Grant does better in 1868

Ulysses S. Grant won the 1868 Presidential Election in an electoral landslide, but it was very close in the popular vote, a mere 5.4% margin over Horatio Seymour. This result shocked the Republicans, who had been expecting a landslide win with the popular general in the aftermath of the Civil War. Could Grant have won a popular vote win to match his electoral win, and taken the close states of Oregon, New York, and New Jersey? Could this happen against Seymour, or would it be easier to have another candidate replace the extremely reluctant Democratic nominee? If they lose in the popular vote badly, it could hurt the Democrats in the House, reducing their gains and keeping the Republican's majority even higher. How would the Democratic party deal with a crushing electoral, popular, and congressional defeat?
 
The Democrats were pretty much damaged goods from the end of the Civil War in 1865 up through Woodrow Wilson's election in 1912. Even if Grant's margin of victory was higher, I don't think it does much to affect American politics during that period.
 
Horatio Seymour did as good a job as you could expect as a New York governor who was no friend of the Republicans. If you had an out-and-out Copperhead getting the nomination simply because no worthy Democrat could be found, I guess the popular vote could be skewed more. But the fact is, in the privacy of the ballot box. voters were free to express that while they were fine with abolishing slavery, many Whites were not happy at the idea of Negro citizenship and Negro voting.
 
Top