Membership of The Commission
Originally, it was planned that the Commission would consist of seven Democrats, seven Republicans, and one independent. Justice David Davis, who was widely regarded as a political independent, was supposed to be the fifth justice on the Commission. According to one historian, "o one, perhaps not even Davis himself, knew which presidential candidate he preferred." Just as the Electoral Commission Bill was passing Congress, the Legislature of Illinois elected Davis to the Senate. Democrats in the Illinois Legislature believed that they had purchased Davis' support by voting for him. However, they had made a miscalculation; instead of staying on the Supreme Court so that he could serve on the Commission, he promptly resigned as a Justice in order to take his Senate seat.
With no independents left on the Supreme Court, the final seat on the Electoral Commission was given instead to Justice Joseph Philo Bradley, a Republican. As a result, the GOP held a one-seat majority on the body. Bradley would, in every case, vote with his fellow Republicans to give the disputed electoral votes to Hayes.
The membership of the Commission was as follows:
| Member | Body | Party |
|---|---|---|
| Thomas F. Bayard (Delaware) | Senate | Democrat |
| Allen G. Thurman (Ohio) | Senate | Democrat |
| George F. Edmunds (Vermont) | Senate | Republican |
| Frederick T. Frelinghuysen (New Jersey) | Senate | Republican |
| Oliver Hazard Perry Morton (Indiana) | Senate | Republican |
| Josiah Gardner Abbott (Massachusetts) | House | Democrat |
| Eppa Hunton (Virginia) | House | Democrat |
| Henry B. Payne (Ohio) | House | Democrat |
| James A. Garfield (Ohio) | House | Republican |
| George Frisbie Hoar (Massachusetts) | House | Republican |
| Nathan Clifford* (Maine) | Supreme Court | Democrat |
| Stephen Johnson Field (California) | Supreme Court | Democrat |
| Joseph Philo Bradley (New Jersey) | Supreme Court | Republican |
| Samuel Freeman Miller (Iowa) | Supreme Court | Republican |
| William Strong (Pennsylvania) | Supreme Court | Republican |
| * President of the Electoral Commission | ||
Read more about this topic: Electoral Commission (United States)
Famous quotes containing the words membership and/or commission:
“The two real political parties in America are the Winners and the Losers. The people don’t acknowledge this. They claim membership in two imaginary parties, the Republicans and the Democrats, instead.”
—Kurt Vonnegut, Jr. (b. 1922)
“Yesterday the Electoral Commission decided not to go behind the papers filed with the Vice-President in the case of Florida.... I read the arguments in the Congressional Record and can’t see how lawyers can differ on the question. But the decision is by a strictly party vote—eight Republicans against seven Democrats! It shows the strength of party ties.”
—Rutherford Birchard Hayes (1822–1893)