Hello, and welcome back to another edition of Lace ‘Em Up’s Presidential Election series today we will be going over the Election of 1868, the Civil War is finally over but things haven’t been easy in the last several years as famous Union Army General, Ulysses S. Grant takes on the former Governor of New York, Horatio Seymour for the highest office in the land.

The Reconstruction Era

By April of 1865, the Civil War had reached its conclusion with the Union coming out on top with all but three confederate states (Texas, Mississippi and Virginia) being brought back into the country, not to mention that the state of Nebraska was now officially become a part of the U.S. thus allowing them to vote in the up-and-coming election.

The Republican Party meanwhile have been busy implementing various laws into action like the 13th Amendment which abolished slavery within the U.S. and the 14th Amendment which focused on granting citizenship and equal protection rights under the law to former slaves. In addition to these amendments, many African American males were now allowed to vote with this period of sweeping change for African Americans in the U.S. being referred to as “The Reconstruction Era”.

However, some (especially Southerners) were against all of these opportunities that black people were getting with many middle-class white workers fearing that they would lose their jobs to these newly freed slaves. Others were against the idea of blacks having the same equal rights as white people.

As tensions over what to do with the newly freed blacks were visible in many states as seen by the Memphis Riots and New Orleans Massacre of 1866, it was the heated arguments between the Republicans and President Andrew Johnson that were really going to take things to the next level.

The Presidency and Impeachment Trial of Andrew Johnson

Following Abraham Lincoln’s assassination at the hands of John Wilkes Booth on April 15th 1865, Andrew Johnson the former Military Governor of Tennessee and the Democratic Vice President to Lincoln by way of the National Union Party became the 17th President of the United States.

Johnson was now in charge during one of the most important times in America’s history as he now had to figure out how the country should be able to proceed going forward and his ideas for a post-civil war America isn’t going over well with many. Instead of going along with amendments that helped the former slaves or punishing the Confederates, President Johnson tried to bring back all of the Confederate States into the U.S. while also continuing the same policies of white supremacy within the government.

He also looked to pardon some if not all the confederates who took part in the war and establish ‘Black Codes’ which would restrict many opportunities that African Americans would have. On top of this, Johnson made it a habit of vetoing every bit of legislation like the Civil Rights Act of 1866, the Freeman’s Bureau Bill and the First Reconstruction Act of 1867 all of which supported civil and equal rights for African Americans.

For their part, the Radical Republicans responded by overriding the president’s vetoes and this trend continued until it reached its boiling point when Johnson attempted on numerous occasions to fire the Secretary of War, Edwin Stanton which resulted in Andrew Johnson becoming the first president to ever face impeachment.

Ultimately, Johnson avoided being impeached by just one single vote which came from Kansas Senator Edmund Ross who went on to use this leverage over Johnson to get many special favors. Ross himself reportedly even got a slush fund from many Johnson supporters after the impeachment trial.

Even though he was found not guilty, all of this damaged Johnson’s reputation as you can imagine and it would affect his chances in the upcoming race.

Horatio Seymour & Presidential Party Platform

Andrew Johnson stood very little chance of getting the Democratic Party’s nomination for president with the impeachment trial and his refusal to support the Confederates during the Civil War being probable causes. 

Other names like Salom Chase, George Pendleton, Thomas Hendricks and Winfield Scott Hancock were also looking to become the nominees none of them could excite the base. however, there was one person who did get the Democratic Party fired up and that was the Convention Chairman and former Governor of New York, Horatio Seymour who desperately did not want to be the nominee and refused to run as a candidate despite many in his party wanting him to.

By the time of the Democratic National Convention, more and more delegates began to throw their support to the former New York Governor who continued to mention that he didn’t want the nomination, but the delegates couldn’t support any other candidate, so Seymour finally gave in and reluctantly accepted the party’s nomination for president.

The delegates also nominated the former Representative and Civil War Hero from Missouri, Francis Blair as Seymour’s running mate with the party’s platform in this election looking to oppose these reconstruction laws as they felt all of this was a step too fair by the federal government and that all of the previous confederate states need to be brought back while also supporting the idea of using ‘Greenbacks’ as a form of currency that wasn’t backed by gold or silver.

Ulysses S. Grant: The War Hero Turned Nominee

The Republicans decided to get rid of the National Union Party now that the war was over and chose Ulysses S. Grant who was the Military General who led the Union to victory during the Civil War as their nominee for President.

After witnessing the divisions that occurred between Andrew Johnson and the Republicans when it came to passing laws that would help newly freed African Americans, Grant and his running mate, Schuyler Colfax, the then Speaker of the House, decided to run on the basis that the country can’t forsake all of the casualties that were made during the Civil War to just have things go back to the way it was before.

The GOP was running on the slogan “Let Us Have Peace” as they supported the idea of Black Suffrage in the South plus their willingness to go along with things like open immigration, infrastructure spending and many other reconstruction policies. 

Nasty Campaigning

Neither the Democrats nor Republicans are holding back when it came to making vicious and derogatory claims about each other. The Republicans claimed that Seymour wasn’t mentally fit to become President as his father committed suicide and he might do the same thing once the stresses of the job got to him.

Republicans were also using political cartoons showing Seymour instructing those in the New York City Draft Riots and Seymour himself even tried to get out of serving in the war all of which doesn’t paint him in a positive light.

On the other side, the Democrats were making claims that General Grant was a drunkard and an anti-semitic by bringing up Grant’s decision to issue General Order No. 11. This was an order that expelled all Jews from Grant’s military district during the Civil War and even though Grant apologized for this decision in a letter, it’s still going to hurt his chances in this election.

Seymour and Blair meanwhile are running on a campaign that is beyond racist with cartoon imagery portraying the Democrats as the party of the White people and the Republicans were just the party of the N-word. It also doesn’t help that Blair made racially charged speeches on the campaign trail and the slogan during the Democrats nominating convention was “This is a White Man’s Country, Let a White Man Rule.”

Nevertheless, many Northern Democrats especially former slaves are not going to be voting for Seymour and Blair but instead throwing their votes for Grant as a result of all of this.

Election Of 1868: The Results

As you can see from the electoral map, Ulysses S. Grant became the 18th President of the United States with Grant easily winning in the electoral vote with 214 votes compared to Seymour’s 80 electoral votes as you needed 148 or more votes to win in this election.

However, the popular vote was surprisingly closer than what most would’ve predicted with Grant getting 52.7% to Seymour getting 47.3% with a 5.4% difference in the popular vote separating the two.

Since all of the Confederate states didn’t all come back to the Union the crucial fact that many African Americans are allowed to vote and will most certainly be voting for the Republicans is what ultimately is going to give Grant the victory in this election.

Be sure to come back for the next Presidential Election, as will be talking about the Election of 1872, but If you are interested in learning more about U.S. political history on this site be sure to leave your thoughts down below in the comment section and be sure to follow Lace ‘Em Up on Twitter @laceemupoffice you can follow me also on Twitter @hakeemfullerton and I’ll see you in the next article.