Page:The American Cyclopædia (1879) Volume XVI.djvu/206

22, 1868, a naturalization treaty was concluded with the North German confederation. The national republican convention assembled at Chicago on May 21, 1868, and nominated Gen. Ulysses S. Grant for president, and for vice president Schuyler Colfax of Indiana. The platform congratulated the country on the success of the reconstruction policy of congress; denounced all forms of repudiation as a national crime; declared that “the national honor requires the payment of the public indebtedness in the uttermost good faith to all creditors at home and abroad, not only according to the letter, but the spirit of the laws under which it was contracted;” and that “the guaranty by congress of equal suffrage to all loyal men at the south was demanded by every consideration of public safety, of gratitude, and of justice, and must be maintained; while the question of suffrage in all the loyal states properly belongs to the people of those states.” The national democratic convention assembled at New York on July 4, and nominated Horatio Seymour of New York for president and Francis P. Blair, jr., of Missouri, for vice president. The platform recognized the settlement of the questions of slavery and secession by the war or the voluntary action of the southern states; demanded the “immediate restoration of all the states to their rights in the Union under the constitution,” “amnesty for all political offences and the regulation of the elective franchise in the states by their citizens,” and “the abolition of the freedmen's bureau and all political instrumentalities designed to secure negro supremacy;” denounced the reconstruction acts of congress “as usurpations and unconstitutional, revolutionary, and void;” arraigned the republican party because, “instead of restoring the Union, it has, so far as in its power, dissolved it, and subjected ten states, in time of profound peace, to military despotism and negro supremacy;” and declared that “where the obligations of the government do not expressly state upon their face, or the law under which they were issued does not provide, that they shall be paid in coin, they ought, in right and in justice, to be paid in the lawful money of the United States.” The election took place on Nov. 3, Virginia, Mississippi, and Texas not voting. Seymour and Blair received the electoral votes of New York, New Jersey, Delaware, Maryland, Georgia, Louisiana, Kentucky, and Oregon, 80; Grant and Colfax received those of all the other states, 214, and were elected. The total popular vote was 5,716,788, of which 3,013,188 were for the Grant electors and 2,703,600 for the Seymour electors. This was the first presidential election in which any considerable number of colored voters participated. (See Grant, Ulysses S.) In 1872 President Grant was reëlected. On May 1 of that year a convention assembled at Cincinnati, composed of persons previously in sympathy with the republican party, but now dissatisfied with the administration of President Grant and opposed to his reëlection. They styled themselves “liberal republicans.” By this convention Horace Greeley of New York was nominated for president, and Benjamin Gratz Brown of Missouri for vice president. The platform opposed any reopening of the questions settled by the thirteenth, fourteenth, and fifteenth amendments of the constitution, and the candidacy of any president for reëlection; demanded the immediate and absolute removal of all disabilities imposed on account of the rebellion, a thorough reform of the civil service as one of the most pressing necessities of the hour, and a speedy return to specie payments; denounced repudiation in every form and guise; and declared that “local self-government, with impartial suffrage, will guard the rights of all citizens more securely than any centralized power.” The national republican convention assembled at Philadelphia on June 6, and nominated President Grant for reëlection, and for vice president Henry Wilson of Massachusetts. The platform, appealing to the history of the party, recited that it had suppressed a gigantic rebellion, emancipated 4,000,000 slaves, decreed the equal citizenship of all, established universal suffrage, and, with unparalleled magnanimity, had punished no man for political offences; approved the action of congress in extending amnesty to those lately in rebellion; favored reform in the civil service; denounced repudiation of the public debt, in any form or disguise, as a national crime; announced a confident expectation of a speedy resumption of specie payment; declared that “the recent amendments to the national constitution should be cordially sustained because they are right, not merely tolerated because they are law, and should be carried out according to their spirit by appropriate legislation, the enforcement of which can safely be intrusted only to the party that secured those amendments;” that “neither the law nor its administration should admit any discrimination in respect of citizens by reason of race, creed, color, or previous condition of servitude;” and that “congress and the president have only fulfilled an imperative duty in their measures for the suppression of violent and treasonable organizations in certain lately rebellious regions, and for the protection of the ballot box.” The national democratic convention assembled at Baltimore on July 9, and nominated the same candidates and adopted the same platform as the Cincinnati convention. On Sept. 8 a convention of “straight-out democrats, opposed to the Baltimore nominations and platform, assembled at Louisville, Ky., and nominated Charles O'Conor of New York for president and John Quincy Adams of Massachusetts for vice president. Conventions were also held and nominations made by the “labor reform” and “temperance” parties. The candidates of the former declined, and no ticket was put in the field; the candidates of the latter were, for president James