Some historians, such as Allan Peskin, argue that the assurances given to some Southern Democrats to prevent a Filibuster were not a compromise, but an obvious conclusion, because Tilden did not receive enough support. [8] Peskin admits that Woodward`s interpretation has been accepted almost everywhere in the quarter century since its publication. Since all the terms of the agreement were not respected, Peskin felt that in 1877 there was really no agreement between North and South. He also suggests that the Northern Democrats were more important than those in the South in eliminating the Filibuster. Samuel J. Randall (D-Pennsylvania), for example, was the speaker of the House of Representatives and prevented the Filibuster. He was more interested in abandoning the government of the radical states in Louisiana than in all the southern railroads. [8] Regardless of what happened on the site, formally speaking, the 1876 election was not decided by such laws, but by the official vote of Congress to accept the recommendations of the electoral commission that they themselves had put in place to get out of the election outcome. When the commission was created, it was expected that its decisions would be accepted by Congress. It was only when some Democrats disagreed with the Commission`s decisions in favour of Hayes that these regulations were compromised. This Democratic group has threatened a filibuster (including Republicans and the Democratic leadership of Congress) that would prevent the agreed vote. Discussions on the points of the so-called compromise were aimed at persuading the main Democrats to accept a filibuster.
The threat of a filibuster – a measure used by a minority to prevent a vote – already indicates that there have already been enough votes in favour of adopting the Commission`s recommendations. [11] Immediately after the presidential elections of 1876, it became clear that the outcome of the race depended largely on the controversial returns of Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina – the only three southern states where Republican governments of the reconstruction era were still in power. In early 1877, when a bipartisan congressional committee debated the result, allies of Republican candidate Rutherford Hayes secretly met with moderate Southern Democrats to negotiate the passage of Hayes` election. Democrats agreed not to block Hayes` victory on condition that Republicans withdraw all federal troops from the South and consolidate democratic control of the region. Following the compromise of 1877 (or compromise of 1876), Florida, Louisiana and South Carolina became democratic again, ending the era of reconstruction.