1872 Presidential Election

[Dr. Cynic]

The only real option here is Grant.

A vote for Greeley or O'Conor is a vote to turn the South back over to the white supremacist Democratic Party and destroy everything that the war was fought for. The only person capable of fighting the Klan and suppressing the enemies of the Republic is Grant, and that's who I would vote for.

I vote Greeley, mostly out of sympathy for him. I think also you're confusing Greeley with Horatio Seymour. Seymour was a racist and white supremacist who not only hated blacks, but natives as well. Greeley was nothing of the sort. He was a Republican, the same as Grant and he was an early advocate of something I think you also keenly advocate, socialism. He broke with Grant mostly due to the scandals. On politics, they were fairly close. The Democrats supporting Greeley was a cruel irony, considering that he had spent years denouncing them.

[Dr. Cynic]

The only real option here is Grant.

A vote for Greeley or O'Conor is a vote to turn the South back over to the white supremacist Democratic Party and destroy everything that the war was fought for. The only person capable of fighting the Klan and suppressing the enemies of the Republic is Grant, and that's who I would vote for.

I vote Greeley, mostly out of sympathy for him. I think also you're confusing Greeley with Horatio Seymour. Seymour was a racist and white supremacist who not only hated blacks, but natives as well. Greeley was nothing of the sort. He was a Republican, the same as Grant and he was an early advocate of something I think you also keenly advocate, socialism. He broke with Grant mostly due to the scandals. On politics, they were fairly close. The Democrats supporting Greeley was a cruel irony, considering that he had spent years denouncing them.

Greeley supported ending reconstruction, which would've ended up giving control of the south up to the KKK.

I didn't say he wasn't wrong on that. His reasons for wanting to end Reconstruction were more naive than racist. I think if he'd lived and been elected and seen the Klan taking a foothold, he probably would have sent federal troops back in. Greeley was more misguided on that than hostile. I believe that, especially since he had supported Grant in 1868 and was closely aligned with the radicals.

Like I said, I voted for him more out of sympathy than anything else. I knew Grant would be winning by a large margin.