Tilden-Hayes Election

I must take exception to the essay, “Some Tildenesque Final Thoughts” (Voices, Dec. 16). As an advanced placement U.S. history teacher, I find the history a little thin. Rutherford B. Hayes did not win the electoral college by one vote. There were disputed votes in the South; a special commission was set up. Hayes got the disputed votes, along party lines, in return for removing federal troops from the South, thus ending Reconstruction. My source is “The American People,” by UCLA professor Gary Nash. Most historians accept this version.

Each day I try to make history relevant to my students. More important, I try to make it factually correct. This essay is simply wrong historically. The assertion that the electoral college was simply a compromise is simplistic as well. Fear of the voice of the “common man,” wanting another layer to preserve the vote of the “better sort,” was more likely the reason for the electoral college.

CHERYL SLOANE

Los Angeles