Democrats didn’t run a presidential candidate 150 years ago. It backfired.

© Library of Congress A portrait of Horace Greeley in 1872, the year he ran for president on the Liberal Republican ticket. In the 1872 presidential election, the Democrats didn’t have the strongest hand to play. But the move turned into a colossal failure for both the Democrats and Greeley, as Grant easily sailed to a second term 150 years ago this fall. The party nominated Greeley, who according to Williams had “broad national appeal,” for president at its convention in Cincinnati in May 1872. “All his life, Greeley had thundered against the Democrats for their corrupt ways,” wrote Williams, the Greeley biographer.