1868 Republican National Convention

The 1868 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 had emerged as the frontrunner for the Republican nomination after being the Union commander in the Civil War. He was nominated unopposed on the first ballot. To balance Grant, a former Democrat and a hard drinker, the convention chose House Speaker Schuyler Colfax, a former Whig and temperance man. In Grant's acceptance telegram he said "Let us have peace", which captured the imagination of the American people.

[edit] The Platform

The 1868 Republican platform supported black suffrage in the South but wanted the northern states to decide for themselves whether to embrace black suffrage, opposed to using greenbacks to redeem U.S bonds, encouragement of immigration, endorsement for full rights for naturalized citizens and favored Radical Reconstruction in opposition to President Andrew Johnson's lenient reconstruction.

[edit] The Candidates for the Vice-Presidential Nomination

• Benjamin F. Wade (Ohio)
• John A. J. Creswell (Maryland)
• Andrew G. Curtin (Pennsylvania)
• Reuben E. Fenton (New York)
• Hannibal Hamlin (Maine)
• James Harlan (Iowa)
• William D. Kelley (Pennsylvania)
• Samuel C. Pomeroy (Kansas)
• James Speed (Kentucky)
• Henry Wilson (Massachusetts)

[edit] See also

• United States presidential election, 1868

[edit] References

• 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.