1868 United States presidential election

Election of Ulysses S. Grant November 2013 February 2023related races 1868 United States elections 1868 United States presidential election United States 1867 presidential no 1864 United States presidential election 1864 1872 United States presidential election 1872 294 members of the Electoral College 148 electoral 80.9% http://www.electproject.org/national-1789-present National General Election VEP Turnout Rates, 1789–Present United States Election Project CQ Press 4.6 pp November 3, 1868 x200px Ulysses S. Grant Republican Party (United States) Illinois Schuyler Colfax 214 26 3,013,421 52.7% x200px Horatio Seymour Democratic Party (United States) New York Francis Preston Blair Jr. 80 8 2,706,829 47.3% 350px Presidential election results map. Red denotes states won by Grant/Colfax, blue denotes those won by Seymour/Blair, and green denotes those states that had not yet been restored to the Union and which were therefore ineligible to vote. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state. President Andrew Johnson Democratic Party (United States) Ulysses S. Grant Republican Party (United States) Presidential elections were held in the United States on 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. Incumbent president Andrew Johnson had succeeded to the presidency in 1865 following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln, a Republican. Johnson, a War Democrat from Tennessee, had served as Lincoln's running mate in 1864 on the National Union ticket, which was designed to attract Republicans and War Democrats. Upon accession to office, Johnson clashed with the Republican Congress over Reconstruction policies and was impeached and nearly removed from office. Johnson received some support for another term at the 1868 Democratic National Convention, but, after several ballots, the convention nominated Seymour, who had formerly served as Governor of New York. The 1868 Republican National Convention unanimously nominated Grant, who had been the highest-ranking Union general at the end of the Civil War. The Democrats criticized the Republican Reconstruction policies, and "campaigned explicitly on an anti-black, pro-white platform,"Tali Mendelberg (2001), The Race Card: Campaign Strategy, Implicit Messages, and the Norm of Equality, Princeton University Press, pg. 45–46 while Republicans campaigned on Grant's popularity and the Union victory in the Civil War. Grant decisively won the electoral vote, but his margin was narrower in the popular vote. In addition to his appeal in the North, Grant benefited from votes among the newly enfranchised freedmen in the South, while the temporary political disfranchisement of many Southern whites helped Republican margins. As three of the former Confederate states (Texas, Mississippi, and Virginia) were not yet restored to the Union, their electors could not vote in the election. While readmitted to the Union, the presidential electors of Florida were appointed at the discretion of the state legislature rather than by popular vote. Partly due to the exceptional circumstances of Reconstruction, this was the last time until 1912 that the Democrats carried more electoral votes from the North (46) than from the South (34), as well as the last time the Republicans did better in the popular vote in the South than in the North until 1964, due to very large majorities in reconstruction states like South Carolina and Tennessee. This was also the last time that Missouri supported the Republican candidate until 1904. Background In the wake of the Civil War, the civil rights of former slaves were a hotly debated issue in the Union. Grant supported the Reconstruction plans of the Radical Republicans in Congress, which favored the 14th Amendment, with full citizenship and civil rights for freedmen, including suffrage (the right to vote) for former slaves. The Democratic platform denigrated such rights as "Negro supremacy," and demanded a restoration of states' rights, including the right of southern states to determine for themselves whether to allow suffrage for adult freedmen. The former Confederate States were determined to limit the civil rights of emancipated slaves, and supported the Democratic candidate. Nominations Republican Party nomination 1868 Republican National Convention thumb|upright=.90|Grant/Colfax campaign poster 1868 Republican Party ticket white Ulysses S. Grant white Schuyler Colfaxfor Presidentfor Vice President center|200x200px center|200x200px 6thCommanding General of the U.S. Army(1864–1869) 25thSpeaker of the House(1863–1869)center|375pxthumb|A personal history of Ulysses S. Grant, and sketch of Schuyler Colfax (1868) By 1868, the Republicans felt strong enough to drop the Union Party label, but wanted to nominate a popular hero as their presidential candidate. General Ulysses S. Grant, widely known throughout the nation for winning the Civil War, announced he was a Republican. Grant was unanimously nominated on the first ballot as the party's standard-bearer at the Republican convention in Chicago, held on May 20–21, 1868. House Speaker Schuyler Colfax, a Radical Republican from Indiana, was nominated for vice president on the sixth ballot, surpassing early favorite, Senator Benjamin Wade of Ohio. The Republican platform supported Black suffrage as part of the 14th Amendment's promise of full citizenship for former slaves. It opposed using greenbacks to redeem U.S. bonds, encouraged immigration, endorsed full rights for naturalized citizens, and favored Radical Reconstruction as distinct from the more lenient policies of President Andrew Johnson.William DeGregorio, The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents, Gramercy, 1997 Democratic Party nomination 1868 Democratic National Convention thumb|upright=.90|Seymour/Blair campaign poster 1868 Democratic Party ticket white Horatio Seymour white Francis Preston Blair Jr.for Presidentfor Vice President center|200x200px center|200x200px 18thGovernor of New York(1853–1854 & 1863–1864) U.S. Representativefor Missouri's 1st(1857–1859, 1860, 1861–1862, & 1863–1864)Campaign400px thumb|228x228px|Andrew Johnson, the incumbent president in 1868, whose partial term expired on March 4, 1869 Democratic candidates: The Democratic National Convention was held in New York City on July 4–9, 1868 and party leaders were badly divided with little else to agree on outside ending Reconstruction. Eastern Democrats called for war bonds to be redeemed in gold, although many of them had been purchased with badly depreciated greenbacks. Western Democrats on the other hand called for the "Ohio Idea"--redemption in greenbacks as indebted farmers considered that more money in circulation would make repayment of their debts easier. The Ohio Idea would become part of the Democratic Party platform, but would not be espoused by its candidate. The front-runner in the early balloting was George H. Pendleton (1864 Democratic vice presidential nominee), who led on the first 15 ballots, followed in varying order by President Johnson, Winfield Scott Hancock, Sanford Church, Asa Packer, Joel Parker, James E. English, James Rood Doolittle, and Thomas A. Hendricks. The unpopular Johnson, having narrowly survived impeachment, won 65 votes on the first ballot, less than one-third of the total necessary for nomination, and thus lost his bid for election as president in his own right. Meanwhile, convention chairman Horatio Seymour, former governor of New York, received nine votes on the fourth ballot from the state of North Carolina. This unexpected move caused "loud and enthusiastic cheering," but Seymour refused, saying, 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.Irving Stone (1943), They Also Ran: The Story of the Men Who Were Defeated for the Presidency, Garden City, New York: Doubleday and Doran, pg. 280 By the seventh ballot Pendleton and Hendricks had emerged as the two front-runners, with Hancock the only other candidate with much support by this point. After numerous indecisive ballots, the names of John T. Hoffman, Francis P. Blair, and Stephen Johnson Field were placed in nomination, but none of these candidates gained substantial support. For 21 ballots, the opposing candidates battled it out: the East battling the West for control, the conservatives battling the radicals. Pendleton's support collapsed after the 15th ballot, but went to Hancock rather than Hendricks, leaving the convention still deadlocked. The two leading candidates were determined that the other should not receive the presidential nomination; because of the two-thirds rule of the convention, a compromise candidate was needed. Seymour still hoped it would be Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, but on the 22nd ballot, the chairman of the Ohio delegation announced, "at the unanimous request and demand of the delegation I place Horatio Seymour in nomination with 21 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 decline. 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.Official proceedings of the National Democratic convention, held at New York, July 4–9, 1868 (Pg. 153) Seymour left the 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, the convention nominated him for president 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. Blair's nomination reflected a desire to balance the ticket east and west as well as north and south.William E. Parrish (1998), Frank Blair: Lincoln's Conservative, Missouri Biography Series, University of Missouri Press, pg. 254 Blair had worked hard for the Democratic vice presidential nomination and accepted second place on the ticket, finding himself in controversy.Frank Blair: Lincoln's Conservative, William E. Parrish, pg. 260 He had gained attention for an inflammatory letter addressed to Colonel James O. Broadhead, dated a few days before the convention met, in which he wrote that the "real and only issue in this contest was the overthrow of Reconstruction, as the radical Republicans had forced it in the South."Stewart Mitchell, Horatio Seymour of New York, Harvard University Press, 1938, p. 448 General election Campaign thumb|150px|left|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, being fought out largely on the question of how Reconstruction should be conducted. Seymour's campaign was marked by pronounced appeals to racism with repeated attempts to brand General Grant as the "Nigger" candidate and Seymour as the "White Man's" candidate.NY Public Library, Schomberg Collection, badge produced in 1868, digitized 2013 Denouncing the Republicans' Reconstruction policy as allegedly subjecting the South "to military despotism and negro supremacy," Democrats campaigned on the motto, "This is a white man's country; let white men rule." Grant's General Order No. 11 during the Civil War became a campaign issue. He apologized in a letter for the controversial order, stating "I have no prejudice against sect or race, but want each individual to be judged by his own merit. Order No. 11 does not sustain this statement, I admit, but then I do not sustain that order. It would never have been issued if it had not been telegraphed the moment it was penned and without reflection." In his army days he had traded at a local store operated by the Seligman brothers, two Jewish merchants who became Grant's lifelong friends. thumb|right|300px|Grant/Colfax humorous campaign card Grant took no part in the campaign and made no promises. The Republican campaign theme, "Let us have peace," was taken from his letter of acceptance. 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. thumb|215px|left|Seymour/Blair campaign photograph Seymour answered none of the charges made against him, but made a few key speeches. Some newspapers exaggerated his faults. As governor, Seymour had sent troops to Gettysburg, but some press tried to portray him as disloyal to the Union. 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 New York draft rioters "my friends." The Hartford Post called him "almost as much of a corpse" as ex-President James Buchanan, who had just died. Additionally, Republicans alleged that insanity ran through the Seymour family, citing as evidence the suicide of his father. Blair went on a national speaking tour in which he framed the contest with Ulysses S. Grant and the pro-Reconstruction Republicans in stark racial terms, warning of the rule of "a semi-barbarous race of blacks who are worshipers of fetishes and poligamists" and wanted to "subject the white women to their unbridled lust." Republicans advised Americans not to vote for Seymour, as Blair might succeed him.Stewart Mitchell, Horatio Seymour of New York, Harvard University Press, 1938, pg. 23 Northern and Southern Democratic Sheet Music Blair had a reputation for outspokenness and his campaign speeches in 1868 attacked Radical Republicans.Mitchell (1938), Horatio Seymour, pp. 448–449 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 stance on Reconstruction.William E. Parrish, Frank Blair: Lincoln's Conservative, p. 255–256 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. Seymour emphasized his idea that change in the South should be accomplished at the state level, without national interference. The Democrats campaigned for immediate restoration of all states, the "regulation of the elective franchise in the states by their citizens", and amnesty for past political offenses,Henry, Robert Selph; The Story of Reconstruction; p. 330-332 9781568522548 while State civil authority should take precedence over military action. The president and the Supreme Court should be respected rather than attacked, as he claimed the Republicans had done. The Democrats would be careful to reorder national priorities.William E. Parrish, Frank Blair: Lincoln's Conservative, pg. 258–259 As an Eastern "gold" Democrat, Seymour also rejected the Ohio Idea and thus lost the support of the party's Western contingent, which contributed to his ultimate defeat at the ballot box.https://newspaperarchive.com/madison-wisconsin-state-journal-oct-31-1868-p-1/ Madison Wisconsin State Journal Archives, Oct 31, 1868, p. 1 1868 Results 320px right #a2a9b1 #f8f9fa 90% 1868 Election Victory Address #e2eaf2 #000000 300px|alt=A hand-colored 1870s lithograph showing the United States Capitol building in Washington, D.C. A Currier & Ives lithograph of Washington, D.C., c. 1872–1874. "The responsibilities of the position I feel, but accept them without fear, if I can have the same support which has been given to me thus far. I thank you and all others who have fought together in this contest—a contest in which you are all interested personally as much, and perhaps more than I am. I now take occasion to bid you good bye, as I leave here tomorrow for Washington, and shall probably see but few of you again for some years to come; although it would give me great pleasure to make an annual pilgrimage to a place where I have enjoyed myself so much as I have here during the past few months." — Ulysses S. Grant, speech to the citizens of Galena, Illinois (November 5, 1868) 31.7% of the voting age population and 80.9% of eligible voters participated in the election.Abramson Aldrich Rohde 1995 99 Horatio Seymour polled 2,708,744 votes and Grant 3,013,650. The closeness of the popular vote surprised the political elite at the time.Irving Stone (1943), They Also Ran, pg. 282 Republican Representative James G. Blaine called the slender popular majority for Grant "a very startling fact."Stewart Mitchell, Horatio Seymour of New York, pg. 483 Normally an acute judge of popular sentiment, Blaine was at a loss to explain the size of the Democratic vote.Mitchell, Horatio Seymour of New York, pg. 443 Ethnic Irish Catholic and other immigrants had been settling in New York City for nearly a quarter century. The narrow margins by which Seymour lost several of the northern states like Indiana, Connecticut, and Pennsylvania, and the effects of new black votes in the South provoked the suspicion that a majority of white men voted for Seymour.Mitchell, Horatio Seymour of New York, pg. 474 Grant won every southern state except Georgia and Louisiana, where fraud and violence by the Ku Klux Klan and Knights of the White Camelia were so severe that it delivered Democratic majorities. Klan violence also led to a steep drop in Republican votes in areas of Tennessee, Alabama, and South Carolina.Leonard, Elizabeth D.; Lincoln's Avengers: Justice, Revenge and Reunion after the Civil War, p. 286 0393048683Foner Eric Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution 1863-1876 1988 Harper and Row Cambridge 0-06-015851-4 342–343 Perennial Library Along the border, Kentucky, Maryland, and Delaware went overwhelmingly Democratic. In Kentucky, the result was influenced by hostility toward the Radical Reconstructionists, which had led to the state's first postwar government being almost entirely composed of former Confederates.Henry; The Story of Reconstruction, pp. 250–253 No Democratic presidential candidate before or since has attained a higher percentage of the vote in KentuckyCounting the Votes; Kentucky https://web.archive.org/web/20171120015058/http://www.countingthevotes.com/kentucky/ November 20, 2017 or Maryland,Counting the Votes; Maryland https://web.archive.org/web/20171107030833/http://www.countingthevotes.com/maryland November 7, 2017 where hostility toward black suffrage was very widespread.Bergeron, Paul H.; Andrew Johnson's Civil War and Reconstruction; pp. 105–111 1572337486 As for Delaware,Counting the Votes; Delaware https://web.archive.org/web/20171111041536/http://www.countingthevotes.com/delaware November 11, 2017 only the Democratic tickets of Johnson/Humphrey in 1964 (which received the largest percentage of the popular vote since 1824) and Obama/Biden in 2008 (with the first Delawarean on a national ticket) carried the state with a larger percentage of the vote. Two border states, Missouri and West Virginia, both under Republican control, gave their electoral votes to Grant.Henry; The Story of Reconstruction; p. Seymour narrowly carried his home state of New York, but Blair, largely because of the Radicals' registry system, failed to carry Missouri. The Missouri Democrat exulted: "General Blair is beaten in his ward, his city, his county and his State."Frank Blair: Lincoln's Conservative, William E. Parrish, pg. 259–260 In West Virginia, former Confederates were temporarily forbidden from voting or holding public office. About 15,000 to 25,000 white residents were disfranchised as a result."A Brief History of African Americans in West Virginia," West Virginia Culture http://www.wvculture.org/history/blachist.html African-Americans in West Virginia December 7, 2015 dead https://web.archive.org/web/20131231191446/http://www.wvculture.org/history/blachist.html December 31, 2013 mdy-all Of the 1,708 counties making returns, Grant won 991 (58.02%) and Seymour 713 (41.74%). Four counties (0.23%) split evenly between Grant and Seymour. Hence the Democrats, even with all the burdens of the war, still carried only 278 fewer counties than the Republicans. That cemented a solid party comeback at the grassroots level that had begun in local elections in 1867.Bergeron; Andrew Johnson's Civil War and Reconstruction; pp. 175–177 7% of counties in northern states voted for a different party from the 1864 election.Abbott 1986 202 The 1868 election is the only election since the Civil War in which the two major party candidates won over 99.9% of the vote.Kondik Kyle Coleman J. Miles Notes on the State of the 2020 Election https://centerforpolitics.org/crystalball/articles/notes-on-the-state-of-the-2020-election/ University of Virginia November 12, 2020 Out of a total of over 5.7 million votes, just 46 ballots were cast for anyone other than Grant and Seymour.1868 Presidential General Election Results https://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/national.php?year=1868&f=0&off=0&elect=0 Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections That was the last election in which the Republicans won Tennessee until 1920, the last in which the Democrats won Oregon until 1912, and the last in which the Republicans won Missouri until 1904. That Grant lost New York to Seymour by 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 Congress to look into the state vote. The petition was presented to the House of Representatives on December 14 and accepted by a vote of 134–35 (52 abstained). Speaker of the House 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 without a protest. It reported to the House of Representatives on February 23, 1869.Horatio Seymour of New York, Stewart Mitchell, pg. 474–475 The committee decided to take no action, and Seymour retained New York's 33 electoral votes. He was willing to return to the subject as long as he lived. According to Seymour's biographer, Stewart Mitchell, the Republican Party claimed credit for saving the Union and was bound, bent, and determined to continue to rule it.Horatio Seymour of New York, Stewart Mitchell, pg. 484 The margin of Grant's popular majority resulted largely from winning a high percentage of the half-million newly enfranchised men of color.Henry, The Story of Reconstruction; pp. 345–346 This strategy contrasted strongly with later years, when Republicans could not stop black disfranchisement in the former Confederate states, since they had many new and secure votes in new states in the Western United States.Valelly, Richard M.; The Two Reconstructions: The Struggle for Black Enfranchisement University of Chicago Press, 2009, pp. 134–139 9780226845302Popular vote 600px 410px Grant Republican Party (US) 52.66 Seymour Democratic Party (US) 47.34 Others #777777 0.00 Electoral vote 600px 410px Grant Republican Party (US) 72.79 Seymour Democratic Party (US) 27.21 File: United States Electoral College 1868.svg (a) (a) Ulysses S. Grant Schuyler Colfax Republican Illinois Indiana 3,013,650 52.66% 214 Horatio Seymour Francis Preston Blair Jr. Democratic New York Missouri 2,708,744 47.34% 80 46 <0.01% 5,722,440 294 148 Source (Popular Vote): 1868 July 27, 2005 Source (Electoral Vote): 1868 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 for Grant by a vote of 40 to 9. Geography of results Cartographic gallery Results by state Source: Data from Walter Dean Burnham, Presidential ballots, 1836–1892 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1955) pp 247–57.http://uselectionatlas.org/RESULTS/data.php?year=1868&datatype=national&def=1&f=0&off=0&elect=0 1868 Presidential General Election Data – National May 7, 2013 States/districts won by Seymour/BlairStates/districts won by Grant/Colfax Ulysses S. GrantRepublican Horatio SeymourDemocratic Margin State Total State electoralvotes # % electoralvotes # % electoralvotes # % # Alabama 8 76,667 51.25 8 72,921 48.75 – 3,746 2.50 149,594 AL Arkansas 5 22,112 53.68 5 19,078 46.32 – 3,034 7.36 41,190 AR California 5 54,592 50.24 5 54,078 49.76 – 514 0.47 108,670 CA Connecticut 6 50,788 51.49 6 47,844 48.51 – 2,944 2.98 98,632 CT Delaware 3 7,614 41.00 – 10,957 59.00 3 −3,343 −18.00 18,571 DE Florida 3 – – 3Due to the status of Reconstruction, no election was held; the three electoral votes were allocated by the Florida State Legislature to Grant. – – – – – – FL Georgia 9 57,109 35.73 – 102,707 64.27 9 −45,598 −28.54 159,816 GA Illinois 16 250,304 55.69 16 199,116 44.31 – 51,188 11.38 449,420 IL Indiana 13 176,552 51.39 13 166,980 48.61 – 9,572 2.78 343,532 IN Iowa 8 120,399 61.92 8 74,040 38.08 – 46,359 23.84 194,439 IA Kansas 3 30,027 68.82 3 13,600 31.17 – 16,427 37.65 43,630 KS Kentucky 11 39,566 25.45 – 115,889 74.55 11 −76,323 −49.10 155,455 KY Louisiana 7 33,263 29.31 – 80,225 70.69 7 −46,962 −41.38 113,488 LA Maine 7 70,502 62.41 7 42,460 37.59 – 28,042 24.82 112,962 ME Maryland 7 30,438 32.80 – 62,357 67.20 7 −31,919 −34.40 92,795 MD Massachusetts 12 136,379 69.76 12 59,103 30.23 – 77,276 39.53 195,508 MA Michigan 8 128,560 56.98 8 97,060 43.02 – 31,500 13.96 225,620 MI Minnesota 4 43,722 60.88 4 28,096 39.12 – 15,626 21.76 71,818 MN Missouri 11 86,860 56.96 11 65,628 43.04 – 21,232 13.92 152,488 MO Nebraska 3 9,772 63.91 3 5,519 36.09 – 4,253 27.82 15,291 NE Nevada 3 6,480 55.39 3 5,218 44.61 – 1,262 10.78 11,698 NV New Hampshire 5 37,718 55.22 5 30,575 44.76 – 7,143 10.46 68,304 NH New Jersey 7 80,131 49.12 – 83,001 50.88 7 −2,870 −1.76 163,132 NJ New York 33 419,888 49.41 – 429,883 50.59 33 −9,995 −1.18 849,771 NY North Carolina 9 96,939 53.41 9 84,559 46.59 – 12,380 6.82 181,498 NC Ohio 21 280,167 54.00 21 238,621 46.00 – 41,546 8.00 518,788 OH Oregon 3 10,961 49.63 – 11,125 50.37 3 −164 −0.74 22,086 OR Pennsylvania 26 342,280 52.20 26 313,382 47.80 – 28,898 4.40 655,662 PA Rhode Island 4 12,993 66.49 4 6,548 33.51 – 6,445 32.98 19,541 RI South Carolina 6 62,301 57.93 6 45,237 42.07 – 17,064 15.86 107,538 SC Tennessee 10 56,628 68.43 10 26,129 31.57 – 30,499 36.86 82,757 TN Vermont 5 44,167 78.57 5 12,045 21.43 – 32,122 57.14 56,212 VT West Virginia 5 29,015 58.83 5 20,306 41.17 – 8,709 17.66 49,321 WV Wisconsin 8 108,900 56.25 8 84,703 43.75 – 24,197 12.50 193,603 WI TOTALS: 294 3,013,790 52.66 214 2,708,980 47.34 80 304,810 5.32 5,722,440 US States that flipped from Republican to Democratic Louisiana Maryland New York Oregon 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 1% (8 electoral votes) California 0.48% (520 votes) Oregon 0.74% (164 votes) States where the margin of victory was under 5% (93 electoral votes) New York 1.18% (9,995 votes) New Jersey 1.76% (2,870 votes) Alabama 2.50% (3,746 votes) Indiana 2.79% (9,572 votes) Connecticut 2.98% (2,944 votes) Pennsylvania 4.41% (28,898 votes) States where the margin of victory was under 10% (35 electoral votes) North Carolina 6.82% (12,380 votes) (tipping point state for a Grant victory) Arkansas 7.37% (3,034 votes) (tipping point state for a Seymour victory) Ohio 8.01% (41,546 votes) Statistics Counties with highest percent of vote (Republican) Hancock County, Tennessee 100.00% Monona County, Iowa 100.00% Ottawa County, Kansas 100.00% Jefferson County, Nebraska 100.00% McDowell County, West Virginia 100.00% Counties with highest percent of vote (Democratic) St. Landry Parish, Louisiana 100.00% Lafayette Parish, Louisiana 100.00% Jackson Parish, Louisiana 100.00% De Soto Parish, Louisiana 100.00% Franklin Parish, Louisiana 100.00% Counties with highest percent of vote (Other) DeKalb County, Alabama 0.70% Sullivan County, New Hampshire 0.11% Strafford County, New Hampshire 0.09% Carroll County, New Hampshire 0.02% See also American election campaigns in the 19th century First inauguration of Ulysses S. Grant History of the United States (1865–1918) History of the United States Democratic Party History of the United States Republican Party Reconstruction era Third Party System 1868–1869 United States House of Representatives elections 1868–1869 United States Senate elections Ohio idea Footnotes 30em Notes note Bibliography Abbott Richard The Republican Party and the South, 1855–1877: The First Southern Strategy University of North Carolina Press 1986 https://archive.org/details/republicanparty00abbo 0807816809 Abramson Paul Aldrich John Rohde David Change and Continuity in the 1992 Elections CQ Press 1995 0871878399 American Annual Cyclopedia ... 1868 (1869), online, highly detailed compendium of facts and primary sources Coleman, Charles Hubert. The election of 1868 : the Democratic effort to regain control (1933) online Gambill, Edward. Conservative Ordeal: Northern Democrats and Reconstruction, 1865–1868. (Iowa State University Press: 1981). Henry, Robert Selph. The Story of Reconstruction (1938) Prymak, Andrew. "The 1868 and 1872 Elections," in Edward O. Frantz, ed. A Companion to the Reconstruction Presidents 1865–1881 (Wiley Blackwell Companions to American History) (2014) pp 235–56 online 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 Primary sources Chester, Edward W A guide to political platforms (1977) pp 86–89 online Official proceedings of the National Democratic convention, held at New York, July 4–9, 1868 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.] Porter, Kirk H. and Donald Bruce Johnson, eds. National party platforms, 1840–1964 (1965) online 1840–1956 External links Presidential Election of 1868: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress 1868 popular vote by counties 1868 State-by-state Popular vote https://web.archive.org/web/20080517121743/http://www.multied.com/elections/1868Pop.html May 17, 2008 Election of 1868 in Counting the Votes https://web.archive.org/web/20171006113327/http://www.countingthevotes.com/1868/ October 6, 2017 "Grant-ed" Words by Mary A. Kidder, 1868, music by Susan M. Parkhurst. "The White Man's Banner" Words by Mark F. Bigney, 1868, music by Theodor von La Hach. Category:Presidency of Ulysses S. Grant Category:Ulysses S. Grant Category:Schuyler Colfax Category:November 1868 in the United States