U.S. presidential election, 1868

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The U.S. 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 readmitted to the Union and therefore could not vote in the election. The incumbent President, Andrew Johnson, was despised by Democrats for running as Abraham Lincoln's Vice President and by Republicans for obstructing their plans for Reconstruction, and so he was not a candidate. Instead the Democrats nominated Horatio Seymour to take on the Republican candidate, Civil War hero General Ulysses S. Grant. With freed blacks voting in much of the South (with the help of Union soldiers), and with massive popularity in the North as the man who won the Civil War, Grant won in a landslide.

Contents

1 Background 2 Nominations 2.1 Republican Party nomination 2.2 Democratic Party nomination 3 General election 3.1 Results 4 See also 5 Reference 5.1 External link

Background

The American Civil War over, partisan politics immediately returned as U.S. Congress wrangled with the issue of reconstruction - the Radical Republicans even going so far as to impeach President Andrew Johnson.

Nominations

Republican Party nomination

General Ulysses S. Grant, who had garnered 22 delegate votes at the 1864 convention without demonstrating any interest in being a candidate, was unanimously nominated as the party's standard bearer for 1868. Schuyler Colfax was chosen over Ohio's Benjamin Franklin Wade for Vice President.

Democratic Party nomination

Two-time New York Governor Horatio Seymour emerged as the Presidential nominee for the Democrats, garnering 317 delegate votes to defeat 1864 Vice Presidential nominee George H. Pendleton (157 delegates), future Vice President Thomas Andrews Hendricks (146) and eventual 1880 Democratic presidential nominee Winfield Scott Hancock. Francis Preston Blair, Jr. was nominated for Vice President.

General election

Results

Presidential Candidate	Party	Home State	Popular Vote(a), (b)		Electoral Vote(a)	Running Mate	Running Mate's Home State	Running Mate's Electoral Vote(a)
			Count	Percentage
Ulysses Simpson Grant	Republican	Illinois	3,012,833	52.7	214	Schuyler Colfax	Indiana	214
Horatio Seymour	Democratic	New York	2,703,249	47.3	80	Francis Preston Blair, Jr.	Missouri	80
Total			5,716,082	100%	294	Total		294
Needed to win					148	Needed to win		148

^(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.
^(b) The popular vote total omits votes for candidates besides those listed, which skews the popular percentages up slightly.

See also

• History of the United States (1865-1918)

Reference

External link

• 1868 State-by-state Popular vote (http://www.multied.com/elections/1868Pop.html)

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