United States presidential election, 1872

United States presidential election, 1872
United States
November 5, 1872
All 352 electoral votes of the Electoral College
177 electoral votes needed to win
Turnout 71.3%[1] Decrease 6.8 pp
 
Nominee Ulysses S. Grant Horace Greeley
Party Republican Liberal Republican
Home state Illinois New York
Running mate Henry Wilson Benjamin G. Brown
Electoral vote 286 3 (66 elected)
States carried 31 6
Popular vote 3,598,235 2,834,761
Percentage 55.6% 43.8%

Presidential election results map. Red denotes states won by Grant/Wilson, blue denotes those won by Greeley, the various shades of yellow and orange denote those won by Hendricks, Brown, Jenkins, and Davis; this reflects the posthumous scattering of Greeley's electoral votes. Green denotes states that were ineligible to vote. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state.
President before election

Ulysses S. Grant
Republican

 Elected President

Ulysses S. Grant
Republican

The United States presidential election of 1872 was the 22nd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 5, 1872. The incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant was easily elected to a second term in office, with Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts as his running mate. Grant's decisive re-election was achieved in the face of a split within the Republican Party that resulted in a third party of Liberal Republicans nominating Horace Greeley to oppose Grant. This action caused the Democratic Party to cancel its convention, support Greeley as well, and not nominate a candidate of its own.

On November 29, 1872, after the popular vote was counted, but before the Electoral College cast its votes, Greeley died. As a result, electors previously committed to Greeley voted for four different candidates for president and eight different candidates for vice-president. Greeley himself received three posthumous electoral votes, but these votes were disallowed by Congress. The election of 1872 is the only United States presidential election in which a major party nominee died during the electoral process.

Nominations

Republican Party nomination

At the 1872 Republican National Convention the Republicans nominated President Ulysses S. Grant for re-election, but nominated Senator Henry Wilson from Massachusetts for vice-president instead of the incumbent Schuyler Colfax, who was implicated in the Credit Mobilier scandal. Others, who had grown weary of the corruption of the Grant administration, bolted to form the Liberal Republican Party.

The opposition fusion nominations

Liberal Republican campaign poster

In the hope of defeating Grant, the Democratic party endorsed the nominees of the Liberal Republican Party.

Liberal Republican Party nomination

An influential group of dissident Republicans split from the party to form the Liberal Republican Party in 1870. At the party's only national convention, held in Cincinnati in 1872, New York Tribune editor Horace Greeley was nominated for president on the sixth ballot, defeating Charles Francis Adams. Missouri Governor Benjamin Gratz Brown was nominated for vice-president on the second ballot.

Democratic Party nomination

The 1872 Democratic National Convention met in Baltimore, Maryland, on July 9–10. Because of its strong desire to defeat Ulysses S. Grant, the Democratic Party also nominated the Liberal Republicans' Greeley/Brown ticket[2] and adopted their platform.[3] Greeley received 686 of the 732 delegate votes cast, while Brown received 713. Accepting the Liberal platform meant the Democrats had accepted the New Departure strategy, which rejected the anti-Reconstruction platform of 1868. They realized that to win the election they had to look forward, not try to re-fight the Civil War.[4] Also, they realized they would only split the anti-Grant vote if they nominated a candidate other than Greeley. However, Greeley's long reputation as the most aggressive antagonist of the Democratic party, its principles, its leadership, and its activists cooled Democrats' enthusiasm for the nominee, and there was a sizable minority led by James A. Bayard that sought to act independently of the Liberal Republican ticket. The convention, which lasted only six hours stretched over two days, is the shortest major political party convention in history.

Other nominations

Labor Reform Party

Presidential Candidates:

The Labor Reform Party had only been organized in 1870, with its first National Convention meeting held in St. Louis, Missouri, on February 22, 1872. Initially, there was a fair amount of discussion as to whether the party should actually nominate anyone for the presidency at that time, or if they should wait at least for the Liberal Republicans to nominate their own ticket first. Every motion to that effect lost, and a number of ballots were taken that resulted in the nomination of David Davis, who was the frontrunner for the Liberal Republican nomination at that time. Joel Parker, the Governor of New Jersey, was nominated for vice-president.

While Davis did not decline the nomination of the Labor Reform party, he decided to hinge his campaign in large part on the success of attaining the Liberal Republican nomination, so that he might at least have their resources behind them. After their convention, in which he failed to attain the nomination, Davis telegraphed the Labor Reform party and informed them of his intention to withdraw from the presidential contest entirely. Joel Parker soon followed suit.

A second convention was called on August 22 in Philadelphia, where it was decided, rather than making the same mistake again, that the party would cooperate with the now fledgling "Straight-Out Democrat" movement that had recently formed and nominate their candidate as soon as it would become known. Unfortunately for the aims of the party, that movement's nominee, Charles O'Conor, also declined to run. Recognizing that it was now too late to nominate a ticket of their own, the party leadership decided to continue the campaign under O'Conor's name, even if he were not actually running. The various state affiliates grew less and less active, and by the following year, the party ceased to exist.


Source: US President – L-Ref Convention. Our Campaigns. (August 11, 2013).

General election

Campaign

Grant's administration and his Radical Republican supporters had been widely accused of corruption, and the Liberal Republicans demanded civil service reform and an end to the Reconstruction process, including withdrawal of federal troops from the South. Both Liberal Republicans and Democrats were disappointed in their candidate Greeley. As wits asked, "Why turn out a knave just to replace him with a fool?"[5] A poor campaigner with little political experience, Greeley's career as a newspaper editor gave his opponents a long history of eccentric public positions to attack. With memories of his victories in the Civil War to run on, Grant was unassailable. Grant also had a large campaign budget to work with. One historian was quoted saying, "Never before was a candidate placed under such great obligation to men of wealth as was Grant." A large portion of Grant's campaign funds came from entrepreneurs, including Jay Cooke, Cornelius Vanderbilt, Alexander Turney Stewart, Henry Hilton, and John Astor.[6]

Women's suffrage

This was the first election after the formation of the National Woman Suffrage Association and the American Woman Suffrage Association in 1869. As a result, protests for women's suffrage became more prevalent. The National Woman's Suffrage Association held its annual convention in New York City on May 9, 1872. Some of the delegates supported Victoria Woodhull, who had spent the year since the previous NWSA annual meeting touring the New York City environs and giving speeches on why women should be allowed to vote. The delegates selected Victoria Woodhull to run for president, and named Frederick Douglass for vice- president. He did not attend the convention and never acknowledged the nomination, though he would serve as a presidential elector in the United States Electoral College for the State of New York. Woodhull gave a series of speeches around New York City during the campaign. Her finances were very thin, and when she borrowed money from supporters, she often was unable to repay them. On the day before the election, Woodhull was arrested for "publishing an obscene newspaper" and so was unable to cast a vote for herself. Woodhull was ineligible to be president on Inauguration Day, not because she was a woman (the Constitution and the law were silent on the issue), but because she would not reach the constitutionally prescribed minimum age of 35 until September 23, 1873; historians have debated whether to consider her activities a true election campaign. Woodhull and Douglass are not listed in "Election results" below, as the ticket received a negligible percentage of the popular vote and no electoral votes.[7] In addition, several suffragettes would attempt to vote in the election. Susan B. Anthony was arrested and fined $100 for attempting to vote.

Results and disputed votes

Results by county explicitly indicating the percentage of the winning candidate in each county. Shades of red are for Grant (Republican) and shades of blue are for Greeley (Liberal Republican/Democratic).

Grant won an easy re-election over Greeley by a margin of 56% to 44%. Grant garnered 286 electoral votes to what would have been 66 electoral votes for Greeley—but Greeley died on November 29, 1872, just 24 days after the election and before any of the electors from the states Greeley won (Texas, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Maryland) could cast their votes. Most of Greeley's electors cast their votes for other Democrats.

Of the 2,171 counties making returns, Grant won in 1,335 while Greeley carried 833. Three counties were split evenly between Grant and Greeley.

During the joint session of Congress for the counting of the electoral vote on February 12, 1873, numerous objections were raised to some of the results. However, unlike the objections which would be made in 1877, these had no impact on the outcome of the election.[8]

This election was the last in which Alabama and Mississippi voted for a Republican until 1964. Arkansas would not be carried by a Republican again until 1972.

Results

Presidential candidate Party Home state Popular vote Electoral
vote		 Running mate
Count Pct Vice-presidential candidate Home state Elect. vote
Ulysses S. Grant (Incumbent) Republican Ohio 3,598,235 55.6% 286 Henry Wilson Massachusetts 286
Thomas A. Hendricks Democratic Indiana —(a) — 42 —(c) 42
Benjamin Gratz Brown Liberal Republican/ Democratic Missouri —(a) — 18 —(c) 18
Horace Greeley Liberal Republican/ Democratic New York 2,834,761 43.8% 3(b) Benjamin Gratz Brown Missouri 3(b)
Charles J. Jenkins Democratic Georgia —(a) — 2 —(c) 2
David Davis Liberal Republican Illinois —(a) — 1 —(c) 1
Charles O'Conor Bourbon Democratic New York 18,602 0.3% 0 John Quincy Adams II Massachusetts 0
James Black Prohibition Pennsylvania 5,607 0.1% 0 John Russell Michigan 0
Other 10,473 0.2% 0
Total 6,467,678 100.0% 352(d)
Needed to win 177(d)

Source (popular vote): Leip, David. "1872 Presidential Election Results". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. Retrieved July 27, 2005. 

Source (electoral vote): "Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved July 31, 2005. 

(a) These candidates received votes from Electors who were pledged to Horace Greeley, who died before the electoral votes were cast.
(b) Horace Greeley received three electoral votes for president, but these votes were disqualified because of his death.
(c) See Breakdown by ticket below.
(d) The 14 electoral votes from Arkansas and Louisiana were not counted, and are not included in this count. If these electoral votes were included, there would be 366 electoral votes total, and 184 would be needed to win.

Popular vote
Grant
  
 55.58%
Greeley
  
 43.78%
O'Conor
  
 0.36%
Others
  
 0.27%
Electoral vote
Grant
  
 81.25%
Greeley
  
 18.75%

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.[10]

States won by Grant/Wilson
States won by Greeley/Brown
Ulysses S. Grant
Republican		 Horace Greeley
Democratic/Liberal Republican		 Charles O'Conor
Straight-Out Democrat		 Margin State Total
State electoral
votes		 # % electoral
votes		 # % electoral
votes		 # % electoral
votes		 # % #
Alabama 10 90,272 53.19 10 79,444 46.81 - - - - 10,828 6.38 169,716 AL
Arkansas 6 41,373 52.17 0 37,927 47.83 - - - - 3,446 4.35 79,300 AR
California 6 54,007 56.38 6 40,717 42.51 - 1,061 1.11 - 13,290 13.87 95,785 CA
Connecticut 6 50,314 52.41 6 45,695 47.59 - - - - 4,619 4.81 96,009 CT
Delaware 3 11,129 51.00 3 10,205 46.76 - 488 2.24 - 924 4.23 21,822 DE
Florida 4 17,763 53.52 4 15,427 46.48 - - - - 2,336 7.04 33,190 FL
Georgia 11 62,550 45.03 - 76,356 54.97 11 - - - -13,806 -9.94 138,906 GA
Illinois 21 241,936 56.27 21 184,884 43.00 - 3,151 0.73 - 57,052 13.27 429,971 IL
Indiana 15 186,147 53.00 15 163,632 46.59 - 1,417 0.40 - 22,515 6.41 351,196 IN
Iowa 11 131,566 60.81 11 81,636 37.73 - 2,221 1.03 - 49,930 23.08 216,365 IA
Kansas 5 66,805 66.46 5 32,970 32.80 - 156 0.16 - 33,835 33.66 100,512 KS
Kentucky 12 88,766 46.44 - 99,995 52.32 12 2,374 1.24 - -11,229 -5.87 191,135 KY
Louisiana 8 71,663 55.69 0 57,029 44.31 - - - - 14,634 11.37 128,692 LA
Maine 7 61,426 67.86 7 29,097 32.14 - - - - 32,329 35.71 90,523 ME
Maryland 8 66,760 49.66 - 67,687 50.34 8 - - - -927 -0.69 134,447 MD
Massachusetts 13 133,455 69.20 13 59,195 30.69 - - - - 74,260 38.50 192,864 MA
Michigan 11 138,758 62.66 11 78,551 35.47 - 2,875 1.30 - 60,207 27.19 221,455 MI
Minnesota 5 55,708 61.27 5 35,211 38.73 - - - - 20,497 22.54 90,919 MN
Mississippi 8 82,175 63.48 8 47,282 36.52 - - - - 34,893 26.95 129,457 MS
Missouri 15 119,196 43.65 - 151,434 55.46 15 2,429 0.89 - -32,238 -11.81 273,059 MO
Nebraska 3 18,329 70.68 3 7,603 29.32 - - - - 10,726 41.36 25,932 NE
Nevada 3 8,413 57.43 3 6,236 42.57 - - - - 2,177 14.86 14,649 NV
New Hampshire 5 37,168 53.94 5 31,425 45.61 - - - - 5,743 8.33 68,906 NH
New Jersey 9 91,656 54.52 9 76,456 45.48 - - - - 15,200 9.04 168,112 NJ
New York 35 440,738 53.23 35 387,282 46.77 - - - - 53,456 6.46 828,020 NY
North Carolina 10 94,772 57.38 10 70,130 42.46 - 261 0.16 - 24,642 14.92 165,163 NC
Ohio 22 281,852 53.24 22 244,321 46.15 - 1,163 0.22 - 37,531 7.09 529,436 OH
Oregon 3 11,818 58.66 3 7,742 38.43 - 587 2.91 - 4,076 20.23 20,147 OR
Pennsylvania 29 349,589 62.07 29 212,041 37.65 - - - - 137,548 24.42 563,262 PA
Rhode Island 4 13,665 71.94 4 5,329 28.06 - - - - 8,336 43.89 18,994 RI
South Carolina 7 72,290 75.73 7 22,699 23.78 - 204 0.21 - 49,591 51.95 95,452 SC
Tennessee 12 85,655 47.84 - 93,391 52.16 12 - - - -7,736 -4.32 179,046 TN
Texas 8 47,468 40.71 - 66,546 57.07 8 2,580 2.21 - -19,078 -16.36 116,594 TX
Vermont 5 41,480 78.29 5 10,926 20.62 - 553 1.04 - 30,554 57.67 52,980 VT
Virginia 11 93,463 50.47 11 91,647 49.49 - 85 0.05 - 1,816 0.98 185,195 VA
West Virginia 5 32,320 51.74 5 29,532 47.28 - 615 0.98 - 2,788 4.46 62,467 WV
Wisconsin 10 104,994 54.60 10 86,477 44.97 - 834 0.43 - 18,517 9.16 192,305 WI
TOTALS: 366 3,597,439 55.58 286 2,833,710 43.78 66 23,054 0.36 - 763,729 11.80 6,471,983 US

Close states

Red font color denotes states won by Republican Ulysses S. Grant; blue denotes those won by Democrat/Liberal Republican Horace Greeley.

States where the margin of victory was under 5% (51 electoral votes)

  1. Maryland 0.69%
  2. Virginia 0.98%
  3. Delaware 4.23%
  4. Tennessee 4.32%
  5. Arkansas 4.35%
  6. West Virginia 4.46%
  7. Connecticut 4.81%

Margin of victory between 5% and 10% (133 electoral votes):

  1. Kentucky 5.87%
  2. Alabama 6.38%
  3. Indiana 6.41%
  4. New York 6.46%
  5. Florida 7.04%
  6. Ohio 7.09%
  7. New Hampshire 8.33%
  8. New Jersey 9.04%
  9. Wisconsin 9.16%
  10. Georgia 9.94%
Vice Presidential candidate Party State Electoral vote
Henry Wilson Republican Massachusetts 286
Benjamin Gratz Brown National Union Party Missouri 47
Alfred H. Colquitt Democratic Georgia 5
George Washington Julian Liberal Republican Indiana 5
Thomas E. Bramlette Democratic Kentucky 3
John M. Palmer Democratic Illinois 3
Nathaniel P. Banks Liberal Republican Massachusetts 1
William S. Groesbeck Democratic/Liberal Republican Ohio 1
Willis Benson Machen Democratic Kentucky 1
John Quincy Adams II Bourbon Democratic Massachusetts 0
John Russell Prohibition Michigan 0
Total 352
Needed to win 177

Source: "Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved July 31, 2005. 

Breakdown by ticket

Presidential candidate Running mate Electoral vote(a)
Ulysses S. Grant Henry Wilson 286
Thomas Andrews Hendricks Benjamin Gratz Brown 41 .. 42
Benjamin Gratz Brown Alfred Holt Colquitt 5
Benjamin Gratz Brown George Washington Julian 4 .. 5
Benjamin Gratz Brown Thomas E. Bramlette 3
Horace Greeley Benjamin Gratz Brown 3 (b)
Benjamin Gratz Brown John McAuley Palmer 2 .. 3
Charles J. Jenkins Benjamin Gratz Brown 2
Benjamin Gratz Brown Nathaniel Prentiss Banks 1
Benjamin Gratz Brown Willis Benson Machen 1
Benjamin Gratz Brown William Slocum Groesbeck 0 .. 1
David Davis Benjamin Gratz Brown 0 .. 1
David Davis William Slocum Groesbeck 0 .. 1
David Davis George Washington Julian 0 .. 1
David Davis John McAuley Palmer 0 .. 1
Thomas Andrews Hendricks William Slocum Groesbeck 0 .. 1
Thomas Andrews Hendricks George Washington Julian 0 .. 1
Thomas Andrews Hendricks John McAuley Palmer 0 .. 1

(a) The used sources had insufficient data to determine the pairings of 4 electoral votes in Missouri; therefore, the possible tickets are listed with the minimum and maximum possible number of electoral votes each.
(b) Greeley was disqualified, having previously died and thus become ineligible for the Presidency, but the Brown vice-presidential votes were counted.

See also

References

  1. ↑ "Voter Turnout in Presidential Elections". The American Presidency Project. UC Santa Barbara.
  2. ↑ Official Proceedings of the National Democratic Convention, Held at Baltimore, July 9, 1872. Boston: Rockwell & Churchill, Printers. 1872.
  3. ↑ Paul F. Boller, Jr. (2004). Presidential Campaigns: from George Washington to George W. Bush. Oxford University Press. pp. 128–129. ISBN 0-19-516716-3.
  4. ↑ Dunning 198
  5. ↑ Dunning 197
  6. ↑ Guide to U.S. Elections. Volume 1 (Fifth ed.). CQ Press. November 17, 2005. ISBN 1-56802-981-0.
  7. ↑ "Our Campaigns – Candidate – Victoria C. Woodhull".
  8. ↑ United States Congress (1873). Senate Journal. 42nd Congress, 3rd Session, February 12. pp. 334–346. Retrieved March 23, 2006.
  9. ↑ David A. McKnight (1878). The Electoral System of the United States: A Critical and Historical Exposition of Its Fundamental Principles in the Constitution and the Acts and Proceedings of Congress Enforcing It. Wm. S. Hein Publishing. p. 313. ISBN 978-0-8377-2446-1.
  10. ↑ "1872 Presidential General Election Data – National". Retrieved May 7, 2013.

Further reading

External links

This article is issued from Wikipedia - version of the 12/1/2016. The text is available under the Creative Commons Attribution/Share Alike but additional terms may apply for the media files.