1868 Republican National Convention

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1868 Republican National Convention
Convention
1868 presidential election
Nominees Grant and Colfax
Date(s)	May 20–21, 1868
City	Chicago, Illinois
Venue	Crosby's Opera House
Candidates
Presidential nominee	Ulysses S. Grant of Illinois
Vice-presidential nominee	Schuyler Colfax of Indiana
‹ 1864 · 1872 ›

The 1868 Republican National Convention of the Republican Party of the United States was held in Crosby's Opera House, Chicago, Cook County, Illinois, on May 20 to May 21, 1868. Ulysses S. Grant won the election and became the 18th president of the United States.

Commanding General of the U.S. Army Ulysses S. Grant was the unanimous choice of the Republican convention delegates for president. For vice president the delegates chose Speaker Schuyler Colfax, who was Grant's choice. In Grant's acceptance telegram, a letter to then President of the Republican National Convention Joseph R. Hawley, Grant said "Let us have peace",.

Background

Republicans, led by their Radical faction, had scored decisive victories in the 1866 elections. If that trend continued in the 1867 elections, then the party's presidential nomination would likely go to a Radical like Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase or Senator Benjamin Wade. Chase had the support of important figures like Senator Charles Sumner and financier Jay Cooke. More moderate Republicans, such as Senator William P. Fessenden, Charles Francis Adams Jr., and The New York Times, had interpreted the 1866 elections not as a mandate for radicalism, but as a rejection of President Andrew Johnson's programs and personality; therefore, they were wary of a Radical nominee.

The Grant candidacy, though, took on momentum in the wake of the state elections in 1867. The electorate rejected the Radical Republican agenda by voting for Democratic control in the key Northern states of New York, Pennsylvania, and Ohio, and by rejecting black manhood suffrage amendments in Kansas and Ohio. The election results bolstered the case of the moderate Republicans and seemed to close the door to a Radical nominee. Georges Clemenceau, a Paris Temps journalist who would later be the French premier, reported accurately that "The real victims of the victory of the Democrats are Mr. Wade and Mr. Chase."

Presidential nomination

Presidential candidates

Commanding General
Ulysses S. Grant
of Illinois
Chief Justice
Salmon P. Chase
of Ohio
(Speculated)
President pro tempore
Benjamin Wade
of Ohio
(Speculated)

As Republicans convened in Chicago in May 1868, Grant had no serious opposition for the nomination; he was nominated unanimously on the first ballot.

Presidential Balloting
Candidate	1st
Grant	648
Absent	2

Presidential Balloting / 2nd Day of Convention (May 21, 1868)

1st
Presidential Ballot

Vice presidential nomination

Vice presidential candidates

Speaker
Schuyler Colfax
of Indiana
President Pro Tempore
Benjamin Wade
of Ohio
Governor
Reuben Fenton
of New York
Senator
Henry Wilson
of Massachusetts
Former Governor
Andrew Curtin
of Pennsylvania
Former Vice President
Hannibal Hamlin
of Maine
Former Attorney General James Speed
of Kentucky
Senator
James Harlan
of Iowa
Former Senator
John Creswell
of Maryland
Senator
Samuel C. Pomeroy
of Kansas
Representative
William D. Kelley
of Pennsylvania
(Improper Nomination)

Colfax was selected for vice president on the fifth ballot. Colfax was popular among Republicans for his friendly character, party loyalty, and Radical views on Reconstruction. Wilson received a large amount of support from the southern delegations.

Vice Presidential Ballot
	1st	2nd	3rd	4th	5th (Before Shifts)	5th (After Shifts)
Colfax	115	145	165	186	226	541
Wade	147	170	178	206	207	38
Fenton	126	144	139	144	139	69
Wilson	119	114	101	87	56	0
Curtin	51	45	40	0	0	0
Hamlin	28	30	25	25	20	0
Speed	22	0	0	0	0	0
Harlan	16	0	0	0	0	0
Creswell	14	0	0	0	0	0
Pomeroy	6	0	0	0	0	0
Kelley	4	0	0	0	0	0
Absent	2	2	2	2	2	2

Vice Presidential Balloting / 2nd Day of Convention (May 21, 1868)

1st
Vice Presidential Ballot
2nd
Vice Presidential Ballot
3rd
Vice Presidential Ballot
4th
Vice Presidential Ballot
5th
Vice Presidential Ballot
(Before Shifts)
5th
Vice Presidential Ballot
(After Shifts)

References

"Letter to Joseph R. Hawley, President National Union Republican Convention, Accepting the Presidential Nomination | The American Presidency Project". www.presidency.ucsb.edu. Retrieved October 31, 2022.
^ Joseph E. Delgatto, Indiana Journal Hall of Fame, Schuyler Colfax 1966
Abbott 1986, p. 173.

Presidential election, 1868.: Proceedings of the National union Republican convention, held at Chicago, May 20 and 21, 1868./ reported by Ely, Burnham & Bartlett, Chicago, official reporters of the convention.

Works cited

Abbott, Richard (1986). The Republican Party and the South, 1855-1877: The First Southern Strategy. University of North Carolina Press. ISBN 0807816809.

External links

Preceded by
1864
Baltimore

Republican National Conventions

Succeeded by
1872
Philadelphia

Republican Party Platform of 1868 at The American Presidency Project

(← 1864) 1868 United States presidential election (1872 →)

Republican Party
(Convention)

Nominees	President: Ulysses S. Grant Vice President: Schuyler Colfax
Other candidates	For Vice President: Benjamin Wade John Creswell Andrew Gregg Curtin Reuben Fenton Hannibal Hamlin James Harlan William D. Kelley Samuel C. Pomeroy James Speed Henry Wilson

Democratic Party
(Convention)

Nominees	President: Horatio Seymour Vice President: Francis P. Blair Jr.
Other candidates	George H. Pendleton Thomas A. Hendricks Winfield S. Hancock Andrew Johnson (incumbent) Sanford E. Church Asa Packer James E. English Joel Parker James R. Doolittle Stephen J. Field Francis P. Blair Jr. Salmon P. Chase John T. Hoffman

Other 1868 elections: House
Senate

Republican Party

History

Presidential
tickets,
national
conventions,
and
presidential
primaries

Presidential
administrations

Lincoln (1861–1865)
Johnson (1865–1868)
Grant (1869–1877)
Hayes (1877–1881)
Garfield (1881)
Arthur (1881–1885)
Harrison (1889–1893)
McKinley (1897–1901)
Roosevelt (1901–1909)
Taft (1909–1913)
Harding (1921–1923)
Coolidge (1923–1929)
Hoover (1929–1933)
Eisenhower (1953–1961)
Nixon (1969–1974)
Ford (1974–1977)
Reagan (1981–1989)
G. H. W. Bush (1989–1993)
G. W. Bush (2001–2009)
Trump (2017–2021; 2025–present)

U.S. Senate
leaders
and
Conference
chairs

J. P. Hale (1859–1862)
Anthony (1862–1884)
Sherman (1884–1885)
Edmunds (1885–1891)
Sherman (1891–1897)
Allison (1897–1908)
E. Hale (1908–1911)
Cullom (1911–1913)
Gallinger (1913–1918)
Lodge (1918–1924)
Curtis (1924–1929)
Watson (1929–1933)
McNary (1933–1940)
Austin (1940–1941)
McNary (1941–1944)
White (1944–1949)
Wherry (1949–1952)
Bridges (1952–1953)
Taft (1953)
Knowland (1953–1959)
Dirksen (1959–1969)
Scott (1969–1977)
Baker (1977–1979)
Stevens (1979–1980)
Baker (1980–1985)
Dole (1985–1996)
Lott (1996–2003)
Frist (2003–2007)
McConnell (2007–2025)
John Thune (2025–present)

U.S. House
leaders,
Speakers,
and
Conference
chairs

Pennington (1860–1861)
Grow (1861–1863)
Colfax (1863–1869)
Pomeroy (1869)
Blaine (1869–1875)
McCrary (1875–1877)
Hale (1877–1879)
Frye (1879–1881)
Keifer (1881–1883)
Cannon (1883–1889)
Reed (1889–1891)
T. J. Henderson (1891–1895)
Reed (1895–1899)
D. B. Henderson (1899–1903)
Cannon (1903–1911)
Mann (1911–1919)
Gillett (1919–1925)
Longworth (1925–1931)
Snell (1931–1939)
Martin (1939–1959)
Halleck (1959–1965)
Ford (1965–1973)
Rhodes (1973–1981)
Michel (1981–1995)
Gingrich (1995–1999)
Hastert (1999–2007)
Boehner (2007–2015)
Ryan (2015–2019)
McCarthy (2019–2023)
Johnson (2023–present)

RNC

Chairs

Chair elections

Parties by
state and
territory

State

Territory

Affiliated
organizations

Congress	House Conference Legislative Digest Steering and Policy Committees Senate Conference Policy Committee Factions Freedom Caucus Problem Solvers Caucus Republican Governance Group Republican Study Committee
Fundraising groups	National Republican Congressional Committee National Republican Redistricting Trust National Republican Senatorial Committee Republican Attorneys General Association Republican Governors Association
Sectional groups	College Republicans Chairmen Congressional Hispanic Conference Log Cabin Republicans National Black Republican Association Republican Hindu Coalition Republican Jewish Coalition Republican National Hispanic Assembly Republicans Abroad Teen Age Republicans Young Republicans Republicans Overseas High School Republican National Federation
Factional groups	Republican Main Street Partnership Republican Majority for Choice Republican Liberty Caucus Republican National Coalition for Life ConservAmerica Liberty Caucus Ripon Society The Wish List

Ulysses S. Grant

18th President of the United States (1869–1877)

Military career

Presidency

First inauguration
Second inauguration
Scandals
- Grantism
Pardons
Cabinet
Judicial appointments
State of the Union addresses
- 1869
- 1870
- 1871
- 1872
- 1873
- 1874
- 1875
- 1876

Foreign policy	Treaty of Washington Alabama Claims Korean Expedition Proposed annexation of Santo Domingo
Economic policy	Public Credit Act of 1869 Copyright Act of 1870 Currency Act of 1870 Funding Act of 1870 General Mining Act of 1872 Timber Culture Act Specie Payment Resumption Act Desert Land Act
Government reforms	Judiciary Act of 1869 U.S. Department of Justice District of Columbia Organic Act of 1871 Civil Service Commission Yellowstone National Park Protection Act Yellowstone National Park Post Office Consolidation Act Electoral Commission Act
Social policy	Reconstruction Amnesty Act Native American policy "Peace Policy" Modoc War Great Sioux War Indian Appropriations Act of 1871 Enforcement Acts Enforcement Act of 1870 Second Enforcement Act Ku Klux Klan Act Naturalization Act of 1870 Comstock Act Poland Act Civil Rights Act of 1875 Page Act of 1875

Post-presidency

Books

Personal Memoirs of Ulysses S. Grant

Life

Elections

1868
- convention
- election
1872
- convention
- election

Legacy

Bibliography

Memorials	Grant Memorial Presidential library Grant Park General Grant ship General Grant tree grove Grant Cottage State Historic Site The Peacemakers U.S. Capitol statue Brooklyn relief Chicago statue Ohio Statehouse statue Philadelphia statue San Francisco bust U.S. Postage stamps Currency $5 bill $50 bill 1922 Grant Memorial coinage Grant High School U.S. Grant Hotel
Cultural depictions	Ulysses S. Grant (2002 documentary) Lincoln (2012 film) Grant (2020 miniseries)

Family

← Andrew Johnson
Rutherford B. Hayes →

Category

Reconstruction era

Participants

Federal government

Presidents

Congress

Federal judiciary

Federal bureaucracy

State governments

Others

Elections

Presidential	1864 DNC National Union Convention Radical Democracy Party 1868 DNC RNC 1872 DNC RNC Liberal Republican Party Straight-Out Democratic Party Victoria Woodhull 1876 DNC RNC Greenback Convention Prohibition Convention Electoral Commission Compromise of 1877
U.S. Senate	1864–65 1866–67 1868–69 1870–71 1872–73 1874–75 1876–77
U.S. House	1864–65 1866–67 1868–69 1870–71 1872–73 1874–75 1876–77
Gubernatorial	1863 Alabama California Connecticut Kentucky Massachusetts Minnesota New Hampshire Ohio Pennsylvania Virginia Vermont Wisconsin West Virginia 1864 Connecticut Illinois Indiana Louisiana Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Missouri New Hampshire Vermont West Virginia 1865 Connecticut Florida Louisiana Massachusetts Minnesota New Jersey Ohio South Carolina Vermont Wisconsin 1866 Connecticut Delaware Massachusetts Maine Michigan North Carolina Oregon Pennsylvania Texas Vermont West Virginia 1867 California Connecticut Massachusetts Maryland Maine Minnesota Ohio Vermont Wisconsin 1868 Alabama Connecticut Florida Illinois Indiana Louisiana Massachusetts Maine Michigan Missouri North Carolina New Jersey South Carolina Vermont West Virginia 1869 Connecticut Iowa Massachusetts Maine Minnesota Mississippi Ohio Pennsylvania Rhode Island Virginia Vermont Wisconsin 1870 Alabama Connecticut Delaware Massachusetts Maine Michigan Missouri Oregon Rhode Island South Carolina Vermont West Virginia 1871 California Connecticut Iowa Kentucky Massachusetts Maryland Maine Minnesota New Jersey Ohio Rhode Island Wisconsin 1872 Alabama Connecticut Florida Illinois Indiana Louisiana Massachusetts Maine Michigan Missouri North Carolina Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina Vermont West Virginia 1873 Connecticut Iowa Massachusetts Maine Minnesota Mississippi Ohio Texas Virginia Wisconsin 1874 Alabama Connecticut Delaware Kansas Massachusetts Maine Michigan Missouri New Jersey Nevada Oregon South Carolina Vermont 1875 California Connecticut Iowa Kentucky Massachusetts Maryland Maine Minnesota Ohio Ohio Wisconsin 1876 Alabama Colorado Connecticut April Connecticut November Florida Illinois Indiana Kansas Louisiana Massachusetts Maine Michigan Missouri North Carolina Rhode Island South Carolina Vermont West Virginia
U.S. elections	1864 1866 1868 1870 1872 1874 1876

Key events

Prelude	American Indian Wars Slavery in the United States A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) The Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women (1838) Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1839) Seneca Falls Convention (1848) National Women's Rights Convention (1850) American Civil War Confiscation Act of 1861 Confiscation Act of 1862 District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act (1862) Militia Act of 1862
1863	Emancipation Proclamation General Order No. 143 Lincoln's presidential Reconstruction Ten percent plan National Bank Act Women's Loyal National League New York City draft riots 1863 State of the Union Address
1864	Wade–Davis Bill 1864 elections 1864 State of the Union Address
1865	13th Amendment Second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln Address Black Codes Special Field Orders No. 15 Freedmen's Bureau Freedmen's Bureau bills Confederates surrender at Appomattox Assassination of Abraham Lincoln Shaw University New Departure 1865 State of the Union Address Founding of the Ku Klux Klan
1866	Civil Rights Act of 1866 Memphis massacre of 1866 New Orleans Massacre of 1866 Swing Around the Circle Southern Homestead Act of 1866 Fort Smith Conference and Cherokee Reconstruction Treaty of 1866 Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty of Washington of 1866 Tennessee readmitted to Union Petition for Universal Freedom National Labor Union Ex parte Garland Ex parte Milligan Slave Kidnapping Act of 1866 1866 elections
1867	Tenure of Office Act Command of Army Act Indian Peace Commission Knights of the White Camelia Pulaski riot Reconstruction Acts Reconstruction military districts Constitutional conventions of 1867 Habeas Corpus Act of 1867 Peonage Act of 1867 First impeachment inquiry into Andrew Johnson 1867 State of the Union Address
1868	14th Amendment Second impeachment inquiry into Andrew Johnson Impeachment of Andrew Johnson Timeline Impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson Impeachment managers investigation Articles of impeachment Arkansas readmitted to Union Florida readmitted to Union North Carolina readmitted to Union South Carolina readmitted to Union Louisiana readmitted to Union Alabama readmitted to Union Opelousas massacre Fourth Reconstruction Act Georgia v. Stanton 1868 elections 1868 State of the Union Address
1869	National Woman Suffrage Association American Woman Suffrage Association Alabama Claims Proposed annexation of Santo Domingo Board of Indian Commissioners Public Credit Act of 1869 Black Friday (1869) Ex parte McCardle First transcontinental railroad 1869 State of the Union Address
1870	15th Amendment Enforcement Act of 1870 Justice Department Naturalization Act of 1870 Kirk–Holden war Shoffner Act 1870 elections 1870 State of the Union Address
1871	Ku Klux Klan hearings Second Enforcement Act Ku Klux Klan Act Alcorn State University Meridian race riot of 1871 Treaty of Washington New York custom house ring Civil service commission United States expedition to Korea 1871 State of the Union Address
1872	General Mining Act of 1872 Crédit Mobilier scandal Modoc War Star Route scandal Salary Grab Act Amnesty Act 1872 elections 1872 State of the Union Address
1873	Panic of 1873 Colfax massacre Timber Culture Act Slaughter-House Cases Virginius Affair Coinage Act of 1873 Long Depression Comstock laws 1873 State of the Union Address
1874	Brooks–Baxter War Battle of Liberty Place Coushatta massacre Red River War Timber Culture Act White League Election Massacre of 1874 Vicksburg massacre Black Hills Gold Rush Sanborn incident Anti-Moiety Acts 1874 elections 1874 State of the Union Address
1875	United States v. Cruikshank Civil Rights Act of 1875 Red Shirts Mississippi Plan Clifton Riot of 1875 Yazoo City Riot of 1875 Specie Payment Resumption Act Whiskey Ring Wheeler Compromise Delano affair Pratt & Boyd 1875 State of the Union Address
1876	Hamburg massacre South Carolina civil disturbances of 1876 Ellenton massacre Great Sioux War of 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn United States v. Reese Trader post scandal Centennial Exposition Cattellism Safe burglary conspiracy 1876 elections 1876 State of the Union Address
1877	Electoral Commission Compromise of 1877 Nez Perce War Desert Land Act Great Railroad Strike of 1877
Aftermath	Posse Comitatus Act (1878) Civil Rights Cases (1883) United States v. Harris (1883) Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) Williams v. Mississippi (1898) Wilmington insurrection of 1898 Giles v. Harris (1903) Disenfranchisement

Aspects

Historiography	Bibliography of the Reconstruction era James Shepherd Pike The Prostrate State (1874) James Bryce The American Commonwealth (1888) Claude G. Bowers The Tragic Era (1929) Columbia University John Burgess Walter Lynwood Fleming Dunning School William Archibald Dunning Charles A. Beard Howard K. Beale W. E. B. Du Bois Black Reconstruction in America (1935) C. Vann Woodward Joel Williamson William R. Brock The American Crisis (1963) John Hope Franklin From Slavery to Freedom (1947) After Slavery (1965) Leon Litwack Been in the Storm So Long (1979) Eric Foner Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877 (1988) Kenneth M. Stampp Steven Hahn A Nation Under Our Feet (2003) The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution (2019)
Memory	Winslow Homer A Visit from the Old Mistress (1876) Thomas Dixon Jr. The Leopard's Spots (1902) The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan (1905) D. W. Griffith The Birth of a Nation (1915) United Daughters of the Confederacy Gone with the Wind (1939) David W. Blight Race and Reunion (2001)
Legacy	Women's suffrage in the United States Labor history of the United States Gilded Age Jim Crow era Civil rights movement American frontier
Other topics	African American founding fathers of the United States Forty acres and a mule Habeas corpus History of the United States (1865–1917) Paramilitary Race (human categorization) Reconstruction Treaties Suffrage Technological and industrial history of the United States White supremacy Whitecapping

Category

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