United States presidential election, 1868

United States presidential election, 1868

1864 ← November 3, 1868 → 1872

Nominee Ulysses S. Grant Horatio Seymour Party Republican Democratic Home state Ohio New York Running mate Schuyler Colfax Francis P. Blair, Jr. Electoral vote 214 80 States carried 26 8 Popular vote 3,013,421 2,706,829 Percentage 52.7% 47.3%

Presidential election results map. red denotes states won by Grant/Colfax, Blue denotes those won by Seymour/Blair, Green denotes those states that had not yet been readmitted to the Union and which were therefore ineligible to vote. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.

President before election Andrew Johnson Democratic Elected President Ulysses S. Grant Republican

The United States presidential election of 1868 was the 21st quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 1868. It was the first presidential election to take place after the American Civil War, during the period referred to as Reconstruction. As three of the former Confederate states (Texas, Mississippi, and Virginia) were not yet restored to the Union, their electors could not vote in the election.

The incumbent President, Andrew Johnson, who succeeded to the presidency in 1865 following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, was unsuccessful in his attempt to receive a Democratic presidential nomination due to his unpopularity. By 1868, Johnson had alienated many of his constituents and had been impeached by Congress. Although Johnson kept his office, his presidency was crippled. After numerous ballots, the Democrats nominated Horatio Seymour to take on the Republican candidate, Civil War General Ulysses S. Grant. Grant was one of the most popular men in the North due to his efforts in concluding the Civil War successfully for the Union.

Although Seymour was buried in the electoral college, he gave Grant a good race for the popular vote, especially considering the temporary advantages that Grant could draw upon. In addition to his appeal in the North, Grant benefited from votes among the newly enfranchised freedmen in the South, while the temporary political disenfranchisement of many Southern whites also helped Republican margins there. It was also the first election in which African Americans could vote (in accordance with the Fifteenth Amendment to the United States Constitution) in every (Northern or Reconstructed) state; Grant won office thanks to the black vote, which numbered above 700,000. This would make Grant the first President to be elected with a minority of the white vote.

Every state except Florida used a popular vote to determine electors.

Background

Reconstruction was a hotly debated issue in the Union. Grant was willing to support the Reconstruction plans of the Radical Republicans in Congress. After Lincoln's assassination, the Radical Republicans had strong goals in the South to suppress the former rebels. The Republican platform left the issue of black suffrage in the North to the states, while emphasizing political rights for freedmen in the South.

Seymour proposed a Reconstruction policy to emphasize peaceful reconciliation with the South, similar to that advocated by Abraham Lincoln and President Andrew Johnson.

Nominations

Republican Party nomination

Main article: 1868 Republican National Convention

Republican candidate:

• 

  General Ulysses S. Grant Commanding General of the U.S. Army from Illinois

Grant/Colfax campaign poster

Grant/Colfax campaign poster

By 1868, the Republicans felt strong enough to drop the Union Party label, but wanted to nominate a popular hero for their presidential candidate. The Democratic Party controlled many large Northern states that had a great percentage of the electoral votes. General Ulysses S. Grant announced he was a Republican and was unanimously nominated on the first ballot as the party's standard bearer at the Republican convention in Chicago, Illinois, held on May 20–21, 1868. House Speaker Schuyler Colfax, a Radical Republican from Indiana, was nominated for vice-president on the sixth ballot, beating out the early favorite, Senator Benjamin Wade of Ohio.

The Republican platform supported black suffrage in the South as part of the passage to full citizenship for former slaves. It agreed to let northern states decide individually whether to enfranchise blacks. It opposed using greenbacks to redeem U.S. bonds, encouraged immigration, endorsed full rights for naturalized citizens, and favored Radical Reconstruction as distinct from the more lenient policy of President Andrew Johnson.

Presidential Ballot
Ballot	1st
Ulysses S. Grant	650

Vice Presidential Ballot
Ballot	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th Before Shifts	5th After Shifts
Schuyler Colfax	115	145	165	186	226	541
Benjamin Wade	147	170	178	206	207	38
Reuben E. Fenton	126	144	139	144	139	69
Henry Wilson	119	114	101	87	56	0
Andrew G. Curtin	51	45	40	0	0	0
Hannibal Hamlin	28	30	25	25	20	0
James Speed	22	0	0	0	0	0
James Harlan	16	0	0	0	0	0
John A.J. Creswell	14	0	0	0	0	0
Samuel C. Pomeroy	6	0	0	0	0	0
William D. Kelley	4	0	0	0	0	0

Democratic Party nomination

Main article: 1868 Democratic National Convention

Democratic candidates:

• 

  Former Governor Horatio Seymour of New York

• 

  Former Representative George H. Pendleton of Ohio

• 

  Senator Thomas A. Hendricks of Indiana

• 

  Major General Winfield Scott Hancock of Pennsylvania

• 

  President Andrew Johnson of Tennessee

• 

  Former Lieutenant Governor Sanford E. Church of New York

• 

  Former Representative Asa Packer of Pennsylvania

• 

  Governor James E. English of Connecticut

• 

  Former Governor Joel Parker of New Jersey

• 

  Senator James Rood Doolittle of Wisconsin

• 

  Associate Justice Stephen J. Field of California

• 

  Former Representative Francis P. Blair of Missouri

• 

  Chief Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court Salmon P. Chase of Ohio

• 

  New York City Mayor John T. Hoffman of New York

Seymour/Blair campaign poster

The Democratic National Convention was held in New York City between July 4, and July 9, 1868. The front-runner in the early balloting was George H. Pendleton, who led on the first 15 ballots, followed in varying order by incumbent president Andrew Johnson, Winfield Scott Hancock, Sanford Church, Asa Packer, Joel Parker, James E. English, James Rood Doolittle, and Thomas A. Hendricks. The unpopular Johnson, having narrowly survived impeachment, won 65 votes on the first ballot, less than one-third of the total necessary for nomination, and thus lost his bid for election as president in his own right.

Meanwhile, the convention chairman Horatio Seymour, former governor of New York, received 9 votes on the fourth ballot from the state of North Carolina. This unexpected move caused "loud and enthusiastic cheering," but Seymour refused, saying,

"I must not be nominated by this Convention, as I could not accept the nomination if tendered. My own inclination prompted me to decline at the outset; my honor compels me to do so now. It is impossible, consistently with my position, to allow my name to be mentioned in this Convention against my protest. The clerk will proceed with the call."

After numerous indecisive ballots, the names of John T. Hoffman, Francis P. Blair, and Stephen Johnson Field were placed in nomination. None of these candidates, however, gained substantial support.

For twenty-one ballots, the opposing candidates battled it out: the East battling the West for control, the conservatives battling the radicals. The two leading candidates were determined that the other should not receive the nomination; because of the two-thirds rule of the convention, a compromise candidate was needed. Seymour still hoped it would be Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, but on the twenty-second ballot, the chairman of the Ohio delegation announced, "at the unanimous request and demand of the delegation I place Horatio Seymour in nomination with twenty-one votes-against his inclination, but no longer against his honor."

Seymour had to wait for the rousing cheers to die down before he could address the delegates and decline.

"I have no terms in which to tell of my regret that my name has been brought before this convention. God knows that my life and all that I value most in life I would give for the good of my country, which I believe to be identified with that of the Democratic party..."

"Take the nomination, then!" cried someone from the floor.

"..but when I said that I could not be a candidate, I mean it! I could not receive the nomination without placing not only myself but the Democratic party in a false position. God bless you for your kindness to me, but your candidate I cannot be."

Seymour/Blair campaign poster

Seymour left the platform to cool off and rest. No sooner had he left the hall than the Ohio chairman cried that his delegation would not accept Seymour's declination; Utah's chairman rose to say that Seymour was the man they had to have. While Seymour was waiting in the vestibule, the convention nominated him unanimously.

Exhausted, the delegates unanimously nominated General Francis Preston Blair, Jr., for vice-president on the first ballot after John A. McClernand, Augustus C. Dodge, and Thomas Ewing, Jr., withdrew their names from consideration. Blair's nomination reflected a desire to balance the ticket east and west as well as north and south.

Blair had worked hard to acquire the Democratic nomination and accepted second place on the ticket, finding himself in controversy. Blair had gained attention by an inflammatory letter addressed to Colonel James O. Broadhead, dated a few days before the convention met. In his letter, Blair wrote that the "real and only issue in this contest was the overthrow of Reconstruction, as the radical Republicans had forced it in the South."

(1-12)	Presidential Ballot
	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th	6th	7th	8th	9th	10th	11th	12th
Horatio Seymour	0	0	0	9	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
George H. Pendleton	105	104	119.5	118.5	122	122.5	137.5	156.5	144	147.5	144.5	145.5
Thomas A. Hendricks	2.5	2	9.5	11.5	19.5	30	39.5	75	80.5	82.5	88	89
Winfield Scott Hancock	33.5	40.5	45.5	43.5	46	47	42.5	28	34.5	34	32.5	30
Andrew Johnson	65	52	34.5	32	24	21	12.5	6	5.5	6	5.5	4.5
Sanford E. Church	34	33	33	33	33	33	33	0	0	0	0	0
Asa Packer	26	26	26	26	27	27	26	26	26.5	27.5	26	26
James E. English	16	12.5	7.5	7.5	7	6	6	6	6	0	0	0
Joel Parker	13	15.5	13	13	13	13	7	7	7	7	7	7
James R. Doolittle	13	12.5	12	12	15	12	12	12	12	12	12.5	12.5
Stephen J. Field	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Francis Preston Blair	0.5	10.5	4.5	2	9.5	5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5	0.5
Reverdy Johnson	8.5	8	11	8	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Salmon P. Chase	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.5
Thomas H. Seymour	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
John T. Hoffman	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Thomas Ewing	0	0.5	1	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
John Q. Adams	0	0	0	0	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
George B. McClellan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	1
Franklin Pierce	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Blank	0	0	0	0	0	0.5	0.5	0	0.5	0	0.5	0.5

(13-22)	Presidential Ballot
	13th	14th	15th	16th	17th	18th	19th	20th	21st	22nd Before Shifts	22nd After Shifts
Horatio Seymour	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	22	317
George H. Pendleton	134.5	130	129.5	107.5	70.5	56.5	0	0	0	0	0
Thomas A. Hendricks	81	84.5	82.5	70.5	80	87	107.5	121	132	145.5	0
Winfield Scott Hancock	48.5	56	79.5	113.5	137.5	144.5	135.5	142.5	135.5	103.5	0
Andrew Johnson	4.5	0	5.5	5.5	6	10	0	0	5	4	0
Sanford E. Church	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Asa Packer	26	26	0	0	0	0	22	0	0	0	0
James E. English	0	0	0	0	0	0	6	16	19	7	0
Joel Parker	7	7	7	7	7	3.5	0	0	0	0	0
James R. Doolittle	13	13	12	12	12	12	12	12	12	4	0
Stephen J. Field	0	0	0	0	0	0	15	9	8	0	0
Francis Preston Blair	0.5	0	0	0	0	0	13.5	13	0	0	0
Reverdy Johnson	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Salmon P. Chase	0.5	0	0	0	0.5	0.5	0.5	0	4	0	0
Thomas H. Seymour	0	0	0	0	0	0	4	2	0	0	0
John T. Hoffman	0	0	0	0	3	3	0	0	0.5	0	0
Thomas Ewing	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
John Q. Adams	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
George B. McClellan	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0.5	0	0
Franklin Pierce	1	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0	0
Blank	0.5	0.5	1	1	0.5	0	1	1.5	0.5	31	0

Vice Presidential Ballot
	1st
Francis Preston Blair	317

General election

Campaign

Republican campaign poster, created by superimposing a portrait of Grant onto the platform of the Republican Party.

The 1868 campaign of Horatio Seymour versus Ulysses S. Grant was conducted vigorously. The Republicans were fearful as late as October that they might be beaten.

Grant/Colfax humorous campaign card

Grant took no part in the campaign and made no promises. The Republican campaign theme—"Let us have peace," was taken from his letter of acceptance. After four years of civil war, three years of wrangling over Reconstruction, and the attempted impeachment of a president, the nation craved the peace Grant pledged to achieve. As governor, Seymour had sent troops to Gettysburg, but some press tried to portray him as disloyal to the Union.

Republicans alleged that insanity ran through the Seymour family, citing as evidence the suicide of his father. Some newspapers exaggerated his faults. The New York Tribune led the cartoon campaign with the picture of Seymour standing on the steps of the City Hall calling a mob of murderers "my friends." The Hartford Post called him "almost as much of a corpse" as ex-President James Buchanan, who had just died.

Seymour/Blair campaign photograph.

Seymour answered none of the charges made against him, but made a few key speeches.

The Republicans also tried to attack the Democratic nominee for vice-president. Blair had struck out boldly to keep Missouri in the Union during the winter of 1860-1861. In 1861, he was instrumental in saving Missouri for the Union. He served as a major general with success and some distinction in the Civil War. At the close of the war, Blair was financially ruined after having spent much of his private fortune in support of the Union. He had a reputation for being outspoken as a politician. In campaign exaggeration, Republicans suggested that Blair might replace Seymour in the White House. Seymour's father had committed suicide, and Republicans advised Americans not to vote for Seymour, as Blair might succeed him. Blair's campaign speeches in 1868 attacked Radical Republicans.

Comparison of Northern and Southern Sheet Music

Samuel J. Tilden, a member of the national committee, asked Blair to confine his campaigning to Missouri and Illinois for fear he "would hurt the ticket" because of his stand on Reconstruction. Seymour, who had not taken an active role in the campaign to this point, went into the canvass, seeking to steer the campaign away from the harshness of Blair's attacks on Radical Reconstruction.

Seymour emphasized his idea that change in the South should be done only by lawful and orderly means. Civil authority must take precedence over military action. The president and the Supreme Court should be respected rather than attacked, as he claimed the Republicans had done. The Democrats would be careful to reorder national priorities.

Results

Results by county explicitly indicating the percentage for the winning candidate. Shades of red are for Grant (Republican) and shades of blue are for Seymour (Democratic).

Horatio Seymour polled 2,708,744 votes against 3,013,650 for Grant. If all the white men of the South had been permitted to vote, the popular vote would have come very close to being a tie.

The closeness of the race startled the nation at the time. When Republican Representative James G. Blaine looked at the returns of the election, he was uncomfortably astonished at the narrow margin between the parties. Blaine, an acute judge of popular sentiment, was at a loss to explain the size of the Democratic vote. Congressman Blaine thought that the slender popular majority for Grant was "a very startling fact." The very narrow margin by which Seymour lost several of the northern states and the use of the new black vote provoked the suspicion that a majority of the white men of the nation probably preferred him to Grant.

The Democrats in the South had worked hard, but Republican regimes controlled the election machinery and carried all of the states there except Georgia and Louisiana. Along the border, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware went overwhelmingly Democratic. In fact, no Democratic presidential candidate before or since has attained a higher percentage of the vote in the states of Kentucky and Maryland. As for Delaware, only the Democratic tickets of Johnson/Humphrey in 1964 (which was elected with the largest percentage of the popular vote since 1824) and Obama/Biden in 2008 (which had the first Delawarean on a national ticket) carried the state with a larger percentage of the vote. Only the border states of Missouri and West Virginia, both of which were under Radical control, gave their electoral votes to Grant. Seymour carried his home state of New York, but Blair, largely because of the Radical's registry system, failed to carry Missouri. The Missouri Democrat exulted; "General Blair is beaten in his ward, his city, his county and his State." In West Virginia, former Confederates were forbidden from voting or holding public office. It is estimated that 15,000 to 25,000 white residents were disfranchised as a result.

Of the 1,708 counties making returns, Grant won in 991 (58.02%) while Seymour carried 713 (41.74%). Four counties (0.23%) split evenly between Grant and Seymour. Hence, the Democrats, even with all of the burdens of the war, still carried only 278 fewer counties than the triumphant Republicans. This was a solid party comeback at the grassroots level.

The ULC petitioned Congress to investigate Seymour's victory in New York.

That Grant should lose New York to Seymour by a majority of 10,000 votes was a source of shame and anger to Republicans. Seymour's victory in New York was made the subject of a federal investigation. On November 4, Horace Greeley spoke at the Union League Club. The ULC promptly petitioned the Congress to look into the vote of the state. This petition was presented to the House of Representatives on December 14 and was accepted by a vote of 134-35 (52 abstained). Speaker of the House Schuyler Colfax, the Republican candidate for vice-president, appointed a committee of seven: five Republicans and two Democrats. The committee was most likely created because the Republicans could not lose New York without a protest. It reported to the House of Representatives on February 23, 1869. The committee decided to take no action and Seymour remained the winner of New York's 33 electoral votes. Seymour was willing to return to this subject as long as he lived.

Author Irving Stone believed if Seymour had carried all four of the October states (Pennsylvania, Ohio, Indiana, and Iowa), the Republican-controlled Congress would have acted to prevent the possibility of any Southern States supporting the Democratic ticket. Stone claimed that the only way the Democrats could have won was if they carried every close state in the North while retaining both Georgia and Louisiana. The vote of Georgia was contested at the electoral count, and it most certainly would have been disallowed if a Democratic victory had been decisive. According to Seymour's biographer, the Republican Party claimed credit for saving the Union and was bound, bent, and determined to continue to rule it. Some historians find it better that Seymour was not elected, because the Republicans would not have permitted him to carry out the duties of his office and they would have set their armies marching again.

Presidential candidate	Party	Home state	Popular vote(a)		Electoral vote(a)	Running mate
			Count	Pct		Vice-presidential candidate	Home state	Elect. vote(a)
Ulysses S. Grant	Republican	Illinois	3,013,650	52.7%	214	Schuyler Colfax	Indiana	214
Horatio Seymour	Democratic	New York	2,708,744	47.3%	80	Francis Preston Blair, Jr.	Missouri	80
Other			46	0.0%	—	Other		—
Total			5,722,440	100%	294			294
Needed to win					148			148

Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. 1868 Presidential Election Results. Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections (July 27, 2005). Source (Electoral Vote): Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996. Official website of the National Archives. (July 31, 2005). ^(a) Mississippi, Texas, and Virginia did not participate in the election of 1868 due to Reconstruction. In Florida, the state legislature cast its electoral vote.

Geography of Results

Cartographic Gallery

• 

  Map of presidential election results by county.

• 

  Map of Republican presidential election results by county.

• 

  Map of Democratic presidential election results by county.

• 

  Map of "other" presidential election results by county.

• 

  Cartogram of presidential election results by county.

• 

  Cartogram of Republican presidential election results by county.

• 

  Cartogram of Democratic presidential election results by county.

• 

  Cartogram of "other" presidential election results by county.

Statistics

Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Republican)

1. Hancock County, Tennessee 100.00%
2. Monona County, Iowa 100.00%
3. Ottawa County, Kansas 100.00%
4. Jefferson County, Nebraska 100.00%
5. McDowell County, West Virginia 100.00%

Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Democratic)

1. St. Landry Parish, Louisiana 100.00%
2. Lafayette Parish, Louisiana 100.00%
3. Jackson Parish, Louisiana 100.00%
4. De Soto Parish, Louisiana 100.00%
5. Franklin Parish, Louisiana 100.00%

Counties with Highest Percent of Vote (Other)

1. DeKalb County, Alabama 0.70%
2. Sullivan County, New Hampshire 0.11%
3. Strafford County, New Hampshire 0.09%
4. Carroll County, New Hampshire 0.02%

Close states

Red font color denotes states won by Republican Ulysses S. Grant; blue denotes those won by Democrat Horatio Seymour.

States where the margin of victory was under 5% (101 electoral votes)

1. California 0.48%
2. Oregon 0.74%
3. New York 1.18%
4. New Jersey 1.76%
5. Alabama 2.50%
6. Indiana 2.79%
7. Connecticut 2.98%
8. Pennsylvania 4.41%

See also

• American election campaigns in the 19th century
• History of the United States (1865–1918)
• History of the United States Democratic Party
• History of the United States Republican Party
• Reconstruction era of the United States
• Third Party System
• United States House elections, 1868

References

• American Annual Cyclopedia...1868 (1869), online, highly detailed compendium of facts and primary sources
• Gambill, Edward. Conservative Ordeal: Northern Democrats and Reconstruction, 1865-1868. (Iowa State University Press: 1981).
• Edward McPherson. The Political History of the United States of America During the Period of Reconstruction (1875) large collection of speeches and primary documents, 1865–1870, complete text online.[The copyright has expired.]
• Rhodes, James G. History of the United States from the Compromise of 1850 to the McKinley-Bryan Campaign of 1896. Volume: 6. (1920). 1865-72; detailed narrative history
• Simpson, Brooks D. Let Us Have Peace: Ulysses S. Grant and the Politics of War and Reconstruction, 1861-1868 (1991).
• Summers, Mark Wahlgren.The Press Gang: Newspapers and Politics, 1865-1878 (1994)
• Summers, Mark Wahlgren. The Era of Good Stealings (1993), covers corruption 1868-1877

External links

• Presidential Election of 1868: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
• 1868 popular vote by counties
• 1868 State-by-state Popular vote
• How close was the 1868 election? — Michael Sheppard, Massachusetts Institute of Technology