Presidential Election of 1868

THE 1868 ELECTION, the first post-War election for the presidency, reflected the lingering battles between a Radical Republican Congress and a Democratic president. Conducted in the wake of the passage of Reconstruction measures and the impeachment of President Johnson, the election centered on a Democratic Party whose southern base was still petitioning to return to the Union, and a Republican Party attempting to solidify its electoral majority in the postbellum United States.

In the wake of the war, Congress split between Republican/Unionists on the one side, and conservative Republicans, and War, Peace, and Southern Democrats on the other. The Radical Republican/Unionists wanted to enfranchise the newly emancipated African-American population in order to enhance their electoral success. Therefore, the party wanted to enact strict Reconstruction measures designed to enforce and protect the franchise of the freed population. In order to be readmitted into the Union, former Confederate states had to draft new state constitutions that reflected the altered landscape; essentially the removal of the slavery issue.

President Johnson, a Democrat and former vice president to Abraham Lincoln, extended a conciliatory hand to the former Confederacy. While he believed in the necessity of some reconstruction measures, he opposed stern intervention. Unfortunately for President Johnson, a split within his party over this issue hindered his ability to pursue his agenda and strengthen the Democratic Party after the war.