​So David Davis being the only independent to break the tie in the Electoral Commission had the entire election to himself. This was a bad look for him, he was an independent and siding with either party will make him look like he was bought out. But he was given the excuse of the century to recuse himself from the commission. The same day the Electoral Commission Act was approved by the Senate the Democratic controlled state legislature of Illinois voted to elect David Davis as a Senator. At this time, before the 17th Amendment, state legislatures elected their Senators in congress. The next day the House approved of the Electoral Commission Act believing that they have duped the Republicans (a majority of Republicans in the House voting against the bill despite the majority of Republicans in the Senate voting for it), however there was a twist in the story, David Davis recused himself from participating in the Electoral Commission. So the commission was officially established by congress to decide the election and immediately the only independent person on the commission was bribed by the Democrats and then he recused himself, taking away the only chance the Democrats had at winning the election. The Democrats shot themselves in the foot. The Supreme Court replaced David Davis with a Republican Justice since the only two Democrat Justices were already on the commission. This gave the Republicans the deciding vote. The commission would meet for a month and every vote they had all Republicans voted for Hayes and all Democrats voted for Tilden. The Democrats never voted for Hayes all the way till Hayes' inauguration. The Democrats in the House tried to dismiss the decision of the Electoral Commission. The Electoral Commission had to decide for each of the four states separately, there was one ballot from Oregon that was challenged, and each of these decisions would be certified by both Houses in Congress, however, both Houses would need to reject a decision to dismiss it completely. If one House supported the decision then the decision would be counted. The House of Representatives rejected every decision that the Electoral Commission made regarding the Electoral vote of the four states with multiple ballots; but since the Senate approved the decisions of the Electoral Commission, which all counted Hayes as the winner by a vote of 8-7, and only one House is needed for approval, Hayes won all four states. The Democrats in the House did not stop there when challenging the electoral count; they claimed that more states, which voted for Hayes, had false ballots including Michigan, Nevada, Pennsylvania, Rhode Island, Vermont, and lastly Wisconsin. The Senate did not object to the count of these states since there was only one ballot from these states; since both Houses are needed to object to a ballot count, these counts went to Hayes. The delay tactic of the Democrats pushed Wisconsin's count to 4:00 AM on March 2, 1877, which is the time that Hayes was declared the winner. This shows that the Democrats rejected the election results all the way and at no point did the Democrats vote for Hayes, making him the winner. No compromise or "corrupt bargain" was needed for the Republicans to win. There is no space for the Democrats to switch their vote for Hayes cause they rejected the count all the way to the last second.

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I left Tilden and Hayes out of this because they literally did nothing during this time. Especially Tilden who stayed home the entire time and refused to speak with anyone. They had nothing to do with the outcome of the election. There is no primary document nor even an eye witness to any “corrupt bargain” with Hayes saying that he would end Reconstruction if he was elected. Reconstruction was already ending; the end started with Grant’s second term, as more former Confederates were enfranchised they replaced their republican controlled state legislatures and their Representatives and Senators in Congress with Democrats. Only three states still had a military occupation and a provisional government and those were the states of South Carolina, Florida, and Louisiana. The only three states that had multiple ballots sent from the South, very coincidental. Florida’s military occupation and provincial government ended before Hayes was declared winner. So when Hayes was inaugurated president only two states were occupied. He ended their occupation a few months after his inauguration. There was no bargain, the Republicans had already given up on Reconstruction due to the failures and corruption of the Grant presidency. Many staunch Republicans began to quiet their voices on the issue of civil rights even though the Republican Party platform of 1876 declared that securing civil rights was their main mission. Hayes said during his campaign that he would return "home rule" to the South but that he was also a defender of Black Civil Rights.

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Justice David Davis resigned as Justice and accepted his Senatorial seat as the only Independent in the Senate. Although he gave the election to the Republicans by recusing himself, the Democrats, especially in Illinois, apparently loved him and respected him even voting to make him President pro tempore in the Senate instead of voting for a Democrat. 

 

It was a weird and depressing end to a movement that gripped the nation for 12 years since the Death of Lincoln. Civil rights would be under attack after the election of Garfield and Arthur when the supreme court in 1883, without David Davis, ruled that the civil rights act of 1875 was unconstitutional, ending the first civil rights movement for Black Americans. 

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