The Election of 1876

The election of 1876 was one of the most controversial presidential elections in the history of the United States of America, second only to that of 2001. The result, and subsequent effects, of the election are the main reason why the year 1876 was the last time for nearly a century that states of the south voted Republican. The issue at hand: to continue Reconstruction, or not to continue Reconstruction, that was the question. Southern Military Reconstruction had …

…just policy for the South. Between the lethal threats and the disappointment, and new-found distrust, of the Republican party, the election of 1876 was the last time in nearly a century that the South would vote Republican. The election of 1876, the Electoral Count Act, and the Compromise of 1877 caused the end of Military reconstruction and opened the way for the rest of the Gilded Age to progress, with it the Jim Crow laws and Segregation acts.