Editing Samuel J. Tilden (section)

===Electoral Commission===
On January 26, both houses of Congress agreed to establish the 15-member [[Electoral Commission (United States)|Electoral Commission]] to settle the dispute over the contested electoral votes. The commission consisted of five Democratic members of Congress, five Republican members of Congress, and five justices of the [[Supreme Court of the United States]]. Of the Supreme Court justices, two were to be Democrats, two were to be Republicans, and the fifth justice would be selected by the other four justices. Tilden opposed the creation of the Electoral Commission because he still hoped to force a contingent election in the House of Representatives, but he was unable to prevent Democratic congressmen from voting for the establishment of the commission. Most had expected that the fifth justice on the commission would be Associate Justice [[David Davis (Supreme Court justice)|David Davis]], a [[political independent]], but Davis refused to serve on the commission after he accepted election to the Senate. Another associate justice, Republican [[Joseph P. Bradley]], was instead chosen as the fifth justice on the Electoral Commission.<ref>Morris (2003), pp. 216–219</ref> In a series of 8-to-7, party-line decisions, the Electoral Commission voted to award all of the contested electoral votes to Hayes.<ref>Morris (2003), pp. 222–235</ref>

Even after the Electoral Commission delivered its rulings, the House of Representatives could have blocked the inauguration of Hayes by refusing to certify the results.<ref>White (2017), p. 332</ref> Though some House Democrats hoped to do so, they were unable, as many House Democrats joined with their Republican colleagues in voting to accept.<ref>Morris (2003), pp. 235–236</ref> During the proceedings of the Electoral Commission, high-ranking members of both parties had discussed the possibility of declaring Hayes the winner in exchange for the removal of all federal troops from the South. The [[Compromise of 1877]], as it became known, may have played a role in preventing the House from challenging the Electoral Commission's rulings, although author Roy Morris Jr. argues that the compromise "was more a mutual concession of the obvious than a device for controlling larger events."<ref>Morris (2003), pp. 232–234</ref> Some other historians, including [[C. Vann Woodward]], have argued that the Compromise of 1877 played the decisive role in determining the outcome of the election.<ref>{{cite news |last1=Kleinfeld |first1=N. R. |title=Counting the Vote: The History; President Tilden? No, but Almost, in Another Vote That Dragged On |url=https://www.nytimes.com/2000/11/12/us/counting-vote-history-president-tilden-no-but-almost-another-vote-that-dragged.html |access-date=November 6, 2018 |newspaper=New York Times |date=November 12, 2000}}</ref><ref>{{cite journal |title=Review: Not a Compromise |journal=The Review of Politics |date=2009 |volume=71 |issue=4 |pages=698–700 |jstor=25655882}}</ref> On March 2, two days before the end of Grant's term, Congress declared Hayes the victor of the 1876 presidential election.<ref>Morris (2003), pp. 237–238</ref> Hayes took office on March 4, and withdrew the last federal soldiers from the South in April 1877, bringing an end to the Reconstruction Era.<ref>Morris (2003), pp. 240, 244–245</ref>

Some Democrats urged Tilden to reject the results and take the presidential [[oath of office]], but Tilden declined to do so. On March 3, the House passed a resolution declaring Tilden the "duly elected President of the United States," but this had no legal effect.<ref>Morris (2003), pp. 241–242</ref> Tilden himself stated that, "I can retire to private life with the consciousness that I shall receive from posterity the credit of having been elected to the highest position in the gift of the people, without any of the cares and responsibilities of the office."<ref>{{cite magazine |last=King |first=Gilbert |date=September 7, 2012 |title=The Ugliest, Most Contentious Presidential Election Ever |url=https://www.smithsonianmag.com/history/the-ugliest-most-contentious-presidential-election-ever-28429530/ |magazine=Smithsonian Magazine |location=Washington, DC |publisher=Smithsonian Institution}}</ref> Tilden was the second individual, after [[Andrew Jackson]] in 1824, to lose a presidential election [[List of United States presidential elections in which the winner lost the popular vote|despite winning at least a plurality of the popular vote]].<ref name="Revesz">{{cite news |last1=Revesz |first1=Rachel |title=Five presidential nominees who won popular vote but lost the election |url=https://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/popular-vote-electoral-college-five-presidential-nominees-hillary-clinton-al-gore-a7420971.html |access-date=November 6, 2018 |newspaper=The Independent |date=November 16, 2016}}</ref> Tilden remains the only individual to lose a presidential election while winning an outright majority of the popular vote.<ref>{{cite magazine |last=Law |first=Tara |date=May 15, 2019 |title=These Presidents Won the Electoral College — But Not the Popular Vote |url=https://time.com/5579161/presidents-elected-electoral-college/ |magazine=[[Time (magazine)|Time]] |location=New York, NY |publisher=Time USA, LLC}}</ref>