Most Republicans recognize by 1876 that it is time to change both the candidate and his Reconstruction program despite the hope of President Ulysses S. Grant for a third term in office: the nomination of Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio, a moderate Republican of high principles and of deep sympathy for the South, marks the end of the Radical domination of the Republican Party.

Hayes, third-time Governor of Ohio, former congressman and brevet major general under General Philip Sheridan in the Civil War, wins a seventh-ballot victory over James G. Blaine at the Republican National Convention in 1876.