Macculloch Hall Historical Museum

The Election of 1876

Compromise

Compare and contrast the two political cartoons, "Compromise- Indeed" and "A Truce-Not a Compromise" in the Venn Diagram. Both images are available for download in the Additional Resources section below. What is the same? What is different? 

Student Engagement: Political Cartoon Venn Diagram

After Hayes was sworn in as the 19th President of the United States, Nast made a few more political cartoons expressing his thoughts on the results. Click through the slideshow below to learn about three of the political cartoons published after the election results were decided. 

Victory

Political cartoons can tell us a lot about the time they were made. They can tell us about the attitudes of people, the knowledge people had, and how events made people feel. Pick a political cartoon from the previous slideshow and answer the follow questions about it. These questions are available as a downloadable PDF at the bottom of page. 

Student Engagement: Using Political Cartoons to Understand the 1876 Election

Thomas Nast drew himself in three of the political cartoons featured in this resource kit. He drew cartoons about current events in a widely-read newspaper that many people saw. Click through the slideshow to review the images with Thomas Nast. Question to consider: What role do artists play in politics? What does that look like today?

The Artist in the Art

Artists have the power to influence people and ideas. Thomas Nast used his position as a political cartoonist to communicate his support (or disdain) for politicians, policies, and events. Pick a current event. Today what would be the most effect way to influence a viewer, a political cartoon or a meme? Create a political cartoon or meme on your current event topic. What do you want your audience to know about that event? How can you communicate your opinion? Create digitally in the space below, in a separate document or on a separate piece of paper.  

Student Engagement: Art and Politics

The months between Election Day on November 7, 1876 and Inauguration Day on March 5, 1877 were stressful for the country. Thomas Nast created political cartoons for "Harper’s Weekly" depicting the situation in the United States sometimes putting a humorous spin on this serious situation. Nast was a staunch supporter of the Republican Party at the time, though he did not like the Republican Hayes, going so far as to not depict Hayes in his political cartoons. Nast also editorially attacked the Democratic candidate Tilden. Click through the images of Nast's political cartoons on the election of 1876 on the slideshow below and consider the question: How are political cartoons useful for understanding the aftermath of the 1876 election?

Using Political Cartoons to Understand the 1876 Election

The political situation in the United States has always been dynamic. The Presidential Election of 1876 pitting the Democrat Samuel J. Tilden (1814-1886) against the Republican Rutherford B. Hayes (1822-1893) was no different. The campaign was tough for both candidates, but the real battle began after Election Day on November 7, 1876. 

The winner would not be named for almost four months after Election Day. The vote of the Electoral Commission was finally approved in the early hours of the morning on March 2, 1877. Rutherford B. Hayes was declared the President Elect just two days before inauguration. This research kit explores and answers the following questions: How can political cartoons be used for understanding the aftermath of the 1876 election? What role does compromise play in politics? What role do artists play in politics and elections? 



Macculloch Hall Historical Museum Website

The Country's Waiting Game: Thomas Nast Illustrates the Months After the 1876 Election

Civics and Government

Social Studies

U.S. History

Visual Arts

The Arts

A battered Republican Elephant concluded Nast’s coverage of the bitter presidential election of 1876 between Republican Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel Tilden. The election was the closest in American history at the time. Hayes won the election by one electoral vote, despite the fact that Tilden won a popular majority of over a quarter million. Nast depicts the Republican Elephant nursing its wounds after the Party’s close victory.

Thomas Nast drawing published in Harper's Weekly on March 24, 1877

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Another Such Victory, and I am Undone

This Nast political cartoon shows Uncle Sam on his way to bed holding a candlestick to light his way. The illustration caption reads “U.S.: The children are amused with their new Toys, and I will turn in.” Hayes was finally elected President, and a new Congress was elected. The Congress was now in recess and Uncle Sam could now rest. Until next time.

Only four times in history has a Presidential candidate lost the popular vote, but but won electoral vote to become President. Besides 1876, those times are: 

1888- Benjamin Harris beat Grover Cleveland

*In 1824 neither candidate won a majority of the electoral votes so the House of Representatives selected the President, John Quincy Adams.

Thomas Nast drawing published in Harper's Weekly on April 7, 1877

New donation from the Estate of John Adler

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Our Uncle Sam Going to Take a Rest

The post-Civil War Reconstruction period intended to heal the nation politically and economically was generally accepted as a failure by 1877. The presence of federal troops in the South more than a decade after the Civil War offended the citizenry. Military administration fostered corrupt local politics throughout the former Confederacy. Most significantly, the result of the heavy-handedness of Northern liberal Reconstruction, as 

 reported in this issue on May 5, 1877 for which Nast illustrated this cover, was that “instead of protecting the negro, the policy inflamed against him still more bitterly the feeling of the white and drew the color line more and more deeply.” The newly elected President Rutherford B. Hayes was left little choice but to abandon Reconstruction.

Nast championed the promise of civil rights for former enslaved people and was unsure if the new President’s policies would support this idea. In this front-page cartoon, Nast was able to admit his quick temper on the subject and use Uncle Sam to poke fun at his own indignation:

Uncle Sam says: Our artist must keep cool, and sit down, and see how it works.

Nast depicts Uncle Sam telling him to practice patience and give the President’s policies a chance.

How does seeing political cartoons from Thomas Nast's perspective and opinion affect the information you learn about this topic?

Thomas Nast drawing published on the front page of Harper's Weekly on May 5, 1877

Donated by Nancy C. and Thomas A. Cantwell

Resource Kits

Object Library

Museums

The Country's Waiting Game: Thomas Nast Illustrates the Months After the 1876 Election

Victory

Another Such Victory, and I am Undone