Two slices--one political and one culinary--from 1876, a novel about American politics, media and manners in the age of America's centennial.

The novel 1876, written in 1976, in part covers the controversial presidential election that marred our nation's centennial year--an election ultimately decided by a congressional electoral commission, echoes of which were heard by those who know history in the scandalously corrupt 2000 presidential election.

Admittedly, the Electoral College--that ridiculous invention of the founders--can be manipulated to some degree but not sufficiently at this late hour to cheat the people of what they have so overwhelmingly voted for: the Tilden Administration.

On the floor beside the table I saw a newspaper slip…. With difficulty, I picked it up. A statement from Governor Hayes in Ohio…. "I am of the opinion that the Democrats have carried the country and elected Tilden . . ." My eyes blur. We have indeed won.
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The United States is now on the verge of civil war.

During the week since…Governor [Tilden] was elected president, the Republican press and the Republican President have been openly at work trying to reverse the popular vote. It is a truly marvelous scandal, and deeply alarming.

As of this morning, Tilden is certain of 184 electoral votes, while Hayes is certain of only 166. Nineteen electoral votes are "in doubt," despite Tilden's plain and overwhelming victory at the polls.
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…Hewitt reads figures impressively. "Gentlemen, the national popular vote is as follows: Tilden has received 4,300,590 votes. General Hayes has received 4,036,298 votes. The gives Mr. Tilden a popular majority of 264,292 votes…."
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"The Republicans hope to reverse our victories in Florida and Louisiana. In Florida we won by the narrow margin of 92 votes out of 48,774 cast.
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"Our success last year in the various state elections was a clear warning to the Republicans that this year we would carry New York and the other major states, which we have done…. How, then, could they prevent us from winning?"…. Tilden [asked]…. "So they figured that if worse came to worse those illegal state governments could simply throw out our votes and add as many fraudulent votes as would be needed to make for a Republican victory."

"But this can't be done after the popular vote is already known!" Bigelow is innocent in ways that surprise me….

"But it can[," said Tilden. "]Our majorities will be--are being--challenged. There will be 're-counts.' There will be bribes given, and taken, and we shall certainly lose our majority of ninety-two in Florida."
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"During the week since the [Congressional] electoral commission was given the two…sets of Florida [vote] returns….

For one thing, the commission has never seriously tried to examine any of the initial voting frauds in Florida. The Republican case is based on the fact that the Hayes returns are the only valid ones because they have been signed by the carpetbag Republican governor of the state, while those favoring Tilden were only signed by the state's attorney general."
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February 16. The electoral commission has accepted the Hayes electors for Louisiana. The vote: eight to seven.
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"Tilden or Blood!" Someone is shouting below my window. But there is only silence from Gramercy Park [where Tilden resides].

Meanwhile [President] Grant has called out the troops…. Recently an overwrought local journalist wrote that if Hayes were to go in safety from White House to Capitol for his inauguration, then the people of this country are indeed fit for slavery. This morning the journalist was arrested. The government has indicted him for sedition.

"Tilden or Blood!" I now favour the second if we are to be, by conspiracy, denied the first.
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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 . . ."
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March 5….Earlier today, Rutherford (now popularly known as "Ruther-fraud") B. Hayes was duly inaugurated…before a crowd of what looked to be some thirty thousand potential Republican officeholders. But then who am I to complain of those who seek office? I tried, and my candidate failed. Two members of the Supreme Court refused to attend the ceremony.

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Of the three Delmonico restaurant, the one at Fourteenth Street and Union Square is certainly the most fashionable. The carpeting is thick. The laps are richly shaded. How important it is to see the food plainly, yet not to see or to be seen too closely by those one dines with!
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The lobster salad is a specialty of the house and it is as good as any dish I've ever had at Paris (paprika somehow makes the difference). Canvasback duck followed, enclosed in a savory aspic. One gets this notable bird so often at important dinner parties that for the gentry it has taken the place of the American eagle.

Copyright © by Gore Vidal