Presidential election of the United States of 1868 | Grant vs Seymour, campaigns and results

Election of the era of reconstruction

The 1868 election was the first to stand after American civil warand at the heart of his results were the problems of Reconstruction from the South and suffrage For newly released slaves. The struggles on the reconstruction policy had led to the military occupation of former Confederate States and to the accusation of PRES. Andrew Johnson Earlier this year. Republicans have favored civil rights For all, while Democrats have opposed the approach of the Republicans to reconstruction and called on states to decide on political questions such as suffrage.

The Republicans held their national convention in May, in the middle of the Johnson trial. The convention unanimously selected Ulysses S. Grant, an extremely popular general who had been commander of the Union forces from 1864 to 1865. After a debate, the Republicans appointed Schuyler ColfaxThe president of the House of Representatives, like his running mate. A few conservative Eastern Democrats leaders initially supported the former Republican Salmon P. Chasewho had fallen into disgrace with radical republicans on his critical Republican reconstruction policies. They intended to put him in nomination against George Pendleton of Ohio, who had gained popularity with Western Democrats because of his advocacy to use paper money for national debt. However, when the Democratic Convention met in July, the supporters of Pendleton realized that he could not win the appointment and rather launched his support behind new York Former Governor Horatio Seymour, a “peace democrat” or Copperdenounced by Republicans as antipatriotic. The Democrats then appointed Francis Preston Blair, Jr.An open critic of republican reconstruction policy, as a vice-presidential candidate.

The democratic platform remained firm on opposition to reconstruction, and the Republicans quickly reminded the public that their party endeavored by peace and unity. The last line of the Grant of the Republican acceptance letter appointment“Let us loyal peace”, has become the republican slogan of the campaign. The chances of Seymour were made a significant blow when a letter that Blair had written before his appointment was published. In the letter, he had declared his conviction that reconstruction should be canceled and that white southerners should be authorized to reorganize new governments. Although the Democrats were unable to recover from this incident, the race was close, with the narrow victory margin of Grant in the popular vote (300,000 ballots) perhaps attributable to newly exchanged black voters. The vote of electoral college was more unilateral, with a subsidy collected 214 votes, against 80 for Seymour. With the election of Grant, republican reconstruction was authorized to continue, and Congress Soon ratified the Fifteenth amendmentwhich guaranteed that the right to vote could not be refused on the basis of “race, color or state of previous servitude”.

For the results of previous elections, see Presidential election of the United States of 1864. For the results of the following election, see American presidential election of 1872.