1868
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 EV, popular-vote margin +5.3%; turnout 80.9%. The cycle falls in the Reconstruction era of American electoral history.
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.
Reconstruction policy; Black suffrage; wartime debt repayment
Grant's popular vote margin came largely from newly enfranchised Black Southern voters
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