1868 United States Presidential Election

1864 Presidential Election - 1872 Presidential Election

Results
1868 was an interesting contest, pitting a southern Republican against a northern Democrat. The Republicans nominated Edward Bates of Missouri, a known conservative and moderate who gained notoriety after the debacle in 1860 in which he gained an electoral vote from a faithless elector that lead to Lincoln losing the election. The Democrats nominated former Presidential candidate of 1852 Franklin Pierce, seeing how well Fitzpatrick performed in the electoral college despite losing the popular vote and the presidency, they figured a northern strategy was their best bet against a conservative Republican. In an ironic twist, the popular vote was actually much closer than last election, but Bates the Republican won by a larger margin in the electoral college than Seward did. Both candidates managed to break into previously thought stronghold states of the opposing party in this election.