They were conscious that they had a weak case, and they were afraid to trust it to judges of the Supreme Court.

Their fears were groundless, however, since all important questions were decided by an 8 to 7 vote, Bradley voting with his fellow Republicans.

Every contested vote was given to Hayes, and with 185 electoral votes he was declared elected on March 2, 1877.
Ten years before, Senator Morton of Indiana had said: "I would have been in favor of having the colored people of the South wait a few years until they were prepared for the suffrage, until they were to some extent educated, but the necessities of the times forbade that; the conditions of things required that they should be brought to the polls at once." Now the condition of things required that some arrangement be made with the Southern whites which would involve a complete reversal of the situation of 1867.

In order to secure the unopposed succession of Hayes, to defeat filibustering which might endanger the decision of the Electoral Commission, politicians who could speak with authority for Hayes assured influential Southern politicians, who wanted no more civil war but who did want home rule, that an arrangement might be made which would be satisfactory to both sides.
So the contest was ended.

Hayes was to be President; the South, with the Negro, was to be left to the whites; there would be no further military aid to carpetbag governments.