It was either another civil war or ratify a backroom deal to choose the next president. In that deal, the rights of newly emancipated people were sacrificed. Moving on from abolition, white northerners figured locking in white supremacy and the power of big banks was an acceptable price to avoid war. The mob of January 6th 2021 was one thing, but in 1876 white southerners were still a disciplined armed force. The secretive resolution enabled the rebirth of the Confederacy.  On this show, Historian William Hogeland explains how racist paramilitary violence was given a green light. Oh, and the person with the most votes did not win.