1872 United States presidential election in New York

1872 United States presidential election in New York
← 1868 November 5, 1872 1876 →
Turnout	80.5% 11.2 pp
Grant 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80%	Greeley 50–60%
President before election; Ulysses S. Grant; Republican	Elected President ; Ulysses S. Grant; Republican

The 1872 United States presidential election in New York took place on November 5, 1872. All contemporary 37 states were part of the 1872 United States presidential election. Voters chose 35 electors to the Electoral College, which selected the president and vice president.

New York was won by the Republican nominees, incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant of Illinois and his running mate Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts. Grant and Wilson defeated the Liberal Republican and Democratic nominees, former Congressman Horace Greeley of New York and his running mate former Senator and Governor Benjamin Gratz Brown of Missouri.

Grant carried New York State with 53.12% of the vote to Greeley's 46.68%, a victory margin of 6.45%. New York weighed in for this election as slightly more than 5% more Democratic/Liberal Republican than the national average. Dutchess County would not vote Democratic again until 1964.

Grant dominated much of upstate New York and also won some counties downstate in the New York City area, including Richmond County, Queens County, and Suffolk County. Greeley, however, did win New York City and Kings County. Greeley also won nearby Westchester County and Rockland County, along with a handful of rural upstate counties.

Results

1872 United States presidential election in New York^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]^[a]
Party		Candidate	Running mate	Popular vote		Electoral vote
Party		Candidate	Running mate	Count	%	Count	%
	Republican	Ulysses S. Grant of Illinois	Henry Wilson of Massachusetts	440,759	53.12%	35	100.00%
	Liberal Republican	Horace Greeley of New York	Benjamin G. Brown of Missouri	387,279	46.68%	0	0.00%
	Straight-Out Democratic	Charles O'Conor of New York	John Quincy Adams II of Massachusetts	1,454	0.18%	0	0.00%
	Prohibition	James Black of Pennsylvania	John Russell of Michigan	201	0.02%	0	0.00%
Total				829,693	100.00%	35	100.00%

Results by county

County^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]	Ulysses S. Grant Republican		Horace Greeley Liberal Republican		Charles O'Conor Straight-Out Democratic		James Black Prohibition		Margin		Total votes cast
County^[2]^[3]^[4]^[5]	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	#	%	Total votes cast
Albany	14,415	51.07%	13,793	48.87%	16	0.06%	0	0.00%	622	2.20%	28,224
Allegany	6,150	67.07%	2,981	32.51%	38	0.41%	0	0.00%	3,169	34.56%	9,169
Broome	5,719	56.88%	4,322	42.99%	13	0.13%	0	0.00%	1,397	13.89%	10,054
Cattaraugus	5,614	60.40%	3,606	38.80%	75	0.81%	0	0.00%	2,008	21.60%	9,295
Cayuga	7,994	62.35%	4,782	37.30%	40	0.31%	6	0.05%	3,212	25.05%	12,822
Chautauqua	8,144	62.07%	4,880	37.20%	96	0.73%	0	0.00%	3,264	24.88%	13,120
Chemung	4,350	53.81%	3,728	46.12%	6	0.07%	0	0.00%	622	7.69%	8,084
Chenango	5,575	56.44%	4,280	43.33%	12	0.12%	10	0.10%	1,295	13.11%	9,877
Clinton	4,566	52.77%	4,085	47.21%	2	0.02%	0	0.00%	481	5.56%	8,653
Columbia	5,462	47.42%	6,047	52.50%	10	0.09%	0	0.00%	-585	-5.08%	11,519
Cortland	3,576	60.30%	2,347	39.58%	4	0.07%	3	0.05%	1,229	20.73%	5,930
Delaware	5,351	55.10%	4,338	44.67%	23	0.24%	0	0.00%	1,013	10.43%	9,712
Dutchess	8,235	48.62%	8,636	50.98%	18	0.11%	50	0.30%	-401	-2.37%	16,939
Erie	17,831	58.74%	12,467	41.07%	58	0.19%	0	0.00%	5,364	17.67%	30,356
Essex	3,728	65.78%	1,939	34.22%	0	0.00%	0	0.00%	1,789	31.57%	5,667
Franklin	3,371	61.79%	2,076	38.05%	9	0.16%	0	0.00%	1,295	23.74%	5,456
Fulton	3,551	54.48%	2,927	44.91%	18	0.28%	22	0.34%	624	9.57%	6,518
Genesee	4,044	60.89%	2,590	38.99%	8	0.12%	0	0.00%	1,454	21.89%	6,642
Greene	3,440	47.84%	3,704	51.51%	47	0.65%	0	0.00%	-264	-3.67%	7,191
Hamilton^[b]^[6]	353	41.78%	492	58.22%	0	0.00%	0	0.00%	-139	-16.45%	845
Herkimer	5,515	57.45%	4,066	42.35%	19	0.20%	0	0.00%	1,449	15.09%	9,600
Jefferson	8,481	59.47%	5,769	40.46%	10	0.07%	0	0.00%	2.712	19.02%	14,260
Kings	33,368	46.68%	38,108	53.31%	10	0.01%	0	0.00%	-4,740	-6.63%	71,486
Lewis	3,402	52.82%	3,033	47.09%	6	0.09%	0	0.00%	369	5.73%	6,441
Livingston	4,753	58.59%	3,350	41.30%	9	0.11%	0	0.00%	1,403	17.30%	8,112
Madison	6,096	60.98%	3,898	38.99%	3	0.03%	0	0.00%	2,198	21.99%	9,997
Monroe	13,033	58.44%	9,261	41.52%	9	0.04%	0	0.00%	3,772	16.91%	22,303
Montgomery	4,113	52.28%	3,742	47.56%	13	0.17%	0	0.00%	371	4.72%	7,868
New York	54,676	41.27%	77,814	58.73%	0	0.00%	0	0.00%	-23,138	-17.46%	132,490
Niagara	5,404	54.99%	4,396	44.73%	27	0.27%	0	0.00%	1,008	10.26%	9,827
Oneida	13,384	56.95%	10,078	42.88%	33	0.14%	7	0.03%	3,306	14.07%	23,502
Onondaga	12,708	56.50%	9,749	43.34%	4	0.02%	33	0.15%	2,959	13.15%	22,494
Ontario	5,578	57.83%	4,047	41.96%	6	0.06%	15	0.16%	1,531	15.87%	9,646
Orange	8,471	52.23%	7,712	47.55%	36	0.22%	0	0.00%	759	4.68%	16,219
Orleans	3,857	61.64%	2,391	38.21%	9	0.14%	0	0.00%	1,466	23.43%	6,257
Oswego	9,559	59.69%	6,443	40.23%	1	0.01%	12	0.07%	3,116	19.46%	16,015
Otsego	6,236	49.78%	6,275	50.10%	15	0.12%	0	0.00%	-39	-0.31%	12,526
Putnam	1,706	56.06%	1,337	43.94%	0	0.00%	0	0.00%	369	12.13%	3,043
Queens	6,082	51.74%	5,655	48.10%	19	0.16%	0	0.00%	427	3.63%	11,756
Rensselaer	11,937	57.71%	8,671	41.92%	77	0.37%	0	0.00%	3,266	15.79%	20,685
Richmond	2,728	51.42%	2,541	47.90%	36	0.68%	0	0.00%	187	3.52%	5,305
Rockland	2,220	47.59%	2,432	52.13%	13	0.28%	0	0.00%	-212	-4.54%	4,665
Saratoga	6,955	59.37%	4,734	40.41%	25	0.21%	0	0.00%	2,221	18.96%	11,714
Schenectady	2,809	55.04%	2,242	43.93%	53	1.04%	0	0.00%	567	11.11%	5,104
Schoharie	3,284	43.90%	4,196	56.10%	0	0.00%	0	0.00%	-912	-12.19%	7,480
Schuyler	2,478	54.96%	1,996	44.27%	27	0.60%	8	0.18%	482	10.69%	4,509
Seneca	2,903	49.89%	2,870	49.32%	46	0.79%	0	0.00%	33	0.57%	5,819
St. Lawrence	11,331	71.70%	4,395	27.81%	75	0.47%	3	0.02%	6,936	43.89%	15,804
Steuben	8,551	55.09%	6,940	44.71%	32	0.21%	0	0.00%	1,611	10.38%	15,523
Suffolk	4,838	59.77%	3,160	39.04%	96	1.19%	0	0.00%	1,678	20.73%	8,094
Sullivan	3,260	51.03%	3,061	47.92%	67	1.05%	0	0.00%	199	3.12%	6,388
Tioga	4,081	55.80%	3,211	43.91%	19	0.26%	2	0.03%	870	11.90%	7,313
Tompkins	4,318	55.70%	3,369	43.46%	36	0.46%	29	0.37%	949	12.24%	7,752
Ulster	8,672	52.72%	7,760	47.17%	18	0.11%	0	0.00%	912	5.54%	16,450
Warren	2,901	61.55%	1,803	38.26%	9	0.19%	0	0.00%	1,098	23.30%	4,713
Washington	6,535	63.33%	3,765	36.49%	19	0.18%	0	0.00%	2,770	26.84%	10,319
Wayne	6,164	62.05%	3,768	37.93%	2	0.02%	0	0.00%	2,396	24.12%	9,934
Westchester	10,234^[c]	47.94%	11,112	52.05%	3	0.01%	0	0.00%	-878	-4.11%	21,349
Wyoming	3,909	62.65%	2,301	36.88%	28	0.45%	1	0.02%	1,608	25.77%	6,239
Yates	2,760	59.75%	1,808	39.14%	51	1.10%	0	0.00%	952	20.61%	4,619
Totals	440,759	53.12%	387,279	46.68%	1,454	0.18%	201	0.02%	53,480	6.45%	829,693

Counties that flipped from Democratic to Republican

Counties that flipped from Republican to Liberal Republican

Notes

^ Since New York voted for presidential electors directly, the totals below are based on the highest elector on each ticket.
^ Voted with Fulton County
^ There is some uncertainly regarding the Republican vote in Westchester County. All sources agree that one Republican elector, Emil Sauer, certainly received 10,234 votes. But Sauer was not the elector on the Republican ticket to receive the most votes (in fact he received the second-fewest). The highest Republican elector was Stephen Sanford; his stated figure in Westchester County in 10,223. But the problem with this figure is that it results in Sanford's county by county votes not adding up to the statewide total. Using 10,234 does result in all the numbers aligning. In the 1873 Legislative Manual, the statewide summary lists 10,223 in Westchester despite two pages prior listing 10,234 on the county detail page.

References

^ Bicentennial Edition: Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, part 2, p. 1072.
^ ^a ^b Manual for Use of the Legislature of the State of New York 1873. Albany: Weed, Parsons, and Company. 1873. pp. 533–534. Retrieved December 2, 2025.
^ ^a ^b "Official Canvass - Electoral". Buffalo Evening Post. Buffalo. December 26, 1872. Retrieved December 2, 2025.
^ ^a ^b "Official Canvass - Electoral". The Ontario County Times. Canadaigua. January 8, 1873. Retrieved December 2, 2025.
^ ^a ^b The Tribune Almanac and Political Register for 1873. New York: The Tribune Association. 1873. p. 47. Retrieved December 2, 2025.
^ "Official Canvass, Fulton & Hamilton Counties - 1872". Fulton County Republican. Johnstown. November 21, 1872. Retrieved December 2, 2025.

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[6] Since New York voted for presidential electors directly, the totals below are based on the highest elector on each ticket.

[7] Voted with Fulton County

[9] There is some uncertainly regarding the Republican vote in Westchester County. All sources agree that one Republican elector, Emil Sauer, certainly received 10,234 votes. But Sauer was not the elector on the Republican ticket to receive the most votes (in fact he received the second-fewest). The highest Republican elector was Stephen Sanford; his stated figure in Westchester County in 10,223. But the problem with this figure is that it results in Sanford's county by county votes not adding up to the statewide total. Using 10,234 does result in all the numbers aligning. In the 1873 Legislative Manual, the statewide summary lists 10,223 in Westchester despite two pages prior listing 10,234 on the county detail page.

[1] Bicentennial Edition: Historical Statistics of the United States, Colonial Times to 1970, part 2, p. 1072.

[manual-2] Manual for Use of the Legislature of the State of New York 1873. Albany: Weed, Parsons, and Company. 1873. pp. 533–534. Retrieved December 2, 2025.

[canvass1-3] "Official Canvass - Electoral". Buffalo Evening Post. Buffalo. December 26, 1872. Retrieved December 2, 2025.

[canvass2-4] "Official Canvass - Electoral". The Ontario County Times. Canadaigua. January 8, 1873. Retrieved December 2, 2025.

[almanac-5] The Tribune Almanac and Political Register for 1873. New York: The Tribune Association. 1873. p. 47. Retrieved December 2, 2025.

[8] "Official Canvass, Fulton & Hamilton Counties - 1872". Fulton County Republican. Johnstown. November 21, 1872. Retrieved December 2, 2025.

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