1868 United States presidential election (United We Stand)

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 Andrew Johnson of the Democratic Party. It was the first presidential election to take place after the conclusion of the First 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 Abraham Lincoln chose not to seek another term in accordance with tradition. Additionally, he and the Republicans feared defeat due to backlash against his intervention in Mexico and Reconstruction. After the end of the civil war, the sense of unity in the nation quickly faded. Republicans became sharply divided over how to manage Reconstruction in the Southern states, with Lincoln swiftly coming into conflict with the Radical Republicans of the party. Despite this, Lincoln signed into law the Civil Rights Act of 1866 and supported the Fourteenth Amendment to the Constitution. In late December 1866, Lincoln declared war on the Second Mexican Empire with the goal of returning democratically-elected President Benito Juárez to power. With the country still war-weary after the civil war, the intervention quickly became unpopular. Lincoln was further criticized for attempting to control the public perception of the war and for removing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton from his post after Stanton had protested the war. Emperor Maximilian I was executed five months later as American forces withdrew, but the President's reputation was irreparably damaged.

Andrew Johnson had served as Vice President of the United States under Lincoln from March 1865 to his resignation in August 1866. Returning to the Democratic fold, Johnson had become known for his open conflicts with Radical Republicans and even President Lincoln in his final months as Vice President. Initially seen as having a small chance of winning the party's nomination, Johnson won an upset victory on the 22nd ballot. However, his campaign was soon dogged with numerous inflammatory gaffes by Johnson, with the Republicans seizing on this by attacking him as a madman unfit for high office. The Democrats criticized the Republican Reconstruction policies, and "campaigned explicitly on an anti-black, pro-white platform," 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.

Background
Reconstruction and civil rights of former slaves was 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 manhood suffrage. The Democratic platform condemned "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. Republicans charged that Democrats were determined to deny any freedman the vote, regardless of fitness. Democrats charged that Republicans wanted to give all freedmen the vote, regardless of fitness.

Republican Party nomination


Republican candidates: