Show tamo solo o fir tales and taa traci traditions eions ont from american political ml hubaty FRANK E HO HAGIN ELMO sc T T WATSON BY ONE VOTE rutherford R B HAYES ol 01 2 ohio nineteenth president 01 0 the united states can be desi designate gnatt ed the man who was elected by single vote his contest with samuel J tilden of new york the democratic nominee threatened for a time in 1876 and early 1877 to bring about a resumption of the civil war perhaps it explains in some the bitterness of battles today be ba tween republicans and Demo democrat crati hayes faced the disadvantage of 0 running in the wake of the eight years of the grant administrations followed as they were by dional accusations of financial frauds there was little to choose between abilities of the candidates and when first returns were in tilden was acclaimed as winner shortly after election day it wat wai revealed that tiddens Til dens managers were uncertain as to the results their party had achieved in florida south carolina and louisiana normally democratic these states still were in the hands ot of carpetbagger governments tilden had electoral votes and the ballots of any of the three states named would have elected him hayes with needed au all of them to have one oae more electoral vote than tilden in louisiana the canvassing board threw out democratic votes and gave the state to hayes republicans asserted their candidate had won in both south carolina and florida but democrats of the three states returned votes for tilden to make the situation a typical american scene congress was divided one branch being democratic the other republican it was decided finally to appoint five congressmen from each party and five judges of the supreme court to make the decision as to which set of returns from the disputed states should be accepted the election of hayes was assured by the vote of justice bradley whose participation gave the deliberative body a margin oi of ea eight gh t republicans to seven democrats and congress approved these momentous findings just in time to enable rutherford B hayes to take the oath of office as president NAMING A PARTY ironically ironically enough the names of the two principal political parties once were combined ais as democratic republicans a group ot of which the standard bearer was thomas jefferson referred to perhaps oftener than any other leader when democrats trace their political origin under und er jackson the party name was shortened to democrat which it continues to bear republicans emerged as a separate party as early as 1854 although its first nominating convention was held two years later up at ripon wis in a corn corner er of the campus of ripon college stands the ripon congregational church scene of the first G 0 P meeting the ripon meeting had been called by major alvan E bovay a whig lawyer who generally receives credit for suggesting the name of the party he had passed on his idea to horace greeley who later advocated the name republican at a convention in jackson mich although ripon had a voting list that hardly exceeded in those days of exclusively male suffrage more than half of them attended bovais first gathering the impulse which brought them together was the conviction that the slavery question was coming rapidly to a head and that those who opposed must unite in a new group regardless of geographical lines northern states naturally proved the most fertile ground for spreading the new doctrine before the tha bartys first national convention which was held in philadelphia on june 17 1856 a firm toehold had been secured by senatorial representation sent sen tation atlon at washington history fails to record what part if any major bovay played in the philadelphia meeting the delegates were unanimously in favor ot of nomina nominating til ag john C fremont and he was selected on the first ballot another republican attended however he was the gangling illinois nois rail splitter abe lincoln and some of his colleagues had the temerity to advance his name as a candidate for vice president Ho honest riest abe lost the nomination but four years later he was to carry the party to victory D western newspaper Nw Newa paPer union |