<P> Reconstruction ended at different times in each state , the last in 1877 , when Republican Rutherford B. Hayes won the contentious presidential election of 1876 over his opponent , Samuel J. Tilden . To deal with disputed electoral votes , Congress set up an Electoral Commission . It awarded the disputed votes to Hayes . The white South accepted the `` Compromise of 1877 '' knowing that Hayes proposed to end Army control over the remaining three state governments in Republican hands . White Northerners accepted that the Civil War was over and that Southern whites posed no threat to the nation . </P>
which action marked the end of reconstruction in the united states
Republican Rutherford B. Hayes won the contentious presidential election of 1876 over his opponent , Samuel J. Tilden