Hayes 's success in Ohio immediately elevated him to the top ranks of Republican politicians under consideration for the presidency in 1876 . The Ohio delegation to the 1876 Republican National Convention was united behind him , and Senator John Sherman did all in his power to bring Hayes the nomination . In June 1876 , the convention assembled with James G. Blaine of Maine as the favorite . Blaine started with a significant lead in the delegate count , but could not muster a majority . As he failed to gain votes , the delegates looked elsewhere for a nominee and settled on Hayes on the seventh ballot . The convention selected Representative William A. Wheeler from New York for vice president , a man about whom Hayes had recently asked , " I am ashamed to say : who is Wheeler ? " The Democratic nominee was Samuel J. Tilden , the Governor of New York . Tilden was considered a formidable adversary who , like Hayes , had a reputation for honesty . Also like Hayes , Tilden was a hard-money man and supported civil service reform . In accordance with the custom of the time , the campaign was conducted by surrogates , with Hayes and Tilden remaining in their respective home towns . The poor economic conditions made the party in power unpopular and made Hayes suspect that he might lose the election . Both candidates concentrated on the swing states of New York and Indiana , as well as the three southern states — Louisiana , South Carolina , and Florida — where Reconstruction Republican governments still barely ruled , amid recurring political violence , including widespread efforts to suppress freedman voting . The Republicans emphasized the danger of letting Democrats run the nation so soon after southern Democrats had provoked the Civil War and , to a lesser extent , the danger a Democratic administration would pose to the recently won civil rights of southern blacks . Democrats , for their part , trumpeted Tilden 's record of reform and contrasted it with the corruption of the incumbent Grant administration
1876 Republican National Convention
1876 Republican National Convention
Rutherford B. Hayes