United States presidential election, 1872

In the presidential elections in the United States in 1872, incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant, leader of the Radical Republicans, was elected for a second term. This even though there was a rift within the Republican Party and therefore many liberal Republicans for opposing candidate Horace Greeley, who competed for the Democrats and the Liberal Republican Party, agreed.

On November 29, 1872, 24 days after the popular election, but before the Electoral College cast his votes, Greeley died. As a result, chose the electors pledged to him for four different presidential candidates and eight candidates for the office of Vice-President. Greely even yet received three votes, but these were declared by Congress to be invalid.

Henry Wilson, who was elected by the Republicans as vice president, died on November 22, 1875 in office.

Nominations

The incumbent president Ulysses S. Grant was nominated unanimously by the 753 delegates to the Republican National Convention for a second term. However, Vice President Schuyler Colfax narrowly missed a nomination again, with 322 votes over 400 delegates who voted for Henry Wilson, a Senator from Massachusetts because of corruption allegations.

An influential group of renegade Republicans split from the party and formed the Liberal Republican Party. At the only national convention, held in Cincinnati, editor of the New York Tribune, Horace Greeley was nominated in the sixth ballot as a presidential candidate. Benjamin Gratz Brown, Governor of Missouri, was nominated on the second ballot as Vice President. The party called for an end of hatred from the Civil War and Reconstruction, demanded civil service reforms to fight corruption, and was responsible for the collection of a national income tax.

The Democratic Party also nominated the list Greeley / Brown. Greeley received 686 of the 724 delegate votes, while Brown received 713. The adoption of the liberal program meant for the Democrats a departure of the anti- Reconstruction program of 1868. They recognized that they had to look forward, to win. However, Greeley had a long reputation as an aggressive attacker of the Democratic Party, so the excitement about the nomination was rather cool. The Assembly, which distributes only nine hours lasted more than two days was the shortest meeting of major political parties in history.

Victoria Woodhull was the first woman to be nominated for the presidency. They ran for the Equal Rights Party. As a "running mate" they chose Frederick Douglass, a former slave and abolitionist later. However Woodhull candidacy was inadmissible, not because she was a woman - the Constitution and the laws were silent on the subject - but because they reached the constitutionally prescribed minimum age of 35 until 23 September 1873. Woodhull and Douglass are not listed in the results below, they received a negligible percentage of the vote and no electoral college.

Electioneering

Grant and his radical followers were widely accused of corruption, and the liberal Republicans called for reform of the civil service and the end of Reconstruction, including the withdrawal of federal troops from the South. Both liberal Republicans as well as Democrats, however, were disappointed by their candidates Greeley, a bad fighter with little political experience. His career as a newspaper editor gave his opponents a long list of eccentric public statements as an attack point. With memories of his victories in the civil war Grant was unassailable. In addition, underwent Greeley running mate, B. Gratz Brown, several slip-ups because of his drinking problems.

Choice

It was the first election after the founding of the National American Woman Suffrage Association, a women's rights organization which campaigned for women's suffrage. Therefore protests for women's suffrage came frequently. In addition to the above nomination of Victoria Woodhull for the presidency, tried several feminists to cast a vote. Susan B. Anthony was arrested and punished with a fine of $ 100, as they tried to vote. Woodhull was even on election day in jail for indecency.

Result

( a) Horace Greeley received three votes, but these were canceled since he had already died. ( b) These candidates received votes that were committed Greeley.