(Thursday, May 21, 1868) — General Ulysses S. Grant of Illinois, the Union commander in the American Civil War and the Commanding General of the United States Army since 1864, was unanimously nominated for President unopposed on the first ballot today at the 1868 Republican National Convention meeting at Crosby’s Opera House in Chicago.

House Speaker Schuyler Colfax of Indiana was nominated Vice President the on the fifth ballot (after shifts), defeating Governor Reuben E. Fenton of New York 541-69 votes. Senator Benjamin Wade of Ohio, who had received the most votes on each of the first four ballots, came in third with 38 votes.

The Grant-Colfax GOP ticket would oppose the Democratic ticket of Horatio Seymour-Francis P. Blair, Jr. (nominated in July 1868) in the general election.