Ushering in the Gilded Age.

In 1876, as the United States celebrated the centennial of its independence, one of the most disputed and corrupt presidential elections in American history spelled the end of the Reconstruction era and the beginning of a new period of American history. After the Civil War, Congress stationed federal troops in the states of the former Confederacy with the intention of ensuring the rights of African Americans. In reality these troops did little for most former slaves. Instead they served mainly to keep power in the hands of Republicans loyal to the federal government and away from Democrats who had supported the Confederacy. By 1876 federal troops remained in only three southern states—Florida, South Carolina, and Louisiana—representing the vestiges of federal Reconstruction policies.

The Hayes-Tilden Controversy.

In the 1876 presidential election Republican Rutherford B. Hayes won 4,034,311 votes (47.95 percent) while his Democratic opponent, Samuel J. Tilden...