A

WORMLEY CONFERENCE

WORMLEY CONFERENCE. The Wormley Conference was the name given to the series of conferences by which the controversy over the disputed election of 1876 was settled. The name grew out of the fact that the final conference was held at Wormley's Hotel in Washington, D.C., on 26 February 1877. Under the terms of the agreement, the Democrats permitted the counting of the electoral votes that would make Rutherford B. Hayes president of the United States; in return, the Republicans withdrew federal troops from the southern states, thus consenting to the overthrow of the Reconstruction governments in those states.

BIBLIOGRAPHY

Foner, Eric. Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863– 1877. New York: Harper and Row, 1988.

Woodward, C. Vann. Reunion and Reaction: The Compromise of 1877 and the End of Reconstruction. Boston: Little, Brown, 1966.

Hallie Farmer/ A. G.

See also Civil War; Democratic Party; Elections; Home Rule; Reconstruction; Republican Party.