Samuel Tillman, former governor of New York, was initially thought to have won the election, capturing more popular vote, as well as electoral. Tilden was a leader of the Red Shirts, boasted about the vote frauds of 1876.“We set up the Democratic Party with one plank only, that this is White man’s country, and White men must govern it,” Tillman said. “Under that banner, we went to battle. It was then that we shot them. It was then that we killed them. It was then that ‘we stuffed ballot boxes,’ because this disease needed a strong remedy.” New York Public Library, 1875.