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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 Free Union 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 both the White House and massive majorities in Congress. 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 several successor parties, the main two being the National and Free Union parties. The Free Union Party was born from the old Radical Republican faction, calling for uncompromising advancement of civil rights, opposition to the Confederacy, and mass industrialization. The National Party was formed out of the moderate faction and believed it was time to move on from divisive social issues, emphasizing Republican economic policies instead. They aimed for moderation and compromise, hoping to succeed the Whigs in being a party that could unite all parts of the nation.
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.
Free Union Nomination[]
The first-ever Free Union National Convention was held from August 12-16 in Boston. It was a hastily organized affair, as the party had only come into official existence in May 1872. Henry Wilson, one of the founders and leading figures of the party, was nominated for president. Schuyler Colfax of Indiana was nominated for vice president as the party tried to extend its national appeal.
National Nomination[]
The first National Party Convention was held from July 28-August 3 in New York. James G. Blaine, who had been involved in organizing the party as a separate entity from the Republicans, was nominated for president. He was unsure at first about accepting, considering it a risk to his personal image, but accepted in the end. Lyman Trumbull was nominated without his knowledge. Only a personal meeting with Blaine convinced him to accept.
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 soon join the Free Union Party). For vice president they nominated Hannibal Hamlin. The Republican Party became completely defunct sometime in July and didn't field a candidate in the election.
The Campaign[]
Once again, the Democrats didn't campaign extensively besides highlighting their 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 normal. 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 mainly in the Midwest and frontier states, hoping to build a nationally positive image with the support of the old Republican base. The American Party focused on the Northeast and specifically Massachusetts, Wilson's home state and the home of many former Republicans. The parties had little 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.
Results and Aftermath[]
The Democrats 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.
Pendleton saw his sweeping victory as a popular mandate to move beyond restoring normalcy and begin implementing reforms to reshape the country according to his image. He was determined to never let the influence of Republicanism or abolitionism, which he considered to be corruptive, resurface in the United States. He made a target out of the Free Unionists and their allied organization, the Unconditional Abolition Society, framing them as subversive and insurrectionist. This culminated in the Faneuil Incident where federal forces under Pendleton's command tried to suppress a meeting of the Free Union Party's most prominent members. This incident, along with Pendleton's failed attempts to reconcile with the Confederacy, made him and his party plunge in popularity and add fuel to the emergent opposition parties. 1876 was not going to be nearly as easy for the Democrats.
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