He had only fitfully defended black suffrage while in office, and largely abandoned the freedmen at the end of his second term. Why would he protect them now? A third term was unprecedented, and this made it even harder to explain why it should go to a man whose administration was marred by constant scandal. Grant had real political strength, but so too did the equally flawed James G. Blaine. The result was a deadlocked party approaching the Republican convention.
