Samuel Jones Tilden ( February 9 , 1814 – August 4 , 1886 ) was the 25th Governor of New York and the Democratic candidate for president in the disputed election of 1876 . He was the first individual to win an outright majority of the popular vote in a United States presidential election but lose the election itself , though four other candidates have lost a presidential election despite garnering a plurality of the popular vote . Tilden was born into a wealthy family in New Lebanon , New York . Attracted to politics at a young age , he became a protégé of Martin Van Buren , the eighth President of the United States . After studying at Yale University and New York University School of Law , Tilden began a legal career in New York City , becoming a noted corporate lawyer . He served in the New York State Assembly and helped launch Van Buren 's third party , anti-slavery candidacy in the 1848 presidential election . Though he opposed the election of Abraham Lincoln in 1860 , Tilden supported the Union during the American Civil War . After the Civil War , Tilden was selected as the chairman of the New York State Democratic Committee , and he managed Democratic nominee Horatio Seymour 's campaign in the 1868 presidential election . Tilden initially cooperated with the state party 's Tammany Hall faction , but he broke with them in 1871 due to boss William M. Tweed 's rampant corruption . Tilden won election as Governor of New York in 1874 , and in that office he helped break up the " Canal Ring . " Tilden 's battle against public corruption , along with his personal fortune and electoral success in the country 's most populous state , made him a candidate for the Democratic nomination for president in 1876 . Tilden was selected as the Democratic Party 's nominee on the second ballot of the 1876 Democratic National Convention . In the general election , Tilden faced Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes , another governor with reform credentials . Tilden focused his campaign on civil service reform , support for the gold standard , and opposition to high taxes , but many of his supporters were more concerned with ending Reconstruction in the South
1876 Democratic National Convention
1876 Democratic National Convention
Samuel J. Tilden