The U.S. Congress had appointed an Electoral Commission (five Senators, five Representatives, and five justices of the U. S. Supreme Court) on January 29, 1877, after months of controversy, which, by straight party vote (eight to seven), awards the disputed electoral votes to Republican candidate Hayes, thus making him President.

The Republican victory in the Electoral Commission is due to promises made to Southern Democrats that the remaining federal troops will be withdrawn from the South, Southern patronage will be shared with Democrats, and appropriations will be made for Southern economic improvements, and at least one Southerner will be appointed to the cabinet.

A series of sectional bargains known collectively as the Compromise of 1877, brokered in part by Thomas Alexander Scott, president of the Pennsylvania Railroad, ensures Hayes’s inauguration.

The compromise essentially states that Southern Democrats will acknowledge Hayes as president, but only on the understanding that Republicans will meet certain demands.

The following elements are generally said to be the points of the compromise:

1) The removal of all federal troops from the former Confederate States. (Troops remain in only Louisiana, South Carolina, and Florida, but the Compromise finalizes the process.)

2) The appointment of at least one Southern Democrat to Hayes's cabinet. (David M. Key of Tennessee becomes Postmaster General.)

3) The construction of another transcontinental railroad using the Texas and Pacific in the South (this had been part of the "Scott Plan," proposed by Thomas A. Scott, which had initiated the process that led to the final compromise).

4) Legislation to help industrialize the South and get them back on their feet after the terrible loss during the Civil War.

In exchange, Democrats will:
• Peacefully accept Hayes's presidency.
• Respect blacks' rights.

Democrats complain loudly that Tilden had been cheated.

There is talk of forming armed units that will march on Washington.

President Grant beefs up military security in response.

No one marches on Washington, and Hayes is peacefully inaugurated on March 2; points 1 and 2 do take effect.

As regards the first and most important point, Hayes had already announced his support for the restoration of "home rule", which involves troop removal, before the election.

It is also not unusual, nor unexpected, for a president, especially one so narrowly elected, to select a cabinet member favored by the other party.

As for points 3 and  4, if indeed there is any such firm agreement, they are never acted on.

In any case, whether by an informal deal or simply reassurances already in line with Hayes's announced plans, talks with Southern Democrats satisfy the worries of many and so prevent a Congressional filibuster that had threatened to extend resolution of the election dispute beyond Inauguration Day 1877.

Woodward (1951) argues for an economic interpretation, whereby railroad interest meeting secretly at the Wormley Hotel in Washington had forged a compromise with aid to Southern railroads as the sweetener. (Woodward, C. Vann (1951). Reunion and Reaction: The Compromise of 1877 and the End of Reconstruction. Oxford University Press.)

However, no serious effort will be made to fund a railroad or provide other federal aid.

An opposing interest group representing the Southern Pacific will successfully thwart Scott's Texas and Pacific scheme and ultimately run its own line to New Orleans.

Hayes’s inauguration marks, for practical purposes, the restoration of “home rule” for the South—i.e., that the North will no longer interfere in Southern elections to protect the blacks and that the Southern whites will again take control of their state governments.

Abilene, Texas, established by cattlemen as a stock shipping point on the Texas and Pacific Railway in 1881, is named after Abilene, Kansas, the original endpoint for the Chisholm Trail.

The T&P had bypassed the town of Buffalo Gap, the county seat at the time.

Eventually, a landowner north of Buffalo Gap, Clabe Merchant, known as the father of Abilene, chose the name for the new town.

According to a Dallas newspaper, about eight hundred people had already begun camping at the townsite, before the lots were sold.

The town is laid out by Colonel J. Stoddard Johnson, and the auction of lots had begun early on March 15, 1881.

By the end of the first day, one hundred and thirty-nine lots were sold for a total of twenty-three thousand eight hundred and ten dollars, and another one hundred and seventy-eight lots were sold the next day for $27,550.

In 1882, the town is incorporated, and Abilenians begin to set their sights on bringing the county seat to Abilene and, in a three-to-one vote, win the election.