Specifically, the 15th Amendment gave African Americans the right to vote for the first time, while the government cracked down on the Ku Klux Klan.

While U.S. Supreme Court Justice David Davis was the initial front-runner for the Liberal Republican nomination, his support weakened after he was relentlessly criticized and attacked in various newspapers.

Both the press and the public were also surprised by the Greeley nomination because the largely pro-free trade Liberal Republicans had chosen a staunch protectionist as their presidential nominee.

During the campaign, federal officials arrested over 1,000 people under authority of the Reconstruction Enforcement Acts in order to make sure that Republicans, especially Blacks, were not prevented from voting.

[3] While President Grant did not actively campaign, Greeley travelled through New Jersey, Pennsylvania, Ohio, Kentucky, and Indiana and delivering up to 22 speeches per day for a total of nearly 200.

[3][4][5] To make matters worse, his running mate, Gratz Brown, was an embarrassment who attended campaign events and delivered speeches while intoxicated (he fainted before a gathering in New York City, and at a campaign picnic, Brown was so drunk he was seen slicing up and buttering a watermelon), forgot party policies, and generally made errors and misstatements.

[3] Grant defeated Greeley in the election by a landslide, winning 31 out of 37 states[5] in capturing the Electoral College by 286 to 66,[6] and won the national popular vote by 55.6% to 43.8%.