November 3, 1868 – Ulysses S. Grant Elected President

On this day in history, Ulysses Grant and Schuyler Colfax defeated Horatio Seymour and Francis Blair, Jr. for the offices of President and Vice President of the United States.

The Democratic party made explicit appeals to racism in this election, with Seymour and Blair’s motto being: “This is a White Man’s Country; Let White Men Rule.”

Former Ohio Congressman Samuel S. Cox, touring the country for the Democratic ticket, asked:

Is there no pride in your blue eyes, light hair, white faces, and intelligent brains?”

Cox, however, was not without “charity” about blacks, having said in a speech to Congress in 1862:

Neither do I blame the negro altogether for his crime, improvidence, and sloth. He is under a sore calamity in this country. He is inferior, distinct, and separate, and he has, perhaps, sense enough to perceive it. The advantages and equality of the white man can never be his….”

In any event, General Grant won the election, and it was the last presidential election where racism was the explicit slogan and policy of the Democratic Party.

1868 Presidential Election Results