The linked in post isn't quite correct. The election was this day, but Democrat Samuel J. Tilden secured a bare majority of the popular vote, something that was fairly amazing given that the Civil War had ended just a little over a decade prior, and the Democrats had generally been sympathetic to the South. A bitter contest resulted in the Electoral College which was eventually settled by an Electoral Commission and the Compromise of 1877, awarding the presidency to Hayes in exchange for ending Reconstruction.
Hayes himself was a staunch abolitionist who had been wounded several times during the Civil War. He had favored Reconstruction but knew there was little he could do to continue it. He served only one term, as he had pledged to do.
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