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1868 United States presidential election

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United States presidential election, 1868
← 1864 November 3, 1868 1872 →
 
Nominee Ulysses S. Grant Horatio Seymour
Party Republican Democratic
Home state Illinois New York
Running mate Schuyler Colfax Francis Preston Blair, Jr.
Electoral vote 214 80
States carried 26 8
Popular vote 3,013,650 2,708,744
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 still under Union martial rule. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.
President before election

Andrew Johnson
National Union

Elected President

Ulysses S. Grant
Republican

The United States presidential election of 1868 was the first presidential election to take place during Reconstruction. Three of the former Confederate states (Texas, Mississippi, and Virginia) were not yet restored to the Union and therefore could not vote in the election.

The incumbent President, Andrew Johnson (who succeeded to the Presidency in 1865 following the assassination of President Lincoln), was unsuccessful in his attempt to receive the Democratic presidential nomination because of his impeachment by congress, and by alienating constituents. Instead, the Democrats nominated Horatio Seymour to take on the Republican candidate, Civil War hero 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 gave Grant a good race for the popular vote, he was buried in the electoral college. The popular vote was close, despite Grant benefiting from many advantages such as massive popularity in the North, freedmen voting in the South, and the political disenfranchisement of many Southern whites.

Background

Reconstruction was a hotly debated issue in the Union. Seymour wanted to carry out a Reconstruction policy which would emphasize peaceful reconciliation with the South, a policy similar to that advocated by Abraham Lincoln and President Andrew Johnson. Grant, on the other hand, was willing to support the Reconstruction plans of the Radical Republicans in Congress. The Radical Republicans wanted to punish the South and former rebels. The Republican platform left the issue of Black Suffrage in the North to the States while emphasizing granting political rights to the freedmen as the basis for the foundation of Republican Parties in the conquered south.

Nominations

Republican Party nomination

Main article: 1868 Republican National Convention

Republican candidate:

Grant/Colfax campaign poster
Grant/Colfax campaign poster

By 1868, Republicans felt strong enough to drop the Union Party label. The Republicans badly needed a popular hero for their presidential candidate in 1868. The Democratic Party still 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. 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 F. Wade of Ohio.

The Republican platform supported black suffrage in the South but agreed to let northern states decide for themselves whether to enfranchise blacks, opposed using greenbacks to redeem U.S. bonds, encouraged immigration and endorsed full rights for naturalized citizens, and favored Radical Reconstruction as distinct from the more lenient policy of President Andrew Johnson.[1]

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:

Seymour/Blair campaign poster

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 R. Doolittle, and Thomas A. Hendricks. The unpopular Johnson, having narrowly survived impeachment, reached his peak strength of 65 votes on the first ballot, less than one-third of the total necessary for nomination, thus losing his bid for election as president in his own right.

Meanwhile, convention chairman Horatio Seymour received 9 votes on the fourth ballot from the state of North Carolina. This unexpected move caused "loud and enthusiastic cheering," but Seymour made his refusal. "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 J. 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 it was apparent that a compromise candidate would have to be found. Seymour still was hoping it would be Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, but on the twenty-second ballot, the chairman of the Ohio delegation announced that "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 make another refusal. "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

Perspiring profusely from the intense heat, excited and overwrought, Seymour left to 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, mopping his brow, 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. Undoubtedly, Blair's nomination reflected a desire to balance the ticket east and west as well as north and south.[2] Blair had worked hard to acquire the Democratic nomination and gladly accepted second place on the ticket, only to find himself the storm center of controversy.[3] Blair had just brought himself into prominence by a violent, not to say a revolutionary letter, addressed to Colonel James O. Broadhead, dated a few days before the convention met. In his letter to Broadhead, Blair stated that the "real and only issue in this contest was the overthrow of reconstruction, as the radical Republicans had forced it in the South.[4] The nomination seemed to be, and probably was, a result of that letter.

Presidential Ballot
Ballot 1st 2nd 3rd 4th 5th 6th 7th 8th 9th 10th 11th 12th 13th 14th 15th 16th 17th 18th 19th 20th 21st 22nd Before Shifts 22nd After Shifts
Horatio Seymour 0 0 0 9 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 22 317
George H. Pendleton 105 104 119.5 118.5 122 122.5 137.5 156.5 144 147.5 144.5 145.5 134.5 130 129.5 107.5 70.5 56.5 0 0 0 0 0
Thomas A. Hendricks 2.5 2 9.5 11.5 19.5 30 39.5 75 80.5 82.5 88 89 81 84.5 82.5 70.5 80 87 107.5 121 132 145.5 0
Winfield Scott Hancock 33.5 40.5 45.5 43.5 46 47 42.5 28 34.5 34 32.5 30 48.5 56 79.5 113.5 137.5 144.5 135.5 142.5 135.5 103.5 0
Andrew Johnson 65 52 34.5 32 24 21 12.5 6 5.5 6 5.5 4.5 4.5 0 5.5 5.5 6 10 0 0 5 4 0
Sanford E. Church 34 33 33 33 33 33 33 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Asa Packer 26 26 26 26 27 27 26 26 26.5 27.5 26 26 26 26 0 0 0 0 22 0 0 0 0
James E. English 16 12.5 7.5 7.5 7 6 6 6 6 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 6 16 19 7 0
Joel Parker 13 15.5 13 13 13 13 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 7 3.5 0 0 0 0 0
James R. Doolittle 13 12.5 12 12 15 12 12 12 12 12 12.5 12.5 13 13 12 12 12 12 12 12 12 4 0
Reverdy Johnson 8.5 8 11 8 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 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 0.5 0 0 0 0 0 13.5 13 0 0 0
Thomas Ewing 0 0.5 1 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
John Q. Adams 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0
Salmon P. Chase 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.5 0.5 0 0 0 0.5 0.5 0.5 0 4 0 0
George B. McClellan 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0.5 0 0
Franklin Pierce 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 1 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 0 0 0 0 3 3 0 0 0.5 0 0
Stephen J. Field 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 15 9 8 0 0
Thomas H. Seymour 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 0 4 2 0 0 0
Vice Presidential Ballot
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. The Democrats were the disinherited party, Seymour had been called a traitor, a troublemaker, the votes of thousands of southern Democrats would not be counted, yet everyone knew that Seymour would give Grant a hard race.

Grant/Colfax humorous campaign card

Grant took no part in the campaign and made no promises. A line in his letter of acceptance of the nomination became the Republican campaign theme—"Let us have peace." 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. The voters were told that if they wanted to reopen the Civil War they need only elect Horatio Seymour, spreading lurid tales of murder and massacre in the south to prove that the south needed the heavy foot of the conqueror on her neck. Despite the fervent thanks of Lincoln and Stanton for his quick dispatch of troops to Gettysburg, Seymour was branded in the press as disloyal to the Union.

On the low road, Republicans alleged that insanity ran through the Seymour family, citing as evidence the suicide of his father. Newspaper descriptions of the life and character of Horatio Seymour were also staggering. 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 Buchanan, who had just died.

Seymour and Blair campaign photograph.

Seymour answered none of the charges made against him, but went his quiet way by making a few key speeches, indulging in no violence, no slander, and no fraud. The bitterness and abuse heaped upon him seeped into history through the medium of the unrestrained newspaper and the partisan historian, never to be completely dislodged; his conduct of the campaign did his country and the institution of free elections great good, helped to keep alive the two-party system when the opposition was determined to remain the only party that could hold power.

The Republicans also dwelt on the supposedly "dangerous" proclivities of the Democratic nominee for Vice-President. Blair 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 also 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.[5] The only real objection to him as a politician was his nature for speaking plainly. Blair's letter to Broadhead was a fire-brand, so Republicans insisted; if Blair were ever President, the whole country would soon be in flames. Republicans harped on the probability that Blair would replace the delicate Seymour in the White House before long if the Democrats should happen to win. Since Seymour's father had committed suicide, Republicans advised Americans not to vote for a man who might suddenly give them Frank Blair for his successor.[6] Blair's campaign speeches in 1868, however, were harmless and even inoffensive.[7]

Comparison of Northern and Southern Sheet Music

Nonetheless, 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.[8] 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.

While change was needed in the South, Seymour emphasized that this 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 the Republicans had done. In short, the Democrats would move along conservative lines to reorder national priorities.[9]

Results

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.[10] The Democrats in the South had worked hard, but Radical regimes controlled the election machinery and carried all of the states there except Georgia and Louisiana. If all of the Southern states had been permitted to vote for Seymour, the electoral vote would have also come very close to being a tie. Along the border, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware went Democratic. 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."[11]

The closeness of the race startled the nation at the time.[12] When Republican Representative James G. Blaine looked at the returns of the election, he was uncomfortably astonished at the narrow margin between the parties. He was at a loss to explain the size of the Democratic vote.[13] Blaine thought that the slender popular majority for Grant was "a very startling fact."[14] 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.[15]

File:ULC Logo.png
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). House Speaker 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 state without a protest. It reported to the House of Representatives on February 23, 1869.[16] 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.[17]

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.[18] 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.[19]

Electoral results
Presidential candidate Party Home state Popular vote(a) Electoral
vote(a) 		Running mate
Count Percentage Vice-presidential candidate Home state Electoral 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. Retrieved July 27, 2005. Source (Electoral Vote): "Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved 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.

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%

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

Notes

  1. ^ William DeGregorio, The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents, Gramercy 1997
  2. ^ Frank Blair: Lincoln's Conservative, William E. Parrish, pg. 254
  3. ^ Frank Blair: Lincoln's Conservative, William E. Parrish, pg. 260
  4. ^ Horatio Seymour of New York, Stewart Mitchell, pg. 448
  5. ^ National Statuary Hall Collection, Francis Preston Blair Jr., http://www.aoc.gov/cc/art/nsh/blair.cfm
  6. ^ Horatio Seymour of New York, Stewart Mitchell, pg. 23
  7. ^ Horatio Seymour of New York, Stewart Mitchell, pg. 448-449
  8. ^ Frank Blair: Lincoln’s Conservative, William E. Parrish, pg. 255-256
  9. ^ Frank Blair: Lincoln’s Conservative, William E. Parrish, pg. 258-259
  10. ^ They Also Ran, Irving Stone, pg. 282
  11. ^ Frank Blair: Lincoln's Conservative, William E. Parrish, pg. 259-260
  12. ^ They Also Ran, Irving Stone, pg. 282
  13. ^ Horatio Seymour of New York, Stewart Mitchell, pg. 443
  14. ^ Horatio Seymour of New York, Stewart Mitchell, pg. 483
  15. ^ Horatio Seymour of New York, Stewart Mitchell, pg. 474
  16. ^ Horatio Seymour of New York, Stewart Mitchell, pg. 474-475
  17. ^ Horatio Seymour of New York, Stewart Mitchell, pg. 483
  18. ^ Horatio Seymour of New York, Stewart Mitchell, pg. 484
  19. ^ They Also Ran, Irving Stone, pg. 284

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to United States presidential election, 1868.
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