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Election of 1868 The United States presidential election of 1868 was the 21st quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 1868. It was the first presidential election to take place after the American Civil War, during the period referred to as Reconstruction. As three of the former Confederate states (Texas, Mississippi, and Virginia) were not yet restored to the Union, their electors could not vote in the election. The incumbent President, Andrew Johnson, who succeeded to the presidency in 1865 following the assassination of President Abraham Lincoln, was unpopular and failed to receive the Democratic presidential nomination. By 1868, Johnson had alienated many of his constituents and had been impeached by Congress. Although Johnson kept his office, his presidency was crippled. After numerous ballots, the Democrats nominated former New York Governor Horatio Seymour to take on the Republican candidate, Civil War general Ulysses S. Grant. Grant was one of the most popular men in the North due to his efforts in concluding the Civil War successfully for the Union. Although Seymour was buried in the electoral college, he gave Grant a good race for the popular vote. In addition to his appeal in the North, Grant benefited from votes among the newly enfranchised freedmen in the South, while the temporary political disfranchisement of many Southern whites helped Republican margins. It was the first election in which African Americans could vote in every (Northern or Reconstructed) state (in accordance with the First Reconstruction Act); Grant won the office. Every state except Florida used a popular vote to determine electors

Election of 1872 The United States presidential election of 1872 was the 22nd quadrennial presidential

election, held on Tuesday, November 5, 1872. The incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant was easily elected to a second term in office, with Senator Henry Wilson of Massachusetts as his running mate, despite a split within the Republican Party that resulted in a defection of many Liberal Republicans to opponent Horace Greeley of the Democratic Party, which also nominated the candidates of the Liberal Republican ticket that year. On November 29, 1872, after the popular vote, but before the Electoral College cast its votes, Greeley died. As a result, electors previously committed to Greeley voted for four different candidates for president, and eight different candidates for vice-president. Greeley himself received three posthumous electoral votes, but these votes were disallowed by Congress. The election was the first in which every competing state used a popular vote to determine its electors; since 1832, South Carolina had been the lone state to decide electors by the state legislature. Florida's legislature had decided its electors in 1868. The election of 1872 is the only US presidential election in which a candidate has died during the electoral process.

The United States presidential election of 1876 was the 23rd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 7, 1876. It was one of the most contentious and controversial presidential elections in American history. The results of the election remain among the most disputed ever, although there is no question that Samuel J. Tilden of New

York outpolled Ohio's Rutherford B. Hayes in the popular vote. After a first count of votes, Tilden won 184 electoral votes to Hayes's 165, with 20 votes unresolved. These 20 electoral votes were in dispute in four states: in the case of Florida, Louisiana, and South Carolina, each party reported its candidate had won the state, while in Oregon one elector was declared illegal (as an "elected or appointed official") and replaced. The question of who should have been awarded these electoral votes is the source of the continued controversy concerning the results of this election. An informal deal was struck to resolve the dispute: the Compromise of 1877, which awarded all 20 electoral votes to Hayes. In return for the Democrats' acquiescence in Hayes's election, the Republicans agreed to withdraw federal troops from the South, ending Reconstruction. The Compromise effectively ceded power in the Southern states to the Democratic Redeemers, who went on to pursue their agenda of returning the South to a political economy resembling that of its pre-war condition, including the disenfranchisement of black voters. This was the first presidential election in 24 years in which the Democratic candidate won a majority of the popular vote. This is also the only election in which a candidate for president received more than 50 percent of the popular vote but was not elected president by the Electoral College, and one of four elections in which the person winning the plurality of the popular vote did not win the election. It is to date the smallest electoral vote victory and the [1] [2]

election with the highest voter turnout of the voting age population at 81.8%.

in American history,

Election of 1880 The United States presidential election of 1880 was a contest between Republican James A. Garfield and Democrat Winfield Scott Hancock, with Garfield being elected president. It was the 24th quadrennial presidential election, and was held on Tuesday, November 2, 1880. Voter turnout was among the highest in the nation's history. In the end, the two main candidates' popular vote totals were separated by fewer than 2,000 votes, the smallest

popular vote victory ever recorded. In the electoral college, however, Garfield's victory was decisive as he won nearly all of the populous Northern states for a 214 to 155 victory. Hancock's sweep of the Southern states was not enough for victory, but cemented his party's dominance of the region for generations. Incumbent president Rutherford B. Hayes did not seek re-election, keeping a promise made during the 1876 campaign. After the longest convention in the party's history, the divided Republicans chose another Ohioan, Garfield, a Congressman and Civil War general as their standard-bearer. The Democratic Party selected Pennsylvania-born Civil War general and career army officer Winfield Scott Hancock as their nominee. The dominance of those two major parties began to fray as an upstart left-wing party, the Greenback Party, nominated another Civil War general, Iowa Congressman James B. Weaver. In a campaign fought mainly over issues of Civil War loyalties, tariffs, and Chinese immigration, Garfield and Hancock each took just over 48 percent of the popular vote. Weaver and two other minor candidates, Neal Dow and John W. Phelps, together made up the remaining percentage.

Election of 1884 The United States presidential election of 1884 was the 25th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 4, 1884. It saw the first election of a Democrat as President of the United States since the election of 1856. The campaign was marred by exceptional political acrimony and personal invective. New York Governor Grover Cleveland narrowly defeated Republican former United States Senator James G. Blaine of Maine to break the longest losing streak for any major party in American political history: six consecutive presidential elections.

New York decided the election, awarding Governor Cleveland the state's 36 electors by a margin of just 1,047 votes

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out of 1,171,312 cast.

Election of 1894 The United States presidential election of 1884 was the 25th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 4, 1884. It saw the first election of a Democrat as President of the United States since the election of 1856. The campaign was marred by exceptional political acrimony and personal invective. New York Governor Grover Cleveland narrowly defeated Republican former United States Senator James G. Blaine of Maine to break the longest losing streak for any major party in American political history: six consecutive presidential elections. New York decided the election, awarding Governor Cleveland the state's 36 electors by a margin of just 1,047 votes

[2]

out of 1,171,312 cast.

The United States presidential election of 1888 was the 26th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 6, 1888. It saw Grover Cleveland of New York, the incumbent president and a Democrat, try to secure a second term against the Republican nominee Benjamin Harrison, a former U.S. Senator from Indiana. The economy was prosperous and the nation was at peace, but Cleveland lost re-election in the Electoral College, even though he won a plurality of the popular vote by a narrow margin. Tariff policy was the principal issue in the election. Harrison took the side of industrialists and factory workers who wanted to keep tariffs high, while Cleveland strenuously denounced high tariffs as unfair to consumers. His opposition to Civil War pensions and inflated currency also made enemies among veterans and farmers. On the other hand, he held a strong hand in the South and border states, and appealed to former Republican Mugwumps. Harrison swept almost the entire North and Midwest (losing only Connecticut and New Jersey), and narrowly carried the swing states of New York (Cleveland's home state) and

Indiana (Harrison's home state) by a margin of 1% or less to achieve a majority of the electoral vote. Unlike the election of 1884, the power of the Tammany Hall political machine in New York City helped deny Cleveland the electoral votes of his home state. This election was notable for being the third of four U.S. presidential elections in which the winner did not win the popular vote. The first, in 1824, saw John Quincy Adams elected by the House. The second occurred just 12 years earlier in 1876, while the fourth would occur [2]

112 years later in 2000. It is also notable because only two states (New York and Indiana) switched parties in the electoral vote in comparison to the preceding election. It would not be until the election of 2012 that only two states (Indiana and North Carolina) would switch parties in consecutive elections

Election of 1892 The United States presidential election of 1892 was the 27th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 1892. It witnessed a re-match of the closely contested presidential election in 1888. Former Democratic President Grover Cleveland and incumbent Republican President Benjamin Harrison both ran for election to a second term. In 1888, Cleveland won the popular vote over Harrison, but lost in the electoral college, thus losing the election. In this re-match, Cleveland won both the popular and electoral vote, thus becoming the first person in American history to be elected to a second, non-consecutive presidential term. The new Populist Party, formed by groups from The Grange, the Farmers' Alliances, and the Knights of Labor, also fielded a ticket; they polled best in the West, winning in five states and taking a total of 22 electoral votes. The campaign centered mainly on economic issues, especially the concept of a sound currency. Cleveland was a proponent of the gold standard, while the Republicans and Populists both supported bimetalism. Cleveland also ran on a platform of lowering tariffs (the Republicans were strongly protectionist) and opposed the Republicans' 1890 voting rights

proposal. As of 1892, Cleveland was one of only two people (the other being Andrew Jackson) to win the popular vote in three U.S. presidential elections. In the twentieth century, Franklin Delano Roosevelt also achieved this distinction (and exceeded it by winning the popular vote in four consecutive elections as of 1944). Cleveland also became the first Democrat to be nominated by his party three times, a distinction matched later only by Franklin D. Roosevelt and William Jennings Bryan.

Election of 1896 The United States presidential election of 1896 was the 28th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 1896. It climaxed an intensely heated contest in which Republican candidate William McKinley (a former Governor of Ohio) defeated Democrat William Jennings Bryan (a former Representative from Nebraska) in one of the most dramatic and complex races in American history. The 1896 campaign is often considered to be a realigning election that ended the old Third [2]

Party System and began the Fourth Party System. McKinley forged a conservative coalition in which businessmen, professionals, skilled factory workers, and prosperous farmers were heavily represented. He was strongest in cities and in the Northeast, Upper Midwest, and Pacific Coast. Bryan was the nominee of the Democrats, the Populist Party, and the Silver Republicans. He presented his campaign as a crusade of the working man against the rich, who impoverished America by limiting the money supply, which was based on gold. Silver, he said, was in ample supply and if coined into money would restore prosperity while undermining the illicit power of the money trust. Bryan was strongest in the South, rural Midwest, and Rocky Mountain states. Bryan's moralistic rhetoric and crusading

for inflation (based on a money supply based on silver as well as gold) alienated conservatives and especially German American voters. Turnout was very high, passing 90% of the eligible voters in many places.

Election of 1900 The United States presidential election of 1900 was the 29th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 6, 1900. The election was a re-match of the 1896 race between Republican candidate and incumbent President William McKinley and his Democratic challenger, William Jennings Bryan. The Republican Convention chose New York Governor Theodore Roosevelt as McKinley's running mate, since Vice-President Garret Hobart had died from heart failure in 1899. The return of economic prosperity and recent victory in the Spanish–American War for control of the Philippines helped McKinley to score a decisive victory, while Bryan's anti-imperialist stance and continued support for bimetallism attracted only limited support.

Election of 1904 The United States presidential election of 1904 was the 30th quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 8, 1904. Incumbent President and Republican candidate Theodore Roosevelt, having succeeded to the presidency upon the assassination of William McKinley in September 1901, was elected to a term in his own right. During the election campaign, Republicans emphasized Roosevelt's success in foreign affairs and his record of firmness against monopolies. The nominee of the Democratic Party was Alton B. Parker, Chief Judge of the New York Court of Appeals. The Democrats argued the Roosevelt Presidency was "arbitrary" and "erratic."

[1]

Roosevelt easily defeated Parker, carrying every region in the nation except the South. In doing so he became the first incumbent President to win election to a term in his own right after having ascended to the Presidency (from the Vice-Presidency) upon the death of his predecessor. Since then, Presidents Coolidge (1924), Truman (1948), and Johnson (1964) have done so as well.

Election of 1908 The United States presidential election of 1908 was the 31st quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 3, 1908. Popular incumbent President Theodore Roosevelt, honoring a promise not to seek a third term, persuaded the Republican Party to nominate William Howard Taft, his close friend and Secretary of War, to become his successor. Having lost the 1904 election badly with a conservative candidate, the Democratic Party turned to two-time nominee William Jennings Bryan, who had been defeated in 1896 and 1900 by Republican William McKinley. Despite his two previous defeats, Bryan remained extremely popular among the more liberal and populist elements of the Democratic Party. Despite running a vigorous campaign against the nation's business elite, Bryan suffered the worst loss of his three presidential campaigns.

Election of 1912 The United States presidential election of 1912 was the 32nd quadrennial presidential [1]

election, held on Tuesday, November 5, 1912. The election was a rare four-way contest. Incumbent President William Howard Taft was renominated by the Republican Party with the support of its conservative wing. After former President Theodore Roosevelt failed to receive the Republican nomination, he called his own convention and created the Progressive Party (nicknamed the "Bull Moose Party"). It nominated Roosevelt and ran candidates for other offices in major states. Democrat Woodrow Wilson was finally nominated on the 46th ballot of a contentious convention, thanks to the support of William Jennings Bryan, the three-time Democratic presidential candidate who still had a large and loyal following in 1912. Eugene V. Debs, running for a fourth time, was the nominee of the Socialist Party of America.

Election of 1916 The United States presidential election of 1916 was the 33rd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 7, 1916. Incumbent President Woodrow Wilson, the Democratic candidate, was pitted against Supreme Court Justice Charles Evans Hughes, the Republican candidate. After a hard-fought contest, Wilson defeated Hughes by nearly 600,000 votes in the popular vote and secured a narrow majority in the Electoral College by winning several swing states with razor-thin margins. Wilson's re-election marked the first time that a Democratic Party candidate had won two consecutive Presidential elections since Andrew Jackson won re-election in the 1832 election. The election took place while Mexico was going through the Mexican Revolution and Europe was embroiled in World War I. Public sentiment in the still neutral United States leaned towards the British and French (Allied) forces, due to the harsh treatment of civilians by the German Army in large parts of Belgium and northern France. However, despite their sympathy with the Allied forces, most American voters wanted to avoid involvement in the war, and preferred to continue a policy of neutrality. Wilson's campaign used the popular slogan "He kept us out of war" to appeal to those voters who wanted to avoid a war in Europe or with Mexico. The progressive Hughes criticized Wilson for not taking the "necessary preparations" to face a conflict, which served to strengthen Wilson's image as an anti-war candidate. The Republicans had supported a moderate interventionist policy under the previous three administrations, while no Democratic president had presided over a major war since James K. Polk with the Mexican-American War. Despite the narrow margin of his win, the 1916 election saw an increase in Wilson's popular vote from his election in 1912, when he won in a landslide in the Electoral College. Wilson accomplished this due to the split in the Republican vote in 1912 between William Howard Taft and Theodore Roosevelt, the former Republican president who was ran as a Progressive. In 1916, conservative and progressive Republicans were largely united under the moderate Hughes in their bid to oust Wilson. However, Wilson attracted many voters

who had earlier supported Roosevelt. It is one of only three elections in which a nominee was elected president without the support of his state of residence (New Jersey). The other two were James K. Polk (Tennessee, 1844) and Richard Nixon (New York, 1968). Wilson, however, did win his state of birth (Virginia), like Nixon (born in California), but unlike Polk (born in North Carolina).

Election of 1914...