who called out corruption in the Grant administration and advocated for pulling U.S. troops out of the South, arguing that Black citizens now had political and civil rights. The party nominated Greeley, who according to Williams had “broad national appeal,” for president at its convention in Cincinnati in May 1872.
Two months later, the Democrats met in Baltimore and made the calculation that their best bet in knocking off Grant was to back the Liberal Republican Party ticket of Greeley and his running mate, Missouri Gov. Benjamin G. Brown. It remains the only time a major party has endorsed a third-party candidate for president.
“With many expressions of extreme disgust, with some weak and vain attempts to like the dose, the Democracy have swallowed Greeley, Brown and the Cincinnati platform,” the New York Times reported. “From first to last this affair has been the ghastliest of political shows.”, spread out over two days. Greeley wasn’t in Baltimore for it but accepted the nomination.
“All his life, Greeley had thundered against the Democrats for their corrupt ways,” wrote Williams, the Greeley biographer. “… In retrospect, Greeley came off as an opportunist, rather than the man of principle he had claimed to be.”The 1872 election, just the second presidential race since the end of the Civil War, came at a time when the country was still wrestling with Reconstruction and stitching the nation back together.
The Democrats’ decision to back a third-party candidate wasn’t the campaign’s only oddity. It also featured a female candidate, Victoria Woodhull, even though women couldn’t vote yet. Woodhull ran as the Equal Rights Party nominee, and a
You didn’t run one in 2016, either.
They didn't run one in 2020. They found an old retired guy with dementia. Had him hide in his basement. And stole the election.
Well democrats used to be the bad guys. They were called the ‘Dixie’s’. All the slave owners were democrat.
Well, since the candidate would’ve been a horrific racist, I’m gonna say that was a good thing for history.😏
Reconstruction would've ended sooner and Jim Crow would've started sooner if the Democrats of that time had won. Reconstruction should have lasted until... 2050? So who cares if it backfired?
Yes, back when elections were fair and journalism was accurate and useful to the people.
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