nov 2, 1868 - Election of 1868

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Ulysses S Grant unanimously nominated by the Republican Party, whose platform endorsed Congressional Reconstruction and focused on enforcing law and promoting nationwide prosperity.

The Democratic Party charged that the Republicans were subjecting the South to "military despotism and Negro supremacy." They nominated Horatio Seymour, wartime governor of NY and critic of Congressional Reconstruction.

Seymour's running mate, former Union general Francis Blair, may have cost him the election with bigoted and abrasive remarks, as Grant swept the Electoral College 214 to 80 but had only a majority of about 307,000, heavily contributed to by 500,000 African American voters in the South.

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