In 500... (or less)

The Backroom Backfire

"For our next order of business, we've got to figure out how to get Judge Davis on our side." Augustus Schell was reasonably confident the group could sway the otherwise independent judge to vote in their favor. Afterall, nothing less than the presidency hinged on it.

"I'm open to ideas," he said, scanning the room of stodgy politicians for someone to pipe up.

The silence was finally broken as Thomas Bayard, the senator from Delaware, made a suggestion.

"Perhaps some pie," he joked. "Judge Davis has never met a pie he hasn't liked."

The room erupted in laughter. 

"He puts the 'rotund' in 'rotunda'!" scoffed another. Sending the laughter into a higher frenzy.

Schell was less amused. Jokes about the judge's rather large waist wasn't getting them closer to figuring out how to convince him to vote their way.

"All jest aside," he said, clearing his throat loudly to bring the meeting back to order, "we all know that the commission will break down party lines. There will be seven Republicans and seven Democrats, and of course, our friend, Judge Davis."

And therein lay the problem. Davis was affiliated with neither party and had given not the slightest indication of which way he might vote. 

The only certainty was that this one man, a justice in the nation's highest court, would pick the next president with his vote and his vote alone.

"Perhaps a lucrative business deal, or prime real estate," interjected another.

"We are not the party of Grant!" Schell boomed. "Such bribery would surely be discovered, and we might lose not only this election but the next several to come.

With 20 electoral votes being contested, they only needed Davis to sway one of those in their favor to win. Their opponents needed all 20.

"We've got to be more subtle, something that doesn't look like it's coming from us, but carries both financial and political benefits that are too difficult to ignore."

"I beg your pardon," came a soft voice from the back of the room. "I believe I may have something to offer the judge that might curry favor."

Many necks craned to see who was speaking. It was Archibald Glenn, a state senator from Illinois. Schell wondered who invited him to the meeting.

"The election of senators is forthcoming in our state, and perhaps if we were to elect the judge, it would be considered a grand enough gesture to sway his vote."

Most nodded in assent, it was a fine plan. The honor of such a gesture would surely convince the judge, and yet it would not look like bribery, since they were not offering something of greater value than his current position.

"The gentleman from Illinois has our consent to make the offer?" Schell asked. The men agreed.

Yet Davis never did cast the deciding vote in the election. He promptly resigned from the Supreme Court to take his seat in the Senate. This made him ineligible to serve on the commission.

Samuel J. Tilden never got the one vote he needed, Davis' replacement on the commission voted for his opponent. Hayes became president, earning the moniker "Rutherfraud B. Hayes" from his opponents.