By 1872 some of the scandals that would plague the Grant presidency were coming to light. Chief among them was the Credit Mobilier scandal which involved the construction of the transcontinental railroad by the Union Pacific Corporation. A group of leading Union Pacific stockholders founded Credit Mobilier of America as a purchasing and construction company. The company's mission was to construct the tracks for the railroad's westward expansion. During this period the Federal Government was paying the Union Pacific Railroad Corporation generous subsidies for each mile of track it laid. Through overbilling and creative bookkeeping, Credit Mobilier reaped huge profits for its stockholders. After vice presidnet Schuyler Colfax was implicated in the Credit Mobilier scandal, he was dropped from the Republican ticket in 1872. To keep Congress on board with the scheme, company officers sold shares of Credit Mobilier stock at deeply discounted prices or gave shares to key members of Congress. News of scandal broke just in time for the 1872 elections. The House of Representatives censored two of their members who were found to be the ring leaders in the distribution of the stock shares. Vice President Schuyler Colfax was one of several politicians who was implicated in the scandal, which forced the Republicans to drop him from their presidential ticket. His replacement, Henry Wilson, was also implicated, but his candidacy survived the resulting investigations. Grant's 1872 running mate was Congressman Henry Wilson. The corruption combined with policy disagreements over post Civil War Reconstruction and other issues prompted some Republicans to abandon the party. Led by Missouri senator, Carl Schurz, this group, which called themselves Liberal Republicans, held a separate nominating convention and picked newspaper editor Horace Greeley as their candidate. Their first choice had been Henry Adams, who was the son and grandson of former presidents, John Quincy Adams and John Adams, but the conditions that he laid out for his acceptance of their nomination were too demanding for the GOP insurgents to accept. Despite the Republican split, the Democrats were in worse shape. Since they did not have any viable presidential candidates, the Democrats also agreed to nominate Greeley and his running mate, B. Gratz Brown. Greeley had been a long-time member of the GOP and had often opposed most Democratic Party positions in his newspaper. That probably left some Democrats holding their noses at their presidential nominee, but no better choices were available to them. Greeley's running mate was B. Gratz Brown. Since 19th century presidential candidates seldom campaigned for themselves, Brown became the chief spokesperson for the ticket. Unfortunately he often "three sheets to the wind" when he got up to speak. Horace Greeley was an odd looking, eccentric man. With his strange looking whiskers, rumpled clothes and often controversial and constantly changing views on the major issues of the day, Greeley was an exasperating presidential candidate. For example, at the beginning of the Civil War he had briefly advocated allowing the southern states to leave the Union in peace. Then he became a super war hawk and advocated swift military action with the slogan, "On to Richmond!" When the war was not going well for the North, Greeley went into despair and became one of Lincoln's harshest critics. In 1864 he supported a Southern "peace initiative" which was no more than a couple of Confederate agents stationed in Canada who were lending support to Democratic peace candidates ("copperheads") prior to the 1864 elections. After the war Greeley supported the civil rights of the freedmen, but also signed the bond to release former Confederate President, Jefferson Davis, from jail. This rare campaign piece in leather reminded voters that Grant and his running mate, Henry Wilson, came from humble beginnings. Grant had clerked in his father's leather goods store, and Wilson had been a cobbler. As was the usual 19th century custom neither of the presidential candidates campaigned very much for office but had their vice presidential running mates to speak for them. The Grant campaign continued to highlight the general's war record, but it also emphasized that Grant and his running mate, Henry Wilson, were "The workingman's" candidates. A poster depicted Grant as "The Galena tanner" which referred to the times when he had had been a clerk in his father's leather goods store. Henry Wilson was called "The Natick shoemaker" which referred to his early life as a cobbler. In conjunction with the campaign theme and poster, there was a disk produced on pressed leather that featured portraits of Grant and Wilson on the obverse. This piece is very rare. This political cartoon by Thomas Nast had a devastating affect on Horace Greeley. On the Democratic - Liberal Republican side, vice presidential nominee, Gratz Brown, did not present a positive image. He often showed up at the political rallies drunk, and was prone to rambling incoherent speeches. Even more devastating to Liberal Republican / Democratic campaign were the scathing images that cartoonist, Thomas Nast, drew of Horace Greely. Nast, who is best known for his depictions of the modern Santa Claus, pictured Greely as a buffoon at best and a traitor to the Union cause at worst. His most scathing cartoon featured Greely reaching over the grave of Union soldiers to shake hands with Lincoln assassin, John Wilkes Booth. This Greeley token mentioned his support for amnesty for former Confederate soldiers and government officials. Both candidates issued many varieties of political medalets and photographic pieces although the 1872 Grant items are much scarcer than the pieces his campaign distributed in 1868. Most of the Greeley pieces carried bland messages like, "Liberal Republican and Democratic candidate for president." A few pieces included the word, "amnesty" in the designs which referred to Greeley's pledge to restore full voting and citizenship rights to all of the former Confederates regardless of the role they played in the war. Only one piece, which is quite scarce, spelled out a more comprehensive program which included, "Revenue Reform, Universal Amnesty ... Impartial Suffrage" The best qualification a 19th century presidential candidate could have was a great war record. If he didn't have that, the next best thing was to call himself a farmer. Greeley went for that image on this piece as "the honest old farmer of Chappaqua." Greeley tinkered around with farming and vegetarianism, but his occupation was newspaper publisher. This Grant medalet featured a lot of slogans that didn't make a lot of sense. Most of the Grant medalets were equally bland with messages like "Republican Candidate for President." One piece featured a lot of words with very little substance in the following phrases," Patient of Toil,/Serene Amidst Alarms,/Inflexible in Faith, Invincible in Arms,." One medalet did note one of Grant's major achievements, the passage of the 15th Amendment to the Constitution which read: Section 1 "The right of citizens of the United States to vote shall not be denied or abridged by the United States or by any State on account of race, color or previous condition of servitude." Section 2 "The Congress shall have power to enforce this article by appropriate legislation." As students of the Civil Rights Movement know it would be almost a century before this constitutional amendment would become a practical reality. Grant's support for the 15th Amendment to the constitution was a solid achievement. In the general election Grant easily won a second presidential term with 56% of the popular vote. The vote in the Electoral College was technically more complicated. On November 29, 1872 Horace Greely died. The thin skinned candidate had been deeply offended and troubled by the accusations of disloyalty that had been hurled against him during the presidential campaign. After losing the election Greely had returned to his newspaper offices to learn that there was a movement to oust him as editor of the New York Tribune. After his wife died during this period he suffered a complete mental breakdown. His doctors recommended that he be committed to a sanitarium. There his health continued to decline rapidly, and he died. The death of Greely left the electors who were committed him in a quandary. For whom should they cast their 66 ballots? The modern solution is that those electoral votes would be cast for the vice presidential candidate, but that solution did not seem evident to three of the electors who cast their votes for the late Horace Greely. The remainder of the votes were cast for other Democrats including Thomas Hendricks (42), vice presidential candidate B. Gratz Brown (18), Charles J. Jenkins (2) and David Davis (1). Grant made a third run for the presidency in 1880. This medalet was struck by the Philadelphia Mint and was given out to parade watchers who greeted Grant back to America after his long trip around the world. This piece is rather common, but the original envelope in which it was issued is the only one I have seen. Grant's Second Term and Life After the Presidency As it has been for all presidents, Ulysses S. Grant's second presidential term was weaker than his first. More scandals came to light, and The United States was hit by a major economic recession, The Panic of 1873. Grant was able to remain above the fray and left office with his reputation intact. He even considered running for a third term, but the political bosses convinced him that that would be unwise. After leaving office Grant and his wife, Nellie, set out on an around the world tour which took them to the capitals of Europe, the Egyptian pyramids and Asia. Upon returning Grant decided to run for president for a third time. He was unable to win the Republican nomination at the national convention, which deadlocked between Grant and James G. Blaine. The dark horse compromise candidate was James Garfield. Subsequently lent his name and his personal fortune to a Wall Street investment house. The leader of that firm ran what modern observers would call a Ponzi scheme. Rather than using the money that people invested to buy stocks, bonds and other assets, the firm's president paid out those funds as "investment income" to the investors. In the false belief that the firm was earning higher than market returns for its clients, others invested their funds to join in the success. After firm's president skipped town, the investors were left holding worthless accounts because the firm had no assets. Grant, who was one of those investors, was wiped out financially. At about the same time he discovered that he had cancer of tongue and throat. The years of heavy cigar smoking had caught up with him. The noted author, Mark Twain, put together a book deal for Grant that would provide funds for his wife and family. Racing against death and severe pain, Grant pushed to finish his memoirs days before his passing. His memoirs, which critics still rate as a major literary achievement, earned $400,000 in royalties for his widow.
Superb posting. The pictured medals are fascinating. I wasn't aware of that part of Horace Greeley's background.
