Video: 'The American Presidential Election of 1872'

(Tuesday, November 5, 1872, during the 1872 presidential campaign) — Republican incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant of Illinois was re-elected as the 18th president of the United States today, defeating newspaper publisher Horace Greeley of New York (nominated by the Liberal Republican Party and and then nominated by the Democratic Party).

Grant and his new running mate, U.S. Sen. Henry Wilson of Massachusetts (who defeated incumbent Vice President Schuyler Colfax at the 1872 Republican National Convention), received 55.6 percent of the popular vote compared to 43.8 percent for Greeley and his running mate, Governor Benjamin Gratz Brown of Missouri.

Video: 'The Election of 1872 Explained'

The Republican ticket was officially elected on Dec. 4, 1872, when members of the Electoral College met and cast 286 votes for Grant and Wilson, with the other 66 votes scattered among four candidates for president and eight candidates for vice president.

Greeley had died on Nov. 29, 1872, twenty-four days after the election and before any of his pledged electors (from Texas, Missouri, Kentucky, Tennessee, Georgia, and Maryland) could cast their votes. Subsequently, 63 of Greeley’s electors cast their votes for other Democrats.

Future U.S. Vice President Thomas A. Hendricks received 42 of those 63 votes to lead the official opposition to Grant. Greeley’s running mate, Benjamin Brown, received 47 votes for vice president, the most in opposition to Wilson.

The electors’ votes were tabulated and certified on Feb. 12, 1873, during a joint session of Congress. Grant and Wilson were inaugurated on March 4, 1873.