Ulysses S. Grant ran against Democrat Horatio Seymour, a northerner from New York and a supporter of the Union but a critic of Abraham Lincoln. Picking Francis Blair for his running mate, the two men ran on a platform supported by racism. One of their fliers proclaimed, “Our Motto: This is a white man’s country; let white men rule.” Sadly, this type of overt appeal to white racial resentment would remain a feature of American politics for most of the next century.
