CUBAN REVOLUTIONARIES AND THE 1876 ELECTION DISPUTE. By JERRELL H. SHOFNER Mr. Shofner is Associate Professor of History, Florida State University.

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1 t CUBAN REVOLUTONARES AND THE 1876 ELECTON DSPUTE By JERRELL H. SHOFNER Mr. Shofner s Assocate Professor of Hstory, Florda State Unversty. r. On October 10, 1876, Frank Wcker, charman of the Monroe County, Florda, Republcan executve commttee, wrote Presden tal canddate Rutherford B. Hayes that " have taken the lberty of assurng [the Cubans] of your frendshp for the cause of 'Cuba Lbre,' and a telegram from you whch could be read to them before the electon would be of great beneft. They are a very mpulsve and exctable people, but not gven to enthusasm for any great length of tme." Wcker was referrng to the more than four thousand Cuban mmgrants who had come to Key West from ther natve sland snce a volent revoluton began there n About 1,03 2 of them were regstered voters ntendng to partcpate n the forthcomng Presdental electon between Republcan Rutherford B. Hayes and Democrat Samuel J. Tlden. About the tme of the revoluton Martnez Ybor had moved hs cgar factory from Cuba to Key West because of contnung dffcultes wth labor unons on the Spansh-owned sland. Others followed hm. Many of the mmgrants to Florda were permanent settlers comng to work n the emergng cgar ndustry at Key West. Many others, however, had been drven from ther homeland by the ravages of cvl war and the bloody efforts of the Spanards to suppress t. Most of these also ntended to stay n the Unted States and become ctzens, but a szable number were merely awatng the restoraton of peace to return to ther homes. And some were resdng n Key West smply because t was a convenent base from whch to launch rads on the Spanards n Cuba. Because Amercan electons were conducted on local as well as natonal ssues, the queston of Cuban ndependence was more mportant on the sland of Key West than that of whether a Democrat or a Republcan succeeded Ulysses S. Grant n the Whte House on March 4,1877. t was for ths reason that Wcker was earnestly tryng to enlst Rutherford Hayes at least temporarly n the cause of Cuban ndependence. That was the way he could best delver the local vote for the Republcan Party on November 7,1876. The dsputed Presdental electon of 1876, however, s not remembered as a factor n the long struggle for Cuban ndependence. t has ntrgued hstorans and students of Amercan poltcs for nearly a century because t straned the naton's electoral process to ts lmts and frghtened many patrotc ctzens n to belevng that the system was about to fal. For nearly four months (from November 7, 1876, to March 2, 1877) the outcome of the Presdental electon was unknown. Busness was adversely affected by the stalemate and busnessmen clamored for a settlement. Some Democratc governors threatened to use state mltas to seat Samuel J. Tlden by force. Joseph Pultzer called for 100,000 armed Democrats to march on Washngton. Presdent Grant strengthened the armed forces around the natonal captal. t was the worst crss to whch the Presdental electon system has ever been subjected. But cooler heads were busly tryng to work out a compromse. Ther task was a dffcult one. The naton had been dvded for the past sxteen years by a bloody cvl war followed by a volent perod of reconstructon n whch the natonal government had ncurred the wrath of most Southern whtes for tryng to rebuld ther socety to gve newly-freed Negroes a place n t. Republcan partes emerged n 21

2 . each of the Southern states wth predomn,l1tly black votng strength and whte leaders who were contemptuously referred to by most natve Southerners as "carpetbaggers" and "scalawags." Hostlty toward black voters forced natve whtes of dverse poltcal backgrounds to unte as Conservltve-Democrats aganst these RepUblcan partes and attempt to restore whte supremacy or "home rule." Electons became volent epsodes n many Southern states and fraudulent votng was commonplace. Gradually blacks were bludgeoned or ntmdated nto submsson and natve whtes actng through the Democratc Party reganed control of all the former Confederate states except Florda, Lousana and South Carolna. n ths btter context the 1876 Presden tal electon took place. The scandals of the Grant admnstraton sent the Republcan natonal nomnatng conventon searchng for a reformer as ther canddate and Rutherford B. Hayes, the three-term Governor of Oho, was nomnated. Hs Democratc opponent was Samuel J. Tlden, Governor of New York, who also had a reform mage_ Wth such smlar canddates, the partes resorted to personal attacks. The Republcans warned voters that Democrats could not be trusted because of ther former dentfcaton wth those who had broken up the Unon. By the tme the electon was held on November 7, people were angrly aroused over the same ssues whch had dvded the country snce Notng that the electon was gong to be very close, poltcal observers remarked on the ntense sectonal anmostes whch the campagn had aroused. The New York Tmes prophetcally observed n late October that wth passons so aroused t would be unfortunate f a dsputed electon occurred. The paper ponted out that there was no machnery establshed by Congress to decde between conflctng certfcates of electon from a sngle state and that the mood of the naton was not conducve to compromse f such duplcate certfcates should be sent to Washngton for countng. When the polls closed and unoffcal returns began to be reported on November 7, t appeared that Tlden and the Democratc Party had won the Presdency. Nearly every newspaper n the country except the New York 22 Tmes declared Tlden the wnner. The Tmes mcrely noted that the electon was n doubt. And ndeed t was. Electon to the Presdency n 1876 requred 185 electoral votes and t appeared that Tlden had receved 184 whch no one questoned. Hayes had 166 undsputed votes. No one was sure who had receved the nneteen electoral votes of Florda, Lousana and South Carolna. Snce Tlden needed only one of them to wn and Hayes had to have them all, the Democrats were comparatvely optmstc about ther stuaton. That the dsputed electoral votes were n the three Southern states where Republcan regmes were stll n offce was crucal. Dsorderly electons, fraudulent practces n countng the votes and alteratons by electon boards were common n those states, but the Republcans had a dstnct advantage. Each of the contested states had a canvassng board, apponted by the governor, wth power to revew all county returns, reject those beleved to be fraudulent or erroneous, determne the outcome of the electon and declare the results. Both natonal partes sent promnent representatves to Tallahassee, Baton Rouge and Columba to watch the boards' proceedngs and protect ther respectve party nterests. Volence and grossly fraudulent electon returns had marred both the Lousana and South Carolna electons whle t was vrtually mpossble to tell how much the presence of federal troops had nfluenced the South Carolna electon or how many thousands of votes had been affected by Democratc volence n Lousana, the canvassng boards n both states altered enough county returns to declare Hayes the wnner. Most hstorans agree that an unfettered ejecton n both these states would have produced the same results. The Florda case was dfferent from the other two. Both sdes had resorted to ntmdaton and other llegal acts, but the electon was much more orderly and less volent than n South Carolna and Lousana. Both sdes had kept a close watch on regstraton lsts durng the campagn and had poll watchers at every ballot box to prevent llegal votng. Snce the electon had been closely scrutnzed by both sdes at every level, t was dffcult for llegaltes to go undetected. Wth a two to one majorty of the state canvassng board, the Republcans had an advantage n Florda just as n the other two states, but ther actons had to be plausble enough to satsfy an aroused and nterested publc. By the tme the canvassng board convened n Tallahassee on November 27, the eyes of the naton were fxed on ts every move. Both partes n Florda ssued boastful clams of vctory by as much as 2,000 votes, but as the returns began drftng n from the county seats, t was clear that the electon would be decded by a mere handful of votes. Wllam E. Chandler, New Hampshre Senator and Republcan natonal commttee secretary, who supervsed Republcan efforts n Tallahassec, wrote Hayes that he was afrad the Democrats had a small majorty. The canvassng board's procedural rules for conductng ts count were a crtcal matter. t was agreed that the returns from all thrty-nne countes would be called off n alphabetcal order and the ntal results would be counted and recorded merely as a prelmnary total whch was subject to possble future alteraton. As the county names were called off each sde would have an opportunty to protest the results and ts arguments would be heard later. The board would consder all the arguments offered and make such alteratons as t deemed proper before ssung ts fnal, offcal count. Durng the prelmnary count, each of the county returns was challenged by one of the partes, but the result showed a Republcan majorty of 43 votes out of about 48,000 cast. These fgures were telegraphed all over the country and prnted n newspapers as representng the vote of Florda. Many changes were made n the ntal count durng the next few days and the offcal vote showed Hayes the vctor by several hundred votes. The apparent reason for the dfference was that the Republcan state canddates had run so far behnd Hayes that the forty-three vote margn n hs favor would have left them defeated by the Democratc canddates for state offces. Snce the state canvassng board members had no wsh to see the Democrats replacng them n offce, they threw out enough opposton votes to fnd a majorty for the Republcan state tcket as well as Hayes. But

3 , 1 n dong so, they acted wth such flagrant dsregard of proprety that the Florda Supreme Court vacated ther decson and gave the state electon to the Democrats whle leavng Hayes's electoral vctory ntact. The narrow forty-three vote margn on the ntal count thus played a decsve role. There s no way to be certan how many of the 1,032 Cubans regstered to vote n Monroe County, Florda, n 1876 were alen revolutonares ntent on eventually returnng to Cuba and how many were bona fde future Unted States ctzens. But that a number of those regstered were Cuban natonals fghtng the Spanards from ther Key West base s certan. There were also several transent Negro laborers from the Bahamas who were regstered to vote n the electon. Both groups rased the re of edtors on the manland. The Republcan Tallahassee Sentnel, belevng that the Cubans were hostle to ts canddate, declared that the Cubans and Nassau Negroes at Key West "are not naturalzed and therefore cannot vote." The Tampa Trbune and the Montcello Consttuton, both Democratc papers, protested the possblty of alens from the two slands partcpatng n the electon. The Tallahassee Flordan, whose well-nformed Democratc edtor hoped for a whle that hs party would beneft from the foregn voters, was more moderate. ts edtorals ponted out that t was entrely legtmate for a person to vote who had lved n the state for one year and declared hs ntenton of becomng a ctzen. t hastened to add that "permanent abode" was the test and no one had ntended that "foregners seekng temporary refuge on our shores from oppresson should be allowed to control our state." There was never any lkelhood that the number of Cuban natonals who voted were sgnfcant enough to "control the state," but t s entrely possble that they were enough to nfluence the Presdental electon. Whether they were bona fde settlers ntent on workng n the cgar factores located at Key West or merely temporary vstors usng the sland as a base for operatons aganst the Spanards, thousands of Cubans mmgrated from ther natve sland to Florda durng the ten-year revoluton whch lasted from 1868 to There were nearly 5,000 of them there n All were elgble to declare ther nlenton of becomng Unted States ctzens and takng out frst papers as soon as they arrved. One year later they would be elgble to regster and vote. These mmgrants were responsble for consderable exctement on the sland after 1868 and "Cuba Lbre" became the domnant poltcal ssue. Just as poltcans n the northeastern part of the country at the tme were "twstng the Brtsh lon's tal" for the beneft of the rsh voters n Northern ctes, Florda poltcans cast a few verbal stones at Span and made known ther support of Cuban ndependence. Whle most of the Cubans favored ndependence, there were enough pro Spanards at Key West to cause consderable dsrupton when the two groups met. The Spansh consulate n Key West was a frequent target of the revolutonary sympathzers. The mltary commander at Fort Taylor was alerted on several occasons to the possblty that some of them planned to cut the telegraph cable from Cuba to Key West. When Gonzalo Castanon, edtor of the nfluental pro-spansh newspaper, Voz de Cuba, came to Key West to speak to a group, he was met at the dock by an ncensed crowd whch was barely restraned from volence by a solder escort. On the followng day he was klled n a shootout n a Key West hotel. Tempers were at fever ptch whle former Confederate Secretary of the Navy Stephen R. Mallory escorted the edtor's body back to Havana for bural. By 1872 the Cubans were a powerful force n Monroe County poltcs. They decded the local electons n that year and agan n Wth 1,032 of them regstered to vote n 1876, no serous poltcan dared to leave Key West off hs campagn tnerary or fal to make frequent reference to hs desre for Cuban ndependence. Florda's representatves n Congress made several speeches n favor of the Cuban cause, both state partes mentoned t n ther campagn platforms and the legslature passed resolutons supportng t. There was good reason for ths solctous cultvaton of the Cubans at Key West. The Republcans and Democrats were so closely dvded n Florda that a thousand voters could very well decde the outcome of a statewde electon. The Cubans were at frst sympathetc wth the Florda Republcan Party. But wth the Democrats chppng away at ther tenuous hold on Florda's state government after 1872, the Republcans wasted much of ther energy on ntra-party bckerng whch, among other thngs, cost them some of the support they had enjoyed from the Cubans. The most mportant Cuban polcy-makng body was the local Junta whch was heavly nfluenced by the New York Junta. But as Florda poltcans began vyng for ther support as ndvduals rather than party members, the Cubans tended more often to dsagree and the lkelhood of a Cuban bloc vote was correspondngly dmnshed. After 1873 one of the several Republcan ntra-party rvalres was between Governor Marcellus L. Stearns and Unted States Senator Smon B. Conover. The Senator was better able to attract Cuban support because he could help them obtan a share of the numerous federal appontments n the custom house, marne hosptal and navy yard at Key West. Conover and Florda Congressman Wllam J. Purman, n whose dstrct Key West was located, were alarmed when a szable number of Key West Cubans voted the Democratc tcket n Anxous for ther undvded support n the 1876 contest, the two men began tryng to satsfy Cuban desres for publc offce early n the year. Two of the most nfluental Cuban leaders were Manuel Govn and C. M. de Cespedes. Both of them were naturalzed ctzens who had lved n the Unted States several years and both had held offces n the Unted States customs servce. Unfortunately they had also been removed from offce for malfeasance. t appeared that they had mshandled publc funds and that Senator Conover had been nvolved wth them. But resttuton of the money had been made and no charges were fled. Flordans were understandably astounded when Manuel Gavn was suddenly apponted to the vacant postmastershp of Jacksonvlle n Ths most desrable of all postal jobs n the state was coveted by several powerful East Florda poltcans who consdered t a possesson of ther regon. Ether tremendous audacty or dre necessty motvated the Florda delegaton to gve the poston to a man whose poltcal base was so far 23

4 removed from that Republcan stronghold. Govn's appontment was consdered absolutely necessary f the Cuban vote was to be delvered to the Republcan Party n Conover and Purman encountered more dffculty n fndng another appontment for Cespedes. The only sutable poston was n the customs offce from whch he had already been removed for cause_ Collector Alva A. Knght. who had been mmensely releved to be rd of both Gavn and Cespedes, was reluctant to agree to the re-appontment of the Cuban poltcal boss_ But Purman and Conover nssted. Wth the Senator's endorsement, Purman wrote- Knght, whose own job was an appontve one and therefore vulnerable, that "the appontment of Cespedes s utterly mperatve and cannot be deferred any longer. Acton s a poltcal necessty. and f you do not [appont hm], wll be forced Key West to the concluson that you are unfrendly to my poltcal nterests... By ths wll judge your frendshp towards myself and vce versa." Knght squrmed under the pressure bu t stuck to hs orgnal decson. Both Govn and Cespedes worked dlgently for the Republcan tcket n Key West n At the RepUblcan state nomnatng conventon, Governor Stearns won renomnaton n an angry, dsorderly battle wth Senator Conover who also sought the gubernatoral post. Unsuccessful n the conventon the Senator accepted the nomnaton of a rump meetng and the Republcans had two gubernatoral canddates campagnng across the state. Conover fnally wthdrew from the race n early September at the nsstence of the natonal Republcan commttee whch felt that the state dvson was hurtng Hayes's chances of wnnng the Presdency. Out of the race, Conover stll retaned a szable amount of support among the Key West Cubans whose dsdan for Stearns made t dffcult for them to work up much enthusasm for the Republcan cause. Wth the Cuban voters so undecded, both state partes spent a dsproportonate amount of tme on speakng engagements at Key West. Purman, who was fghtng for hs own poltcal lfe, urged Govn and Cespedes to work for Hayes's electon as well as hs own and they dutfully compled. But he dd not stop there. A defunct Spansh language newspaper, El Republcano, was revved to appeal for Cuban support. Recognzng the nfluence of the New York junta on the local Cuban leaders, Purman also vsted that group and asked ts endorsement for the Republcan tcket. But he was beatcll to New York by the Democrats. llustratons: Strozer Lbrary, Florda State Unversty f=='1 =====:" ~----"'"'----"--~'"-""" :. :

5 J George D. Allen, a longtme resdent of Key West who had been a Republcan before swtchng to the Democrats n 1872, wrote George M. Lapham, a New York acquantance who had the respect of the Junta n that cty, askng hm to ntercede n behalf of the Key West Democrats. Lapham conferred wth General Aldance, head of the New York Junta, and convnced hm that the Democratc Party was a frend to Cuban ndependence. The General endorsed the Democratc Presdental tcket n a letter to the Key West Junta. Although t was late n the campagn when the letter was receved, a Cuban Democratc club was organzed and was clamng about 300 members before the electon. The Democratc club may have over-estmated ts membershp, but t frghtened the local Republcan leaders. t was at ths tme that Wcker wrote the prevously mentoned letter to Rutherford Hayes askng for the pre-electon telegram. There were 2,828 voters regstered n Monroe County n 1876, nearly all of whom lved n Key West. Almost a thousand of them were natve whtes, about 800 were natve Negroes and a few were Bahama blacks erroneously regstered for the electon. Cubans who were regstered numbered slghtly over a thousand. Wcker clamed a membershp of 832 for the Cuban Republcan club, and the Democrats clamed 300 members for thers. Someone was exaggeratng slghtly, but the estmates were not far wrong. There s no way to tell exactly how many Cubans voted for each party, nor s t clear how many were future Unted States ctzens and how many were revolutonares lvng n exle. But t s clear that the Cubans splt ther votes wth a mnorty supportng Samuel J. Tlden and the Democratc state tcket. The electon took place n an atmosphere of exctement wth some alleged voter ntmdaton and rregular conduct on the part of electon offcals, but there was no volence. Only 2,027 of the 2,828 regstered voters cast ther ballots. The Democrats carred Monroe County by the slm margn of 1,047 to 980. The returns were talled by the county canvassng board and forwarded to Tallahassee where they were receved along wth the returns from the other thrty-eght countes. On ts ntal count of the votes from the county returns, the canvassng board found the slght majorty of 43 votes whch was mentoned earler. t was that ntal majorty whch ultmately sustaned Hayes's electoral vctory n Florda. Wthout the Cuban votes he would never have receved even that narrow majorty. When the electoral college met on December 6, the votes of Florda, Lousana and South Carolna were all cast for Hayes and certfcates to that effect were forwarded to the Presdent of the Unted States Senate. Democrats n each of the contested states also sent electoral certfcates proclamng Tlden's vctory. t was these duplcate certfcates whch threw the naton nto the four-month quandary whch some people thought mght result n a renewal of the Cvl War. The problem was a consttutonal one. The Presdental artcle merely stated that the electoral certfcates were to be opened by the Presdent of the Senate n the presence of both houses of Congress jontly assembled and "the votes shall then be counted." But t dd not say who was to count them and that was the decsve pont. f Republcan Senator Thomas W. Ferry were to do so as the Republcans sad he should, he would smply count the Hayes certfcates and gnore the Democratc ones. The Democrats sad that the House of Representatves whch had a Democratc majorty should decde snce no canddate had a clear majorty. A jont commttee of Congress met n December and eventually came up wth an acceptable compromse. An electoral commsson of ffteen members, chosen from both houses of Congress and the Supreme Court was to decde between the contested certfcates. t ultmately decded by a partsan vote of eght Republcans to seven Democrats that Republcan Rutherford B. Hayes had been elected to the Presdency n Meanwhle, rumors spread that the Democrats would not abde peacefully by such a decson. Hurred conferences were held between promnent men on both sdes and another compromse was worked out. Under Congressonal authorty there were federal troops statoned n Baton Rouge and Columba protectng Republcan state admnstratons aganst contestng Democratc ones. Ths was a stuaton whch Southerners desperately wanted ended. Accordngly, t was decded, among other thngs, that f Hayes would agree to remove the troops from the two Southern captals when he became Presdent, the Democrats would not oppose hs nauguraton. Hayes was naugurated on March 5, 1877 and about sx weeks later he wthdrew the solders. Snce ths was the last tme that federal mltary authorty was used for purposes of reconstructng the South after the Cvl War, the peaceful resoluton of the dsputed Presdental electon has long been regarded as the "compromse of 1877" and the end of Reconstructon. The electon crss made evdent the shortcomngs of the electoral college system and for a whle there was a dscusson of changng t. But many people ponted wth prde at the controversy and applauded the Amercan people for fndng a peaceful soluton and abdng by the outcome rather than stagng a volent revoluton as mght have been done n countres where the democratc process was less frmly establshed. Lttle was sad about the lax voter regstraton rules n the states, where total authorty for regulatng electons rested. Nor was there much comment about the dsparty between the local ssues over whch Amercans often dvded at home and whch frequently nfluenced the way they voted on the natonal electons. Whle Reconstructon of the South was an ssue whch overshadowed local ssues n many places across the country n 1876, the Key West electon turned on the unrelated queston of "Cuba Lbre." Whether t was revolutonares n exle or future ctzens of the Unted States, about a thousand of the people who cast votes on that sland on November 7, 1876 were more concerned wth Cuban ndependence than whether a Republcan or a Democrat won the Presdency. f they had not gone to the polls, there s every lkelhood that Hayes would not have receved hs mnscule 43 vote majorty on the Florda canvassng board's ntal count. Wthout that boost to ther cause, the Republcan vstng statesmen would probably have been unable to place Florda n ther column for the Presdental electon. f they had faled n that, there would have been no dsputed electon of 1876, and Rutherford B. Hayes would not have become Presdent. j 25