the subscribers, in their anger, refused by thousands to receive it. An
unsuccessful attempt was also made to expel him from the Union League
Club of New York.
In 1867 he was a delegate-at-large to the convention for the revision of
the state constitution, and in 1869 and 1870 he was the Republican
candidate for controller of the state and member of Congress
respectively, but in each case was defeated.
He was dissatisfied with General Grant's administration, and became its
sharp critic. The discontent which he did much to develop ended in the
organization of the Liberal Republican party, which held its National
Convention at Cincinnati in 1872, and nominated Greeley for the
presidency. For a time the tide of feeling ran strongly in his favour.
It was first checked by the action of his life-long opponents, the
Democrats, who also nominated him at their National Convention. He
expected their support, on account of his attitude toward the South and
hostility to Grant, but he thought it a mistake to give him their formal
nomination. The event proved his wisdom. Many Republicans who had
sympathized with his criticisms of the administration, and with the
declaration of principles adopted at the first convention, were repelled
by the coalition. This feeling grew stronger until the election. His old
party associates regarded him as a renegade, the Democrats gave him a
half-hearted support. The tone of the canvass was one of unusual
bitterness, amounting sometimes to actual ferocity. In August, on
representations of the alarming state of the contest, he took the field
in person, and made a series of campaign speeches, beginning in New
England and extending throughout Pennsylvania, Ohio and Indiana, which
aroused great enthusiasm, and were regarded at the time by both friends
and opponents as the most brilliant continuous exhibition of varied
intellectual power ever made by a candidate in a presidential canvass.
General Grant received in the election 3,597,070 votes, Greeley
2,834,079. The only states Greeley carried were Georgia, Kentucky,
Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee and Texas.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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