quittal on the eleventh article. Another
vote on the 26th of May, on the first and second articles, showed that
conviction was not possible. The radical legislative reaction was
thus checked at its highest point and the presidency as a part of
the American governmental system was no longer in danger. The seven
Republicans had, however, signed their own political death warrants;
they were never forgiven by the party leaders.

The presidential campaign was beginning to take shape even before
the impeachment trial began. Both the Democrats and the reorganized
Republicans were turning with longing toward General Grant as a
candidate. Though he had always been a Democrat, Nevertheless, when
Johnson actually called him a liar and a promise breaker, Grant went
over to the radicals and was nominated for President on May 20, 1868, by
the National Union Republican party. Schuyler Colfax was the candidate
for Vice President. The Democrats, who could have won with Grant and who
under good leadership still had a bare chance to win, nominated Horatio
Seymour of New York and Francis P. Blair of Missouri. The former had
served as war governor of New York, while the latter was considered an
extreme Democrat who believed that the radical reconstruction of the
South should be stopped, the troops withdrawn, and the people left to
form their own governments. The Democratic platform pronounced itself
opposed to the reconstruction policy, but Blair's opposition was too
extreme for the North. Seymour, more moderate and a skillful campaigner,
made headway in the rehabilitation of the Democratic party. The
Republican party declared for radical reconstruction and Negro suffrage
in the South but held that each Northern State should be allowed to
settle the suffrage for itself. It was not a courageous platform, but
Grant was popular and carried his party through to success.

The returns showed that in the election Grant had carried twenty-six
States with 214 electoral votes, while Seymour had carried only eight
States with 80 votes. But an examination of the popular vote, which was
3,000,000 for Grant and 2,700,000 for Seymour, gave the radicals cause
for alarm, for it showed that the Democrats had more white votes than
the Republicans, whose total included nearly 700,000 blacks. To insure
the continuance of the radicals in power, the Fifteenth Amendment was
framed and sent out to the States on February 26, 1869. This amendment
appeared not only t