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The United States Presidential Election of 1872, the 22nd U.S. presidential election, took place on November 5, 1872. Incumbent President George H. Pendleton sought a second term against disorganized opposition and won handily. This was the first election contested for both the American Party and the National Party.
Background[]
Since the 1868 presidential election, the Democratic Party had ruled the United States with almost complete authority. They held massive majorities in congress and the White House. Slowly, President Pendleton had been appointing justices to the Supreme Court to displace the Lincolnites and establish a Democratic majority. Everything was going in the Democrats' favor.
The Republican Party, on the other hand, had been faltering since the end of the Civil War and was on its last legs by the time 1872 rolled around. Its breakup led to the formation of many successor parties, the main two being the National and American parties. The American Party was born from the old Radical Republican faction, calling for uncompromising advancement of civil rights but also focusing on the economic part of the old Republican platform. The National Party was formed as a blanket party for the remaining Republicans that did not join the Democrats or the Americans. They aimed for moderation and compromise, hoping to succeed the Whigs in being a party that could unite all parts of the nation. In time, they also took on a nativist element, pushing for stricter immigration controls.
Democratic Nomination[]
The Democratic National Convention was held on July 9-10, 1872 in Baltimore. Incumbent Democratic President George H. Pendleton had done an adequate job in office and was renominated unanimously. The Democrats put forth a platform of continued free trade reform, soft money, and gradual reconciliation with the Confederacy.
American Nomination[]
The first-ever American Party National Convention was held from August 12-17 in Philadelphia. It was a hastily organized affair, as the party had only come into official existence in May 1872. No major political figure wanted to attach their reputation to such a new party, and so the nomination was more of a recruitment. The only well-known politician who even showed interest was Henry Wilson of Massachusetts. He was nominated before making a concrete decision on whether he would accept, but on the last day of the convention he sent a telegram confirming that he would be the candidate for the party. The party ran out of funds to continue their lease at the convention hall they had met in, and so hastily held a vice presidential nomination in the last hours of the convention. Oliver P. Morton of Indiana was nominated without his consent, and he never made any public acknowledgement of his candidacy. Morton would go on to join the National Party in 1874.
National Nomination[]
The first National Party Nominating Convention was held from July 28-August 3 in New York. Much like the American nomination, possible candidates had to be recruited, as no one of importance sought the position. James G. Blaine had left the Republican Party in 1871 and had been an independent since then. He was in attendance at this convention as an observer, curious to see if this young party would amount to anything on the national stage. When the delegates learned that he was in the stands, he was nominated almost unanimously. He at first turned it down, claiming that he was retired from politics, but after more convincing he decided to accept. Joseph Roswell Hawley of Connecticut, the chairman of the convention, was nominated for vice president.
Republican Nomination[]
The last Republican National Convention was held from June 5-10 in Philadelphia. The party was already virtually extinct by that point, and less than half of the pledged delegates showed up. They eventually resolved to once again nominate Benjamin Wade for president (Wade himself would join the American Party in 1873). For vice president they nominated Hannibal Hamlin. The Republican Party became completely defunct sometime in July, and so didn't field a candidate in the election.
The Campaign[]
Once again, the Democrats didn't do much except point to their positive reforms and the return to normalcy they had supposedly caused. The country felt what some historians later called a "false sense of prosperity". After the traumatic events of the war, the public wanted to believe that things had returned to normalcy. The economy saw a slow upturn, in part due to Pendleton's inflationary policies, but in reality was not nearly at prewar levels. Rebuilding of war-damaged areas was slow because of President Pendleton's belief in states' rights. Pendleton was somewhat popular because, to some, he represented the kind of president they might have had before the war and also seemed responsive to the will of the people. However, his beliefs on race, civil rights, and relations with the Confederacy were in actuality antithetical to the beliefs of the average citizen at the time. The only reason the Democratic Party dominated postwar politics was because the reputation of the Republican Party was just too damaged to compete.
No candidate did any active campaigning. The National Party focused their efforts in New England, hoping to convert the former Republican stronghold to their cause. The American Party focused specifically on Massachusetts, Wilson's home state and the home of many former Republicans. The parties had no name recognition with the average voter, and so support tended to be based on the name value of the individual candidates on the ticket. For a former Republican, they typically either supported the man from their former intra-party faction, reluctantly voted for Pendleton in the false hope of national unity, or didn't vote at all. There were a few more extreme parties that attracted a smaller number of votes. These soon died out.
As the campaign went on, Blaine realized how many anti-immigrant and anti-Catholic figures were associated with the National Party. This made him uncomfortable, as he was the son of an Irish immigrant. He said privately that he wished he had never accepted the nomination. Apparently he changed his mind over the next four years, as he would go on to accept the 1876 National Party nomination as well.
Results and Aftermath[]
Pendleton dominated, as expected. Henry Wilson managed to win his home state, which put him in second place in the electoral college. Blaine won his home state of Maine and won an upset in Kansas. All parties had something good to take from this election- the Democrats were still the dominant force, and the new parties knew they had a base to build off of.
The Democrats used their apparent popular mandate to keep enacting their pro-Southern/border state policies and free trade measures. Pendleton agreed to pass a fugitive slave law in exchange for a state visit by Confederate President Stonewall Jackson in 1876. He thought the American people would welcome this move and want to move past the Civil War, but he was extremely wrong in his thinking. The meeting and fugitive slave law caused outrage in the people that had fought to be free of the South's bullying, and the National and American parties used this fury to expand their popularity. The 1876 election suddenly did not seem like such a guaranteed win for the Democrats.
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