Tilden, his opponent, had a good record as a party man and as a reformer, and his party needed only to attack the past record of the Republicans.

The principal Democratic weakness lay in the fact that the party drew so much of its strength from the white South and was therefore subjected to criticism on Civil War issues.
The campaign was hotly contested and was conducted on a low plane.

Even Hayes soon saw that the "bloody shirt" issue was the main vote winner.
The whites of the three "unredeemed" Southern States nerved themselves for the final struggle.

In South Carolina and in some parishes of Louisiana, there was a considerable amount of violence, in which the whites had the advantage, and much fraud, which the Republicans, who controlled the election machinery, turned to best account.

It has been said that out of the confusion which the Republicans created they won the presidency.
The first election returns seemed to give Tilden the victory with 184 undisputed electoral votes and popular majorities of ninety and over six thousand respectively in Florida and Louisiana; only 185 votes were needed for a choice.