Charles Oscar Paullin, 1868 Presidential Election (1932)

The election of 1868 was an important election in the United States because it was the first election to take place after the Civil War, the first in which newly freed slaves could vote, and the first in which some states weren’t allowed to vote due to their unreconstructed status. The election would prove if America would remain a divided nation, or if it could unify. The Republican candidate was Ulysses S. Grant, the former Union Army general, and the Democratic candidate was Horatio Seymour, the former governor of New York. Grant was famous in the North and parts of the South because of his successes as a general during the Civil War, whereas Seymour was mostly known within the state of New York. The political atmosphere after the Civil War was very tense, with emancipation and reconstruction being the two majorly debated policy issues. Grant was pro-emancipation and pro-reconstruction. He wanted equal suffrage, lower taxes, no more national debt and more immigration. Seymour, on the other hand, opposed policies around emancipation and the military draft. He had openly disagreed with Lincoln’s policies during the war and wanted to stop reconstruction in the South. He wanted to allow white southerners to reorganize their governments to what they were before the war. He also advocated against organizations such as the Freedmen’s Bureau that worked to help formerly enslaved individuals. Grant and Seymour were extremely polarizing figures. The election resulted in a win for Grant, with a landslide victory in electoral votes, 214 to 80. However, the popular vote was much closer, with Grant winning 3,013,421 and Seymour 2,706,829. This map, created by Charles Pullin and included in the Atlas of the Historical Geography of the United States, depicts the election of 1868, with blue representing those in favor of Grant and yellow representing those in favor of Seymour. Grant's election as president aided in the reunification of United States and led to the passage of the 15th Amendment guaranteeing African-American men the right to vote.