Horace Greeley 1872 presidential campaign

Horace Greeley for President
Campaign	U.S. presidential election, 1872
Candidate	Horace Greeley U.S. Representative for New York's 1st district (1848–1849) Benjamin Gratz Brown 20th Governor of Missouri (1871-1873)
Affiliation	Liberal Republican
Status	Lost general election: November 5, 1872
Slogan	Turn the Rascals Out Universal amnesty, impartial suffrage

In 1872, Horace Greeley ran unsuccessfully for President of the United States. He served as the candidate of both the Democrats and the Liberal Republicans (a breakaway party that split off from the Republican Party due to its members' dislike of the corruption of the Republicans and the Republicans' Reconstruction policies), in the 1872 election.^[1] In the run-up to the 1872 United States presidential election, major changes occurred in the United States. Specifically, the 15th Amendment gave African Americans the right to vote for the first time, while the government cracked down on the Ku Klux Klan. In addition, the economy was still in good shape and President Ulysses S. Grant's corruption scandals for the most part was still not public knowledge. With this background, the incumbent U.S. President was able to decisively defeat Greeley.

His hypothetical victory would have marked the first socialist presidency, alongside having held no prior office.