On this election
day, I thought it would be fun to take a look back at one of the United States'
more interesting and controversial Presidential elections - and one in
which Colorado had a direct hand in the outcome.
Colorado became a state just three months before election day, 1876. That
year, the Presidential race was between Rutherford B. Hayes, Republican, and
Samuel J. Tilden, Democrat. As a territory, Colorado had
been entitled to one Territorial Delegate to sit in the House of
Representatives; Delegates were allowed to sit on Committees and to take part
in debate, but could not vote. By 1874, Colorado leaned Republican, but a
split in the party had resulted in Colorado's leading Democrat,
Thomas M. Patterson, being elected to the position of Delegate. During
his two-year term, Patterson lobbied hard for statehood. Finally,
President Ulysses M. Grant signed the Colorado Enabling Act so that Colorado
could indeed become the nation's 38th state. It was largely due to
Delegate Patterson's efforts.
Part of the reason Patterson fought so strongly for statehood to occur that
year was because he believed that, with Colorado's Republican party
fighting, Colorado would give its three electoral votes to the
Democrats. But here Patterson made his error.
Because Colorado became a state in August, and election day occurred
in November, the new state did not have time to organize
a Presidential election, so the Colorado legislature selected the
state's electors. The Legislature was controlled by the Republicans at
the time - so Colorado's three electoral votes went to the
Republicans.
In one of the United States' closest presidential elections, Rutherford B.
Hayes won the race - but by only one electoral vote. If Patterson had
held off his lobbying for just a few more months, Colorado would not have been
a state yet - and Samuel J. Tilden would have been President.
The election of 1876 was controversial far beyond just Colorado's role. Fraudulent
voting and political intrigue occurred in several states, leaving
some 20 electoral votes hotly contested. Even still, years later, after
Patterson went on to be a successful lawyer, owner of the Rocky Mountain News, and
United States Senator, "his speech reflected a note of pride that it was
generally believed that a presidential election had been lost because of a
lowly territorial delegate."*
For the full story with all the details, see Robert E. Smith's article in the
Spring 1976 Colorado Magazine. For
more on Thomas Patterson, see also the Winter 1974 and Winter 1977 issues of Colorado Magazine; the Spring
2005 issue of Colorado Heritage (both Colorado Magazine and Colorado Hertiage can be found in the Special Collections Colorado Room Periodicals). And the full-length biography, Tom Patterson: Colorado crusader for change, University Press of
Colorado, 1995. All of these resources are available from Tutt
library.
*Smith, Robert E. "Thomas M. Patterson, Colorado Statehood, and the
Presidential Election of 1976." Colorado
Magazine, v.53 n.2, Spring 1976.
Thanks to Amy Zimmer for posting this to the Colordo State Publications Library.
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