Vidal Gore — Eighteen Seventy [3074]

In silence the votes of each state were read and tallied. Hayes was elected president by a single vote. Nor was the silence broken as Ferry intoned, “Wherefore, I do declare: that Rutherford B. Hayes, of Ohio, having received a majority of the whole number of electoral votes, is duly elected president of the United States for four years, commencing on the fourth day of March, 1877 …” — Vidal Gore, Eighteen Seventy, 3074

Note

The formal proclamation of Hayes’s election, combined with the lack of applause, underscores the somber mood and exhaustion of the session, capturing the weight of the political moment.