The American Vote
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ReconstructionCycle 21 / 60

1868

Ulysses S. Grant and the 1868 map.
Ulysses S. Grant (Republican) defeated Horatio Seymour (Democratic), 52.7% to 47.3% of the popular vote.

The 1868 U.S. presidential election was won by Ulysses S. Grant (Republican) with 214 of 294 electoral votes, defeating Horatio Seymour (Democratic). Electoral-vote margin: 134 (214 to 80). Popular-vote margin: 5.3 percentage points. Turnout was 80.9%. The cycle falls in the Reconstruction era of American electoral history.

Grant
214 EV
Seymour
80 EV
0148 to win294
The map · 1868
26 states for Rep · 8 for Dem
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Open the what-if calculator → — flip states and re-count. A toy, not history.

Narrative

Ulysses S. Grant and the 1868 map

Civil War hero Ulysses S. Grant won the presidency for the Republicans over Democrat Horatio Seymour of New York. Grant ran on the slogan 'Let us have peace,' promising reconciliation while supporting Reconstruction. His popular vote margin was provided largely by newly enfranchised Black voters in the South. The election took place just three years after the Civil War's end, with former Confederate states still under military Reconstruction. Grant's victory secured the Radical Republicans' Reconstruction program.

Key issue

Reconstruction policy; Black suffrage; wartime debt repayment

Notable

Grant's popular vote margin came largely from newly enfranchised Black Southern voters

This summary was drafted with AI tools and has not yet been checked sentence by sentence. The vote table and the National Archives note on this page come from named sources; where they differ from the summary, rely on them. Tell us about an error.

From the National Archives

*The electoral votes of Georgia were contested and the Senate and the House of Representatives could not agree whether to accept – and count – them or not. Grant was the clear winner in either case.

National Archives, Electoral College results for 1868, archives.gov, read October 3, 2026. Quoted as published.

State results · 1868

Popular vote by state, with each state's electoral votes.
Closest states
  1. California Grant by 514 · 0.5 pts
  2. Oregon Seymour by 164 · 0.7 pts
  3. New York Seymour by 10,000 · 1.2 pts
  4. New Jersey Seymour by 2,880 · 1.8 pts
  5. Indiana Grant by 9,572 · 2.8 pts

Scroll the table sideways for every column.

1868 presidential election results by state: popular vote, margin and electoral votes
StateElectoral votes
Ulysses S. Grant
Rep
Horatio Seymour
Dem
MarginLeader
Alabama1
8 EV
76,3661
51.4%
72,0861
48.6%
4,280
2.9 pts
 Grant Rep
Arkansas2
5 EV
22,1522
53.7%
19,0782
46.3%
3,074
7.5 pts
 Grant Rep
California3
5 EV
54,5923
50.2%
54,0783
49.8%
514
0.5 pts
 Grant Rep
Connecticut4
6 EV
50,9964
51.5%
47,9514
48.5%
3,045
3.1 pts
 Grant Rep
Delaware5
3 EV
7,6235
41.0%
10,9805
59.0%
3,357
18.0 pts
 Seymour Dem
Florida6
3 EV
Electors were chosen by the legislature.
Georgia7
9 EV
57,1347
35.7%
102,8227
64.3%
45,688
28.6 pts
 Seymour Dem
Illinois8
16 EV
250,2938
55.7%
199,1438
44.3%
51,150
11.4 pts
 Grant Rep
Indiana9
13 EV
176,5529
51.4%
166,9809
48.6%
9,572
2.8 pts
 Grant Rep
Iowa10
8 EV
120,39910
61.9%
74,04010
38.1%
46,359
23.8 pts
 Grant Rep
Kansas11
3 EV
31,04711
68.9%
14,01911
31.1%
17,028
37.8 pts
 Grant Rep
Kentucky12
11 EV
39,56912
25.5%
115,88912
74.5%
76,320
49.1 pts
 Seymour Dem
Louisiana13
7 EV
33,26313
29.3%
80,22513
70.7%
46,962
41.4 pts
 Seymour Dem
Maine14
7 EV
70,42614
62.4%
42,39614
37.6%
28,030
24.8 pts
 Grant Rep
Maryland15
7 EV
30,43815
32.8%
62,35715
67.2%
31,919
34.4 pts
 Seymour Dem
Massachusetts16
12 EV
136,47716
69.7%
59,40816
30.3%
77,069
39.3 pts
 Grant Rep
Michigan17
8 EV
128,55017
57.0%
97,06917
43.0%
31,481
14.0 pts
 Grant Rep
Minnesota18
4 EV
43,54218
60.8%
28,07218
39.2%
15,470
21.6 pts
 Grant Rep
Missouri19
11 EV
85,67119
58.9%
59,78819
41.1%
25,883
17.8 pts
 Grant Rep
Nebraska20
3 EV
9,72920
64.1%
5,43920
35.9%
4,290
28.3 pts
 Grant Rep
Nevada21
3 EV
6,48021
55.4%
5,21821
44.6%
1,262
10.8 pts
 Grant Rep
New Hampshire22
5 EV
38,19122
55.0%
31,22422
45.0%
6,967
10.0 pts
 Grant Rep
New Jersey23
7 EV
80,12123
49.1%
83,00123
50.9%
2,880
1.8 pts
 Seymour Dem
New York24
33 EV
419,88324
49.4%
429,88324
50.6%
10,000
1.2 pts
 Seymour Dem
North Carolina25
9 EV
96,22625
53.4%
84,09025
46.6%
12,136
6.7 pts
 Grant Rep
Ohio26
21 EV
280,12826
54.0%
238,70026
46.0%
41,428
8.0 pts
 Grant Rep
Oregon27
3 EV
10,96127
49.6%
11,12527
50.4%
164
0.7 pts
 Seymour Dem
Pennsylvania28
26 EV
342,28028
52.2%
313,38228
47.8%
28,898
4.4 pts
 Grant Rep
Rhode Island29
4 EV
12,90329
66.3%
6,54829
33.7%
6,355
32.7 pts
 Grant Rep
South Carolina30
6 EV
62,30130
57.9%
45,23730
42.1%
17,064
15.9 pts
 Grant Rep
Tennessee31
10 EV
56,75731
68.3%
26,31131
31.7%
30,446
36.7 pts
 Grant Rep
Vermont32
5 EV
44,16732
78.6%
12,04532
21.4%
32,122
57.1 pts
 Grant Rep
West Virginia33
5 EV
29,02533
58.8%
20,30633
41.2%
8,719
17.7 pts
 Grant Rep
Wisconsin34
8 EV
108,85734
56.2%
84,71034
43.8%
24,147
12.5 pts
 Grant Rep

Shares are of each state’s total vote for president. “Not named”: the figures do not give that candidate a line of their own in that state — for example under 1% of the vote, not on the ballot there, or counted on an unnamed line (see the state’s note). Margin is the leader’s lead over the second-placed candidate.

Notes on the figures

  1. Alabama The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  2. Arkansas The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  3. California The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  4. Connecticut The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  5. Delaware The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  6. Florida The state legislature chose the electors; there was no popular vote.
  7. Georgia The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  8. Illinois The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  9. Indiana The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  10. Iowa The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  11. Kansas The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  12. Kentucky The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  13. Louisiana The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  14. Maine The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  15. Maryland The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  16. Massachusetts The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  17. Michigan The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  18. Minnesota The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  19. Missouri The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  20. Nebraska The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  21. Nevada The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  22. New Hampshire The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  23. New Jersey The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  24. New York The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  25. North Carolina The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  26. Ohio The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  27. Oregon The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  28. Pennsylvania The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  29. Rhode Island The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  30. South Carolina The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  31. Tennessee The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  32. Vermont The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  33. West Virginia The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.
  34. Wisconsin The official table prints no state total here; the total is the sum of the tickets it lists.

SourceThe World Almanac for 1873 (Public domain in the United States: published before 1931, retrieved 2026-10-03). How these figures were compiled

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