-Caveat Lector- >Along the Color Line > >December 2000 > >Stealing the Election: The Compromises of 1876 and 2000 > >By Manning Marable <[EMAIL PROTECTED]> > > We have just witnessed, in the United States, >the massive and wholesale theft of the presidency. Yet the >fraudulent political dynamics that propelled loser George W. >Bush into the White House have happened before. A political >philosopher once observed that history always repeats itself >twice -- the first time as tragedy, and the second time as >farce. The seeds of the current electoral debacle are >found in the past. > > Back in 1876, the Civil War had been over for only >eleven years. Black men had finally won the right to vote, >but Southern whites were vigorously attempting to regain >their power over their state legislatures. Deep sectional >antagonisms still divided the nation, with the industrial >and commercial North mostly supporting Republicans, and >the White South supporting the Democrats. The Republican >presidential candidate in 1876 was Rutherford B. Hayes, >the governor of Ohio. Hayes was widely viewed as being >handicapped by the governmental scandals and corruption >during the administration of two-term President Ulysses >S. Grant. > > The Democratic challenger, Governor Samuel J. >Tilden of New York, was widely favored to defeat Hayes. In >the general election in November 1876, Tilden appeared to be >the victor. He carried the national popular vote by 300,000. >In the Electoral College, Tilden won 184 votes, to only 165 >votes for Hayes, with twenty disputed electoral votes hanging >in the balance. If Tilden had received only one of the >disputed electoral votes, he would have been declared >the winner. Hayes needed to win all 20 disputed >electoral votes to become president. > > Compounding the national crisis were widespread >allegations of voter fraud, especially in Florida. There was >evidence of ballot tampering, with hundreds of ballots being >destroyed or never counted. The political stalemate over who >would become president threatened to plunge the country into >a second Civil War. Only several days prior to the date set >for the presidential inauguration, a deal was reached >between Republicans and Democrats. > > The "Compromise" of the election of 1876 actually >represented a kind of electoral coup d'etat. The Republican >candidate Hayes was selected to become president. The >Federal government pulled thousands of Union troops out of >the South, where they had been stationed since the fall of >the Confederacy more than a decade earlier. The Compromise >stated that the principle of states' rights would determine >the future legal and political status of African Americans. >In the language of that era, the so-called "Negro Question" >was to become a "Southern Question." The white South was >given a free hand to set the parameters of black freedom. > > The consequences of the Compromise of 1876-1877 were >profound and long-lasting. A Civil Rights Act which had been >passed by Congress in 1875 was repealed in 1883. Jim Crow >segregation was soon institutionalized throughout the South. >Hundreds of thousands of African American men were purged >from voters rolls, or were denied the right to cast ballots >by local police intimidation and literacy restrictions. White >vigilante violence was widely employed to suppress the black >community, as five thousand African Americans were lynched >in the South over the next four decades. The Supreme Court >confirmed the racist principle of "separate but equal" with >its legal decision Plessy v. Ferguson in 1896. It would take >nearly a century for black America to recover. > > Now consider the political parallels between 1876 >and last year's presidential election. Once again, deep >sectional and demographic divisions were reflected within >the national electorate. The industrial Northeast and Midwest, >and the Pacific states were heavily Democratic; the South, >West, and rural America were overwhelmingly Republican. Al >Gore, the Democratic presidential candidate in 2000, had >served nearly his entire adult life as a public official >-- first as Congressman and Senator from Tennessee, and >subsequently as Vice President. He was, however, widely >viewed as being handicapped by the scandals connected with >the two-term president then in office, Bill Clinton. George >W. Bush, the Governor of Texas, was chosen as the Republican >presidential candidate, and was largely assumed to be the >favorite to win. > > In the presidential election of 2000, most exit >polls indicated that Gore had won. He carried the national >popular vote by nearly one half million votes over Bush. >Gore's lead in the Electoral College was 267 to 246 >votes, with Florida's 25 electoral votes in dispute. > > It was as if two distinctly separate nations had >voted in America in November 2000. There was a "gender gap," >as Gore received 12 percentage points more from women that >male voters. The "racial gap" was even more profound. Ninety >percent of all African-American voters supported Gore, versus >a meager eight percent endorsing Bush. About two-thirds of >all Latinos and the majority of Asian Americans voted for >Gore. By contrast, white America clearly saw Bush as its >favorite son. Fifty-three percent of all whites supported >Bush. More than seventy percent of all Southern whites >voted for Bush and religious conservatives endorsed the >Republicans by a four to one margin. Neither Gore nor >President Clinton, a former Governor from Arkansas, >were able to carry their own states. > > Just as in the election of 1876, there was evidence >of massive voter fraud, especially in Florida. In Florida's >Palm Beach County, 19,000 ballots were thrown out. In Duval >County, 27,000 ballots were declared void. Over 12,000 of >these discounted votes came from only four districts that >have over 90 percent African-American voters. In some >majority black precincts, over 30 percent of all votes were >actually thrown out! Thousands of African Americans who had >registered and were legally qualified to vote were not >permitted to do so, because they were erroneously listed >as having been convicted of a felony. There were dozens >of documented cases of blacks going to the polls who >were stopped or harassed by local cops. > > Over thirty percent of all African-American adult >males in Florida are disenfranchised for life, because of >the anti-democratic restrictions against ex-felons. Most >Florida Republicans would like to restrict the voting >rights of the other 70 percent as well. In fact, Florida >State House Speaker Tom Feeney, who had insisted that the >Republican-controlled legislature should select a Bush slate >of Electors no matter who actually won the state's popular >vote, also suggested the reinstatement of "literacy tests," >the legal tool of segregationists. Feeney stated to reporters: >"Voter confusion is not a reason for whining or crying or >having a revote. It may be a reason to require literacy >tests." > > The election of 2000 was decided not by the popular >will of voters, but in Washington, D.C., by a narrow >five-four conservative majority of Supreme Court justices. >Chief Justice William Rehnquist's refusal to acknowledge >evidence of blatant voter fraud against African Americans >was no surprise. Back in 1962, when Rehnquist was a young >attorney in Arizona, he led a group of Republican lawyers >who systematically challenged the right of minority voters >to cast their ballots in that state. Called "Operation Eagle >Eye," Rehnquist successfully disenfranchised hundreds of >black and brown voters in Phoenix's poor and working >class precincts. In 2000, Rehnquist supervised the >disenfranchisement, in effect, of the majority of >American voters. > > Under no conditions can George W. Bush be considered >the legitimate president of the United States. The Supreme >Court has certified an electoral robbery in Florida. Gore >was elected by the plurality of America's voters, but Bush >was selected by the courts. As columnist Julianne Malveaux >has quipped, perhaps instead of saying "Hail to the Chief," >we should salute the faux President with "Hail to the Thief." >History has repeated itself, and it is up to us to challenge >this "Compromise of 2000," which threatens to usher in a new >period of racial inequality. >---- >Dr. Manning Marable is Professor of History and Political >Science, and the Director of the Institute for Research in >African-American Studies, Columbia University. He is also a >National Co-Chair of the Black Radical Congress. The views >and opinions expressed in this article are his own. > >"Along the Color Line" is distributed free of charge to over >350 publications throughout the U.S. and internationally. > >Copyright (c) 2000-2001 Manning Marable. 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