陸斯佛得‧比察‧海斯 (Rutherford Birchard Hayes) 生於1822年10月4日

在1876年總統選舉的那一晚，共和黨候選人陸斯佛得‧海斯很早就上床就寢了。他覺得他輸給了對手，也就是民主黨的薩慕爾‧提登 (Samuel J. Tilden) 。那晚，提登的確贏得普選勝利，但是共和黨卻質疑有三個州的選舉人票無效。 (根據選舉人團的規定，每一州選擇自己的選舉人來投票選舉總統，總統候選人必須贏得選舉人票才能成為總統。)

國會因此指派一個特別「選舉委員會」，針對這項爭議做出裁決。委員會的成員包括5位參議員、5位眾議員，以及5位最高法院法官。最後，委員會決議海斯以一張選舉人票之差，贏得了總統大選。因為選舉期間的緊張氣氛，海斯的第一個官方任務是秘密完成的。


On the night of the 1876 presidential election, Republican candidate Rutherford B. Hayes went to bed early. He assumed that he had lost the election to his opponent, Democrat Samuel J. Tilden. Tilden did win the popular vote that night, but the Republicans challenged the validity of the electoral votes from three states. (Under the Electoral College, each state chooses electors to vote for the president.) A candidate must win the electoral vote to become president.

Congress appointed a special Electoral Commission to make a decision on the matter. The commission was made up of five senators, five members of the House of Representatives, and five Supreme Court justices. In the end, the commission determined that Hayes was elected president by a margin of one electoral vote. Because of the tension surrounding his election, Hayes's first official duty was done in secret.

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