The special election process got underway around May of 1865. Just days after the Triple Calamity, it was well known that congress had agreed to hold an election under the 1792 Succession Act. But the gears of bureaucracy didn't begin turning until the State Department alerted the people through state governments and local news.
The first headache accompanying the special election announcement was the ongoing violence in the states that were still in rebellion. Many southern whites became quite infuriated at the notion that they would not be voting. Some of these men ended up joining local confederate garrisons (or early White Leagues), to take out their anger, which once again prolonged the war in the south. President Foster had initially hoped to declare the war's end in late May, yet the influx of new confederates, post-election announcement, caused the President to postpone his declaration until July.
From Resentment in Dixie
by Peter Barnett, published 1927
The results of the general election were a foregone conclusion. It was clear to everyone that the Democratic Party, no matter how hard it tried, would lose. The only question was by how much. The truth is, with every southern state removed from the election, and the national mood firmly in Republican hands, even the border states weren't assured Democratic wins. This meant that the realelection was going to be the Republican nomination process.
Many candidates threw their hats into the ring, starting with Speaker of the House, Schuyler Colfax. He said that congress would have free reign over reconstruction, should he be elected. Many found this appealing. Then the former Vice President, Hannibal Hamlin, encouraged his friends to offer his name to the convention. Hamlin ran on a return to the first "true" Republican administration under Lincoln. Not to be outdone, Lincoln's old Republican rival, Salmon Chase, also entered the race.
All three men were somewhat predictable choices, each one certain that they would win, if nominated. Yet they weren't inspiring. Some urged President Foster to run for a proper election. He resolutely declined any offer. Seeing a field full of "radicals," many moderate Republicans decided to push for Foster regardless, absent a better alternative. Some people believed they had found that better alternative: Ulysses S. Grant.
For the better part of a year, General Grant had been constantly pestered over politics, with reporters desperately trying to find out his party affiliation. In June, just a week before the Republican National Convention (to be held in Springfield, Illinois to honor the late President Lincoln), Grant answered the latest reporter to pose the question.
"I generally lean more towards that side of the boat. Yes."
Grant thought he was safe. He didn't say he was a Republican, just that he leaned towards them. Either way, that was enough for most of the party to see Grant as the perfect candidate.
-From GRANT
by Howell Leanman, published 1977
The final results of the 1865 Republican National Convention in Springfield, Illinois were as follows:
The first ballot set the tone almost immediately. Upon seeing the early Grant lead, most of the delegates began making deals with his supporters. The curious thing was the delegates that voted for Grant didn't really know his political views. In fact, few knew the man at all. Thus, 198 Republicans got anointed as campaign managers for a man they had never really met. They were a mix of moderates and radicals, so over the course of the convention, Grant was portrayed as a man who supported both Land Distribution and the immediate readmission of all southern states.
As voting on the second ballot got closer and closer, the radical Grant supporters promised the Hamlin men the Vice Presidency. Some moderate Grantite men were off put by this. After all, Hamlin was a radically inclined man from Maine. That said, Hamlin might also inspire the American people, as he was the former Vice President under Lincoln, suggesting he was a return to normalcy (an odd thought, considering he was Vice President in the thick of the war). Either way, with Hamlin encouraging his men to flip to Grant, the conclusion was foregone. After some radical flips on the third ballot, it became clear that Grant would be nominated. On the 4th, the rest of the radicals hopped on board.
Interestingly, the actual man who had just been nominated the Republican nominee was in the dark. Grant had been informed that some delegates were going to put his name forward, but in his mind there was no way that rich politicians would choose him over the President of the United States or the Speaker of the People's House. Yet on June 22nd, the same day as the convention, Grant was given a message via telegram at his father's house in Cincinnati. Jesse Root Grant read the message first and nearly had a heart attack. He sent his boy to the train station that night headed to Illinois.
Back in Springfield it was time to nominate the Vice President. The choices were Hamlin, for the Grant men and moderate radicals, and Colfax for the radicals and Ruben Fenton - a former democrat from New York who was nominated by the moderate faction. It didn't take long for Hamlin to be nominated, fulfilling the promise of the Grant supporters.
The next day Grant arrived in Springfield. He met his new Vice President and walked into a room full of cheers and banners. Grant would later write, "The Republican National convention felt more like a coronation to the Presidency than a nomination as the Republican Party's choice to the Presidency...”
Not nearly as many people focused on the Democratic National Convention during the special election. This was understandable considering the outcome of the general election, but the 1865 Democratic National Convention was actually very interesting. Of the fifteen candidates in contention for the nomination, only three actually wanted to become the nominee. Of those three, only one, George Pendleton, had a shot.
Everyone within the hall knew that the democrats would lose the special election and so an unusual circumstance developed, whereby the candidates told delegates not to vote for them. Chief among them was Horatio Seymour. On the first ballot, 22 people voted for Seymour. He loudly instructed them to flip their votes. After that it seemed like Pendleton was on the road to victory. This scared a lot of delegates who had a bad taste in their mouth when it came to Pendleton, because he had been George McClellan's Vice President a year prior, and McClellan lost big against Lincoln.
In the wake of this, Winfield Scott Hancock took the lead. After all, so the thinking went, a war hero may be their only shot against Ulysses Grant. At the same time, many Democratic career politicians believed that Hancock had no experience and stood for nothing. Also, Hancock himself didn't want to be nominated. Even though Pendleton and Hancock were frontrunners, both were unappealing. Many delegates hopped ship to alternatives, like Thomas Hendricks, James English, Stephen Field, and more. This caused continuous deadlocks for more than 30 ballots.
Eventually, many saw Seymour as their only hope. He had been slowly gaining, and candidates threw their supporters to him once it seemed like they themselves would become front runners. By the 36th ballot, it seemed like there were still 100 to go. Pendleton urged his supporters to vote for Seymour, a turn of events that Historians still debate over today. Why did he do this? It's possible he realized his win was impossible and he was ready to be done. As the Pendleton supporters flipped their votes, many Hancock enthusiasts did the same, seeing the end as near. Seymour himself reportedly shed a tear upon realizing he would be the nominee. He gathered himself and begrudgingly accepted after realizing he had no choice.
Then came the Vice-Presidential balloting. The convention hall was tired, and in an attempt to get things done fast, they made it clear that the choice was either Pendleton or Hancock. Pendleton was furious, saying, "I refuse to be the Vice President to another landslide loss!" He urged his supporters to vote for Hancock. Hancock however, also desperately didn't want to be Vice President seeing it as a career death sentence. He urged his supporters to vote for Pendleton. After a chaotic ten minutes, by one vote, Pendleton won and Hancock breathed a sigh of relief.
From Every National Convention in American History
by Jacob Cohen, published 2012
As for the 1865 campaign, well, there wasn't much of one to speak of. Seymour and Pendleton practically hid from any citizen asking questions and few Democratic surrogates were interested in any active campaigning. Meanwhile, Grant and Hamlin's surrogates presented a vote for the Republican Party as a vote for the memory of Lincoln, Seward, and Johnson. They waved the bloody rag and blamed the war on the Democrats. I mean...it wasn't a surprise who won that year.
From The Civil War Show
Starring Special Guest Kieren Hutchinson, radio episode premiered June 22nd 1988
Triple Calamity - Chapter 3 - The Election of 1865
Clearly back then no one wanted to be vice president lol
If Seymour did not want the nomination why did he run in the first place?