings in their publications, including one of David Dudley Field questioning the Florida electoral votes. According to the findings of the commission, Rutherford B. Hayes received all of the disputed electoral votes, and Congress declared him the victor on March 2, 1877, just two days before his term began. AUTHOR: David Dudley Field II (1805 – 1894) was an American lawyer and law reformer who made major contributions to the development of American civil procedure. His greatest accomplishment was engineering the move away from common law pleading towards code pleading, which culminated in the enactment of the Field Code in 1850 by the state of New York. Field was originally an anti-slavery Democrat, but gave his support to the Republican Party in 1856 and to the Lincoln Administration throughout the American Civil War. After 1876, Field returned to the Democratic Party, and from January to March 1877 served out in the United States House of Representatives the unexpired term of Smith Ely, who had been elected Mayor of New York City. During his brief Congressional career he delivered six speeches (all of which attracted attention), introduced a bill in regard to the presidential succession, and appeared before the Electoral Commission in Samuel J. Tilden's interest during the highly controversial presidential election of 1876 questioning the electoral votes of Florida. .