America's Ten Most Peculiar Presidential Elections
Part two of three installments.

At left, Samuel Tilden.

The Election of 1876: The Most Disputed and Intense Election in U.S. History- Samuel Tilden versus Rutherford B. Hayes

The election of 1876 was perhaps the most disputed and intense election in U.S. history.

Samuel Tilden, the Democratic nominee, won the popular vote by more than 200,000 votes and in the Electoral College he appeared to have won 203 votes to Hayes' 166. However, the Republican Party disputed the outcome of the election, claiming that blacks had been denied the right to vote in South Carolina, Louisiana and Florida. In response, the election officials refused to credit the Democratic electors in those three states. The officials instead had the three states give their electoral votes to Hayes. Now the election was tied, with each candidate receiving 184 electoral votes. (Interestingly, the Republican Party paid for recounts in many of the counties.)

Chaos descended on the capital. The Democrats controlled the House, and the Republicans controlled the Senate. The Republicans knew if the election went to the House they would lose, so they recommended a bipartisan commission to study the election and certify the results. They also arranged for the commission to ensure a victory for Hayes.

Rutherford B. Hayes, above.

The returns accepted by the Commission placed Hayes' victory margin in South Carolina at 889 votes, making this the second-closest election in U.S. history, after the 2000 election, decided by 537 votes in Florida. Democrats, furious at the machinations of the Electoral Commission, refused to attend the inauguration. It had to be held in secret because the Republicans feared for Hayes' life. The Democrats nicknamed Hayes "His Fraudulency" and "His Accidency."

The Election of 1884: Slogans, Slogans, Slogans- James G. Blaine versus Grover Cleveland

The 1884 election was based in large part on the integrity of the candidates. Cleveland supporters pilloried Blaine for his unethical business deals with the railroad industry and for being evasive when the deals were exposed. They chanted "Blaine, Blaine, James G. Blaine, the Continental Liar from the state of Maine."

James G. Baline, above.

Blaine's backers attacked Cleveland for allegedly fathering an out-of-wedlock child. They employed the catchphrase "Ma, ma, Where's my pa?" (In 1874, Cleveland had quietly accepted paternity of a child born to a woman who had been involved with a number of men. He was paying his son's child support when the story about his putative fatherhood publicly broke in 1884. His campaign staff asked him if the allegations were true and what they should do about them. Cleveland replied, "Tell the truth." They did.)

The 1884 election was one of the closest in U.S. history. The Republican candidate, Blaine, might have won if one of his supporters had kept his mouth shut. The Reverend Samuel Burchard called the Democratic Party the "party of rum, Romanism, and rebellion." "Romanism" was a derogatory term that alienated Catholic voters and they voted for Grover Cleveland- an independent minded Democrat- who narrowly prevailed in the general election.

Cleveland lost his reelection bid in the 1888 election, but won the election of 1892. He is the only American president to serve two nonconsecutive terms.

Below, Grover Cleveland.