The Secret Inauguration of Rutherford B. Hayes That Ended the Disputed Election of 1876

Presidents originally served until March 4 of the year following the presidential election. On March 4, 1877 the term of President Ulysses S. Grant came to an end, but his successor, Rutherford B. Hayes was not to be inaugurated until the next day. This was because March 4 was a Sunday that year, and inaugurations were not held on the “Lord’s Day.” This meant that there would be a short period that the country had no president! While this had not been seen as a problem in the past, in 1877 it aroused fears in the outgoing Grant administration.

The vote count had been the subject of an almost endless dispute that roiled the country. In fact, Hayes only got news that the vote had been finalized while en route from Ohio to Washington for his swearing in. Grant and his Secretary of State Hamilton Fish were concerned that having no president for 24 hours might leave the country vulnerable to a coup or worse. After four months of post-election conflict, the Republican leaders were ready to believe that their opponents would do what a year earlier would have been unthinkable. Hayes described in prosaic language what happened before his White House dinner with Grant:

We reached Washington about 9:30 A. M. General and Senator Sherman met us at the depot, and we were driven directly to Senator Sherman’s house. After breakfast I called with Senator Sherman on President Grant.

It was arranged that I should in the evening, before the state dinner at the White House, be sworn by the Chief Justice to prevent an interregnum between Sunday noon (the 4th) and the inauguration, Monday. This was the advice of Secretary Fish and the President. I did not altogether approve but acquiesced.

James Garfield attended the public inauguration the next day at the Capitol, apparently unaware that Hayes was already secretly sworn in. His March 5, 1877 diary entry reflects the tensions of those at the ceremony; “There were many indications of relief and joy that no accident had occured…for there were apprehensions of assassination.”

Feature Photo: Inauguration of President Hayes, showing Senate wing of the U.S. Capitol and the crowd on the lawn before it, March 5, 1877. Source: LOC

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