Oregon was a young state in 1876 and its politics were unpredictable. With only three Electoral votes, it did not get much attention during the presidential campaign, but Democrats expected to win it. They had won the governorship in 1874 and the following year they had won the state’s only Congressional seat, albeit by fewer than 300 votes. In 1876 though Republican Rutherford B. Hayes triumphed by only 1,057 votes out of 29,881 cast. [135-136]
This should have given Hayes all of the state’s three Electoral votes, but there was a problem. One of the three Republican Electors was legally ineligible to serve and it was unclear as to who, if anyone, would replace him. Normally, losing a single Elector would be a minor problem, but Hayes ultimately won the tally in the Electoral College 185 to 184. Losing one Oregon Elector could spell defeat for the Republicans.
John Watts was the allegedly illegal Elector. His problem was that he was the deputy postmaster of Lafayette in Yamhill County. Watts indicated after the election that he had been concerned that even though his postal position was a low-paying part-time job, it might violate the Constitutional prohibition of on government workers serving as Electors. He said that he wrote to Republican Senator John Mitchell to ask if he should step aside before the election, but he received no answer. Mitchell denied he had seen the letter, but reports emerged of Mitchell discussing the Watts situation and concluding that as long as Watts resigned from the Post Office before the Electoral College met there was no problem with him serving as an Elector. [136]
Article II, Section 1 of the Constitution states that:
Each State shall appoint, in such Manner as the Legislature thereof may direct, a Number of Electors, equal to the whole Number of Senators and Representatives to which the State may be entitled in the Congress; but no Senator or Representative, or person holding an Office of Trust or Profit under the United States shall be appointed an Elector.
At that time, voters in Oregon did not directly vote for the presidential candidate, they voted for a slate of candidates to serve as Electors in the Electoral College. The Electors were named on the ballots and not all voters voted for the entire ticket. Republicans W.H. Odell and John Watts each got 15,206 votes, but they trailed Republican John Cartwright by eight votes. Next in line, after the three Republicans, was Democrat E.A. Cronin with 14,157 votes. [135-136]
Although the insignificant Post Office position only paid a couple of hundred dollars a year, if it disqualified Watts from serving as an elector, the question was, who would take his place. The Democrats argued that the next highest vote getter, Democrat Cronin should be sent to the meeting of the Electoral College. In other words, even though Hayes won the state, one Elector should represent the losing Democrats and vote for Tilden, thereby giving him the presidency by one vote. [136]
On December 4, Oregon’s Secretary of State, the official in charge of certifying the election’s outcome, declared the three Republican Elector candidates as the victors. The Democratic Governor La Fayette Grover, however, issued a certificate declaring E.A. Cronin as winning the election as a Tilden Elector. In other words, the voters of Oregon went for Hayes, but one of the Electors would vote for Tilden following Grover’s action. [136-140]
Republicans continued to argue against the Oregon vote being cast for Tilden, saying the people had voted for Hayes, irrespective of the person who was to be his elector. They also claimed that Watts election was valid and that as long as he resigned from the post office before he sat as an Elector he was not disqualified from serving. Their argument was strengthened at the end of December when telegrams emerged allegedly showing that the Democrats had used bribery to steal the Elector. According to testimony, a telegram in cipher was sent to Tilden’s nephew W.T. Pelton saying that the Democrats “Must purchase a Republican elector.” Tilden reportedly said that he would “distain to be elected President by the vote of an elector who received a minority vote, as in the case of Cronin” [141-142]
Governor Grover had manufactured the ultimate “Faithless Elector.” The people had voted Republican and one of their Electors was a pledged Democrat.
Ultimately the question of whether the Oregon Elector would be a Republican or Democrat would not be decided in Oregon, but rather 3,000 miles east in Washington.
Sources:
Oregon and the Disputed Election of 1876 by Philip W. Kennedy The Pacific Northwest Quarterly Vol. 60, No. 3 (Jul., 1969), pp. 135-144 (10 pages) Published By: University of Washington.
Note: Page numbers in the article Oregon and the Disputed Election of 1876 are indicated in brackets.
Note on Feature Illustration: The cartoon by Thomas Nast shows E.A. Cronin ready to cast one vote for Tilden.
Additional Sources:
Southern Democrats in the Crisis of 1876-1877: A Reconsideration of Reunion and Reaction by Michael Les Benedict in The Journal of Southern History Vol. 46, No. 4 (Nov., 1980), pp. 489-524 (36 pages)
Fraud of the Century: Rutherford B. Hayes, Samuel Tilden, and the Stolen Election of 1876 by Roy Morris published by Simon & Schuster (2007)
The Hayes-Tilden Disputed Presidential Election of 1876 by Paul Haworth (1906)
By One Vote: The Disputed Election of 1876 by Michael Holt published by University of Kansas Press (2008)
Reunion and Reaction: The Compromise of 1877 and the End of Reconstruction by C. Van Woodward published by Oxford University Press (1966)
Rutherford B. Hayes: Warrior and President by Ari Hoogenboom published by University of Kansas Press (1995)
The Reconstruction Presidents by Brooks D. Simpson University Press of Kansas; 2nd edition (1998)
Proceedings of the Electoral Commission published by the Government Printing Office (1877)
Follow Reconstruction Blog on Social Media:
2 thoughts on “How to Manufacture a Faithless Elector: Oregon in the Election of 1876”