"The first major question of the 1876 election season was crystal clear from the beginning. Would the Liberals work with, or against the Republicans? The answer was unclear. At first it seemed likely that the Republicans and Liberals might hold a joint convention, yet in May, just one month before the Republican convention, Liberal leaders ditched the plan. The Boston Herald published that they had set up their own national convention set for late July. It would be the last of the three nominations that year. President Seward upon hearing of the Liberal spilt and feeling immense guilt for splitting his party, decided that he would not be actively seeking a re-election attempt. That said, it seemed unlikely that the President really would've been considered by the National Convention anyway, he was just too unpopular. Seward would stay in the White House during the Republican convention and would quietly support the chosen nominee..."
-from The Rise of the 3 Party System: The Birth of the Liberals
by Kenneth Jackson, published 1988
| Presidential Nomination | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | Vice Presidential Nomination | 1 | | |
| J. Blaine | 321 | 304 | 307 | 301 | 410 | R. Hayes | 464 | | |
| R. Conkling | 188 | 210 | 211 | 212 | 215 | R. Conkling | 238 | | |
| O. Morton | 125 | 99 | 71 | 55 | 23 | F. Frelinghuysen | 54 | | |
| R. Hayes | 122 | 143 | 167 | 188 | 108 | | | | |
"The 1876 Republican national Convention was held on June 8th in Cleveland, Ohio. It's planning and execution were an absolute nightmare. It had already been decided that there would be 756 delegates to the convention, however after the Liberals split off to create their own convention last second, over 300 of said 756 were no longer going to Cleveland, they were going to Boston. Originally they planned to shrink the number of delegates in response, but party bosses didn't want to admit the party had indeed shrunk. Thus, they filled in the empty seats with the equivalent of random people. Pretty much every midwestern businessman was now a Republican delegate. Not only that but local doctors and lawyers in Cleveland, and in a few cases even middle class shopkeepers were now dining with the high society of the Republican Party.
The four candidates that had a real shot to win were, James G. Blaine the former Speaker of the House, who had just tried his hand at the presidency four years prior, Roscoe Conkling the head of the Stalwarts who were by far the largest group left in the party, Oliver Morton an inoffensive Senator from Indiana that many remaining Homers liked and Rutherford B. Hayes the Governor of Ohio. The convention was largely consistent throughout. Blaine grabbed an early lead but couldn't capture the majority for the first four ballots. He was considered a good choice for his compromising attitude and many held hope that he could bring the Liberals back in the fold, something they knew Conkling could never do. Afterall many Liberals left the Republicans because of Conkling and his Stalwart gang.
By the third ballot Morton and Hayes made an uneasy alliance but even their unity wasn't enough to catch up to either Cokling or Blaine. With the convention quickly heading into a deadlock, the Blaine men began spreading rumors that they'd support Hayes for the VP spot. Thus on the 5th ballot many Hayes supporters jumped ship and Blaine got his majority.
The Vice Presidential balloting was quick and easy. Concking supporters went for him, a couple radical republicans went for Frederick Frelinghuysen but the Blaine/Hayes alliance pulled through and finished up their ticket. It seemed that the Republicans went for the two most inoffensive men they could possibly find in hopes of reconciliation. These hopes however would be quickly dashed.
Republican Ticket
James G. Blaine for President
Rutherford B. Hayes for Vice President
| Presidential Nomination | 1 | 2 | Vice Presidential Nomination | 1 | 2 | 3 |
| C. Adams | 219 | 336 | G. Walker | 227 | 321 | 370 |
| B. Bristow | 188 | 166 | B. Brown | 168 | 65 | 13 |
| A. Curtin | 112 | 42 | C. Sumner | 159 | 151 | 150 |
| S. Chase | 87 | 72 | J. Sherman | 114 | 131 | 135 |
| J. Blaine | 63 | 63 | F. Douglas | 1 | 1 | 1 |
"The 1876 Liberal Convention was held in Boston Massachusetts. The hall was full of excitement, the Liberals actually thought they might be the first ever third party to take the White House. It's not really that hard to see why, they owned the House of Representatives and the faces in the room included the likes of multiple cabinet secretaries, the Speaker of the House, civil war generals, Supreme Court Justices, Half Breeds, Radicals, Homers and even Frederick Douglas who had come to the convention to see if the Liberals would stand up to their word about reconstruction. The Liberal party was certainly a big tent.
Luckily the actual balloting wasn't all too controversial. Charles Adams had almost been the nominee for president four years prior, and though he had opponents from every single wing of the party after the first ballot those that weren't already in line mostly began to fold to him. Adams basically pleased everyone but the Homers anyway. By the second ballot the only man to lose no votes was James Blaine, the Republican nominee. Even after such a nasty split some Liberals were still hoping to compromise with their former party. At the end of the day however, it didn't matter. Thus for the first time in over 50 years another Adams would be nominated for President. The Vice Presidential balloting was going to be far more controversial. Every faction put up it's own man. The Half Breeds liked Senator John Sherman, the radicals liked Senator Charles Sumner, and the Homers were split between two candidates. Benjamin Gratz Brown the Liberal Governor of Missouri or Gilbert Walker the Liberal governor of Virginia.
The first ballot was generally chaotic. Walker came in first and all the rest came really close together. One man even voted for Frederick Douglas, making Mr. Douglas the first ever black man to have his name cast forward for the Vice Presidency. Obviously it was more of a protest vote, but nonetheless this would be a Liberal talking point in the northern states. Because Walker gained an early lead, and because he was from a former Confederate state, the Homers decided to coalesce around him as opposed to Brown on the second ballot. This struck fear into many of the Sumner voters but Charles Adams personally intervened. He knew the only faction he was on bad terms with was the Homers, thus he needed a Homer VP. He promised the radicals that they would maintain a hold on the Department of Equity and reconstruction, which made them fall back in line, and accept the nomination of the Virginia governor.
The first Liberal Convention had overall a success. Everyone came out of it more energized than ever...
Liberal Ticket
Charles F. Adams for President
Gilbert C. Walker for Vice President
| Presidential Ballot | 1 | Vice Presidential Ballot | 1 |
| S. Tilden | 523 | W. Allen | 511 |
| T. Bayard | 199 | J. Parker | 217 |
| WS. Hancock | 16 | N/A | N/A |
The 1876 Democratic National Convention was held in Wilmington Delaware on July 1st. It was by far the quickest convention out of the three held that year. All the work had been mostly completed before the start of the actual convention. At first, many had attempted to convince Winfield Scott Hancock to run once again, but Hancock stated that he was uninterested in re-entering politics and would outright delince any attempt to nominate him. Thus Democrats opened up a search for a new candidate.
They knew that it needed to be a man who was inoffensive and easily marketable to the public. Similar to Hancock four years ago, they needed a man who could take advantage of the Republican split. That man in their eyes was Samuel Tilden, the wildly popular Governor of New York who had been outspoken in his attacks of Seward's presidency. He was really everything the Democrats wanted, a unionist, popular, and a man that mostly anyone could get behind. By the time the voting started, the hall had already chosen it's candidate. That said, a certain amount of Redeemers weren't interested in the moderate Tilden and pushed hard to get Delaware Senator Thomas Bayard on the ticket. There just weren't enough of them to stop the force that was Tilden and his supporters.
The Vice Presidential nomination was also a quick affair. Tilden believed that his ticket could be seen as the exact alternative to the Blaine/Hayes ticket. Blaine was from New York and Hayes from Ohio, Tilden was from New York so he wanted an Ohioan as his VP, to stay even slightly competitive in the midwest. Fortunately for him, the former Governor of Ohio directly preceding Hayes was actively campaigning for the job. Thus Tilden gave his endorsement to former Governor William Allen. Once again the redeemers tried to combat Tilden with Joel Parker, the popular Governor of New Jersey, but most agreed that Parker would add no advantage to the ticket as New Jersey was a no doubt blue state.
After just two round of voting for the entire day, both halves of the Democratic ticket were complete and one of the nastiest and closest elections in American history had just begun...
Democratic Ticket
Samuel J. Tilden for President
William Allen for Vice President
From Every National Convention in American History
by Jacob Cohen, published 2012
I fully thought this was posted a few hours ago, but I'm stupid and didn't press the post button. Sorry! Also sorry this took so long. I spent like two days trying to figure out how to make a custom election map with Santo Domingo added as a separate state. MAKE YOUR PREDICTIONS NOW! Tomorrow I am posting the actual election... Thank you guys for the continued engagement! Hope you had a good long weekend.
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