ELECTION STALEMATE OF 1876-77 -- Despite Samuel J. Tilden (D-NY)'s nearly 300,000 vote plurality, the Election of 1876 deadlocked when three southern states - Florida, South Carolina and Louisiana (20 electoral votes) — were contested in close votes by Republican supporters of Rutherford B. Hayes (R-OH). After months of stalemate, an Electoral Commission, appointed by the U.S. Congress tilted the result to Hayes generating a political crisis in late February 1877. The "Wormley" conference/s, which quietly convened key allies of Tilden and Hayes at Wormley's Hotel on February 26, concluded a "bargain" which had the effect of ratifying Hayes as President-Elect only several days before the end of the Ulysses Grant Administration.