1868 Republican National Convention

Last updated
1868 Republican National Convention
1868 presidential election
Grant Oval.png Colfax Oval.png
Nominees
Grant and Colfax
Convention
Date(s)May 20–21, 1868
City Chicago, Illinois
Venue Crosby's Opera House
Candidates
Presidential nominee Ulysses S. Grant of Illinois
Vice presidential nominee Schuyler Colfax of Indiana
  1864  ·  1872  

The 1868 Republican National Convention of the Republican Party of the United States was held in Crosby's Opera House, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, on May 20 to May 21, 1868. Ulysses S. Grant won the election and became the 18th president of the united states.

Contents

Commanding General of the U.S. Army Ulysses S. Grant was the unanimous choice of the Republican convention delegates for president. For vice president the delegates chose Speaker Schuyler Colfax, who was Grant's choice. In Grant's acceptance telegram, a letter to then President of the Republican National Convention Joseph R. Hawley, Grant said "Let us have peace", [1] which captured the imagination of the American people.

Background

Republicans, led by their Radical faction, had scored decisive victories in the 1866 elections. If that trend continued in the 1867 elections, then the party’s presidential nomination would likely go to a Radical like Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase or Senator Benjamin Wade. Chase had the support of important figures like Senator Charles Sumner and financier Jay Cooke. More moderate Republicans, such as Senator William P. Fessenden, Charles Francis Adams Jr., and The New York Times , had interpreted the 1866 elections not as a mandate for radicalism, but as a rejection of President Andrew Johnson’s programs and personality; therefore, they were wary of a Radical nominee.

The Grant candidacy, though, took on momentum in the wake of the state elections in 1867. The electorate rejected the Radical Republican agenda by voting for Democratic control in the key Northern states of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and by rejecting black manhood suffrage amendments in Kansas and Ohio. The election results bolstered the case of the moderate Republicans and seemed to close the door to a Radical nominee. Georges Clemenceau, a Paris Temps journalist who would later be the French premier, reported accurately that "The real victims of the victory of the Democrats are Mr. Wade and Mr. Chase."

Presidential nomination

Presidential candidates

As Republicans convened in Chicago in May 1868, Grant had no serious opposition for the nomination; he was nominated unanimously on the first ballot.

Presidential Balloting
Candidate1st
Grant 648
Absent2


Presidential Balloting / 2nd Day of Convention (May 21, 1868)

Vice Presidential nomination

Vice Presidential candidates

Colfax was selected for vice president on the fifth ballot. [2] Colfax was popular among Republicans for his friendly character, party loyalty, and Radical views on Reconstruction. [2] Wilson received a large amount of support from the southern delegations. [3]

Vice Presidential Ballot
1st2nd3rd4th5th (Before Shifts)5th (After Shifts)
Colfax 115145165186226541
Wade 14717017820620738
Fenton 12614413914413969
Wilson 11911410187560
Curtin 514540000
Hamlin 28302525200
Speed 2200000
Harlan 1600000
Creswell 1400000
Pomeroy 600000
Kelley 400000
Absent222222


Vice Presidential Balloting / 2nd Day of Convention (May 21, 1868)

See also

Related Research Articles

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1876 United States presidential election</span> 23rd quadrennial U.S. presidential election

The 1876 United States presidential election was the 23rd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 7, 1876, in which Republican nominee Rutherford B. Hayes faced Democrat Samuel J. Tilden. It was one of the most contentious presidential elections in American history. Its resolution involved negotiations between the Republicans and Democrats, resulting in the Compromise of 1877, and on March 2, 1877, the counting of electoral votes by the House and Senate occurred, confirming Hayes as President. It was the second of five U.S. presidential elections in which the winner did not win a plurality of the national popular vote.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1860 United States presidential election</span> 19th quadrennial U.S. presidential election

The 1860 United States presidential election was the 19th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 6, 1860. In a four-way contest, the Republican Party ticket of Abraham Lincoln and Hannibal Hamlin, absent from the ballot in ten slave states, won a national popular plurality, a popular majority in the North where states already had abolished slavery, and a national electoral majority comprising only Northern electoral votes. Lincoln's election thus served as the main catalyst of the states that would become the Confederacy seceding from the Union. This marked the first time that a Republican was elected president. It was also the first presidential election in which both major party candidates were registered in the same home state; the others have been in 1904, 1920, 1940, 1944, and 2016.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1864 United States presidential election</span> 20th quadrennial U.S. presidential election

The 1864 United States presidential election was the 20th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 8, 1864. Near the end of the American Civil War, incumbent President Abraham Lincoln of the National Union Party easily defeated the Democratic nominee, former General George B. McClellan, by a wide margin of 212–21 in the electoral college, with 55% of the popular vote. For the election, the Republican Party and some Democrats created the National Union Party, especially to attract War Democrats.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1868 United States presidential election</span> 21st quadrennial U.S. presidential election

The 1868 United States presidential election was the 21st quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 1868. In the first election of the Reconstruction Era, Republican nominee Ulysses S. Grant defeated Horatio Seymour of the Democratic Party. It was the first presidential election to take place after the conclusion of the American Civil War and the abolition of slavery. It was the first election in which African Americans could vote in the reconstructed Southern states, in accordance with the First Reconstruction Act.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1872 United States presidential election</span> 22nd quadrennial U.S. presidential election

The 1872 United States presidential election was the 22nd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 5, 1872. Despite a split in the Republican Party, incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant defeated Democratic-endorsed Liberal Republican nominee Horace Greeley.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Schuyler Colfax</span> Vice president of the United States from 1869 to 1873

Schuyler Colfax was an American journalist, businessman, and politician who served as the 17th vice president of the United States from 1869 to 1873, and prior to that as the 25th speaker of the House of Representatives from 1863 to 1869. Originally a Whig, then part of the short-lived People's Party of Indiana, and later a Republican, he was the U.S. Representative for Indiana's 9th congressional district from 1855 to 1869.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Benjamin Wade</span> American lawyer and politician (1800–1878)

Benjamin Franklin "Bluff" Wade was an American lawyer and politician who served as a United States Senator for Ohio from 1851 to 1869. He is known for his leading role among the Radical Republicans. Had the 1868 impeachment of U.S. President Andrew Johnson led to a conviction in the Senate, as president pro tempore of the U.S. Senate, Wade would have become acting president for the remaining nine months of Johnson's term.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1860 Republican National Convention</span> United States presidential nominating convention

The 1860 Republican National Convention was a presidential nominating convention that met May 16–18 in Chicago, Illinois. It was held to nominate the Republican Party's candidates for president and vice president in the 1860 election. The convention selected former representative Abraham Lincoln of Illinois for president and Senator Hannibal Hamlin of Maine for vice president.

The 1868 Democratic National Convention was held at the Tammany Hall headquarters building in New York City between July 4, and July 9, 1868. The first Democratic convention after the conclusion of the American Civil War, the convention was notable for the return of Democratic Party politicians from the Southern United States.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">National Union Party (United States)</span> 1864–1868 Republican and Unionist political alliance

The National Union Party was the name used by the Republican Party and elements of other parties for the national ticket in the 1864 presidential election during the Civil War. Most state Republican parties did not change their name. The name was used to attract War Democrats, border state voters, and Unconditional Unionist, and Unionist Party members who might otherwise have not voted for Republicans. The National Union Party nominated incumbent Republican President Abraham Lincoln of Illinois and Democrat Andrew Johnson of Tennessee for Vice President. They won the Electoral College 212–21.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1916 Republican National Convention</span> Political convention

The 1916 Republican National Convention was held in Chicago from June 7 to June 10. A major goal of the party's bosses at the convention was to heal the bitter split within the party that had occurred in the 1912 presidential campaign. In that year, Theodore Roosevelt bolted the GOP and formed his own political party, the Progressive Party, which contained most of the GOP's liberals. William Howard Taft, the incumbent president, won the nomination of the regular Republican Party. This split in the GOP ranks divided the Republican vote and led to the election of Democrat Woodrow Wilson.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1872 Republican National Convention</span> Political convention

The 1872 Republican National Convention was held in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, June 5–6, 1872. President Ulysses S. Grant was unanimously nominated for reelection by the convention's 752 delegates. Massachusetts Senator Henry Wilson replaced sitting Vice President Schuyler Colfax as the Republican vice presidential nominee.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1872 Democratic National Convention</span> U.S. political event held in Baltimore, Maryland

The 1872 Democratic National Convention was a presidential nominating convention held at Ford's Grand Opera House on East Fayette Street, between North Howard and North Eutaw Streets, in Baltimore, Maryland on July 9 and 10, 1872. It resulted in the nomination of newspaper publisher Horace Greeley of New York and Governor Benjamin Gratz Brown of Missouri for president and vice president, a ticket previously nominated by the rump Liberal Republican faction convention meeting, also held in Baltimore's newly built premier Opera House of nationally well-known theatre owner/operator John T. Ford of the major Republican Party, which had already re-nominated incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant of the regular Republicans for another term.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1876 Republican National Convention</span> Political convention

The 1876 Republican National Convention was a presidential nominating convention held at the Exposition Hall in Cincinnati, Ohio on June 14–16, 1876. President Ulysses S. Grant had considered seeking a third term, but with various scandals, a poor economy and heavy Democratic gains in the House of Representatives that led many Republicans to repudiate him, he declined to run. The convention resulted in the nomination of Governor Rutherford B. Hayes of Ohio for president and Representative William A. Wheeler of New York for vice president.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1884 Republican National Convention</span> Political convention

The 1884 Republican National Convention was a presidential nominating convention held at the Exposition Hall in Chicago, Illinois, on June 3–6, 1884. It resulted in the nomination of former House Speaker James G. Blaine from Maine for president and Senator John A. Logan of Illinois for vice president. The ticket lost in the election of 1884 to Democrats Grover Cleveland and Thomas A. Hendricks.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1888 Republican National Convention</span> Political convention

The 1888 Republican National Convention was a presidential nominating convention held at the Auditorium Building in Chicago, Illinois, on June 19–25, 1888. It resulted in the nomination of former Senator Benjamin Harrison of Indiana for president and Levi P. Morton of New York, a former Representative and Minister to France, for vice president. During the convention, Frederick Douglass was invited to speak and became the first African-American to have his name put forward for a presidential nomination in a major party's roll call vote; he received one vote from Kentucky on the fourth ballot.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Ellen Maria Colfax</span> Second Lady of the United States

Ellen Maria Wade Colfax was the second wife of Schuyler Colfax, who became the first House speaker to be elected vice president when he ran on a ticket headed by Ulysses S. Grant in 1868. She was born in Andover, Ohio in 1836.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">1864 National Union National Convention</span> Political convention

The 1864 National Union National Convention was the United States presidential nominating convention of the National Union Party, which was a name adopted by the main faction of the Republican Party in a coalition with many, if not most, War Democrats after some Republicans and War Democrats nominated John C. Frémont over Lincoln. During the Convention, the party officially called for the end of the ongoing Civil War, the eradication of slavery and the adoption of the Emancipation Proclamation.

War Democrats in American politics of the 1860s were members of the Democratic Party who supported the Union and rejected the policies of the Copperheads. The War Democrats demanded a more aggressive policy toward the Confederacy and supported the policies of Republican President Abraham Lincoln when the American Civil War broke out a few months after his victory in the 1860 presidential election.

<span class="mw-page-title-main">Horatio Seymour 1868 presidential campaign</span>

In 1868, the Democrats nominated former New York Governor Horatio Seymour for President and Francis Preston Blair Jr. for Vice President. The Seymour-Blair ticket ran on a platform which supported national reconciliation and states' rights, opposed Reconstruction, and opposed both Black equality and Black suffrage. Meanwhile, the Republican presidential ticket led by General Ulysses S. Grant benefited from Grant's status as a war hero and ran on a pro-Reconstruction platform. Ultimately, the Seymour-Blair ticket ended up losing to the Republican ticket of General Ulysses S. Grant and House Speaker Schuyler Colfax in the 1868 U.S. presidential election.

References

  1. "Letter to Joseph R. Hawley, President National Union Republican Convention, Accepting the Presidential Nomination | The American Presidency Project". www.presidency.ucsb.edu. Retrieved 2022-10-31.
  2. 1 2 Joseph E. Delgatto, Indiana Journal Hall of Fame, Schuyler Colfax 1966
  3. Abbott 1986, p. 173.

Works cited

Preceded by
1864
Baltimore
Republican National Conventions Succeeded by
1872
Philadelphia