1872 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election

October 8, 1872 (1872-10-08)


Nominee	John F. Hartranft	Charles R. Buckalew
Party	Republican	Democratic
Popular vote	353,287	317,700
Percentage	52.6%	47.3%

County results

Hartranft: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70%

Buckalew: 40–50% 50–60% 60–70% 70–80%

Governor before election

John W. Geary
Republican

Elected Governor

John F. Hartranft
Republican

Federal government

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The 1872 Pennsylvania gubernatorial election occurred on October 8, 1872. Incumbent governor John W. Geary, a Republican, was not a candidate for re-election.

Republican candidate John F. Hartranft defeated Democratic candidate Charles R. Buckalew to become Governor of Pennsylvania. George Washington Cass, William McClelland, and Hendrick Bradley Wright unsuccessfully sought the Democratic nomination.

Background

Hartranft had become an important figure in the history of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania and the United States during the American Civil War. A colonel in the Union Army who was awarded the U.S. Medal of Honor for the valor he displayed on July 21, 1861, during the First Battle of Bull Run, he rose through the ranks to become a major general, and was also the United States Army officer who read the death warrant to Mary Surratt, George Atzerodt, David Herold, and Lewis Powell before they were executed on July 7, 1865, for conspiring to assassinate American President Abraham Lincoln.^[1] Post-war, he was elected twice as Pennsylvania's auditor general before choosing to run for the governor's office.^[2]^[3]

After winning the 1872 gubernatorial election, Hartranft was inaugurated as Pennsylvania's 17th governor on January 21, 1873.^[4]

Results

Pennsylvania gubernatorial election, 1872^[5]
Party		Candidate	Votes	%
	Republican	John F. Hartranft	353,287	52.55
	Democratic	Charles R. Buckalew	317,700	47.26
	Prohibition	Salmon B. Chase	1,250	0.19
	Independent	Winthrop W. Ketchum	1	0.00
Total votes			672,238	100.00

References

^ Eicher, John H. and David J. Eicher. Civil War High Commands. Stanford University Press, 2001, pp. 57–58, 89 and 284.
^ "Our Standard Bearer: Nomination of Gen. John F. Hartranft." Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: The Daily Telegraph, April 11, 1872, p. 2 (subscription required).
^ "An Address: To the Voters of Pennsylvania: Chas. R. Buckalew and John F. Hartranft." Harrisburg, Pennsylvania: The Daily Telegraph, August 30, 1872, p. 1 (subscription required).
^ "Inauguration Day." Lancaster, Pennsylvania: The Daily Evening Express, January 21, 1873, p. 3 (subscription required).
^ "PA Governor General Election". OurCampaigns. Retrieved May 2, 2013.

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States	Alabama Arkansas California Connecticut Delaware Florida Georgia Illinois Indiana Iowa Kansas Kentucky Louisiana Maine Maryland Massachusetts Michigan Minnesota Mississippi Missouri Montana Nebraska Nevada New Hampshire New Jersey New York North Carolina Ohio Oregon Pennsylvania Rhode Island South Carolina Tennessee Texas Vermont Virginia Washington, D.C. West Virginia Wisconsin

Reconstruction era

Participants

Federal government	Presidents Abraham Lincoln Andrew Johnson Ulysses S. Grant Rutherford B. Hayes Congress 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 Radical Republicans Moderate Republicans Conservative Republicans African-American senators African-American representatives Reconstruction Amendments United States Congressional Joint Committee on Reconstruction United States House Select Committee on Reconstruction Federal judiciary Taney Court Chase Court Waite Court Federal bureaucracy Edwin Stanton Freedmen's Bureau Justice Department
State governments	Southern United States Confederate States of America
Others	African Americans Free people of color Freedman Politicians Carpetbaggers Ku Klux Klan Scalawag Redeemers White League Red Shirts Democratic Party Bourbon Democrat Horatio Seymour Samuel J. Tilden Republican Party Stalwarts Charles Sumner Thaddeus Stevens Lyman Trumbull Benjamin Wade John Bingham James Mitchell Ashley Freedman's Savings Bank Women during the Reconstruction era

Elections

Presidential	1864 DNC National Union Convention Radical Democracy Party 1868 DNC RNC 1872 DNC RNC Liberal Republican Party Straight-Out Democratic Party Victoria Woodhull 1876 DNC RNC Greenback Convention Prohibition Convention Electoral Commission Compromise of 1877
U.S. Senate	1864–65 1866–67 1868–69 1870–71 1872–73 1874–75 1876–77
U.S. House	1864–65 1866–67 1868–69 1870–71 1872–73 1874–75 1876–77
Gubernatorial	1863 AL CA CT KY MA MN NH OH PA VA VT WI WV 1864 CT IL IN LA MD MA MI MO NH VT WV 1865 CT FL LA MA MN NJ OH SC VT WI 1866 CT DE MA ME MI NC OR PA TX VT WV 1867 CA CT MA MD ME MN OH VT WI 1868 AL CT FL IL IN LA MA ME MI MO NC NJ SC VT WV 1869 CT IA MA ME MN MS OH PA RI VA VT WI 1870 AL CT DE MA ME MI MO OR RI SC VT WV 1871 CA CT IA KY MA MD ME MN NJ OH RI WI 1872 AL CT FL IL IN LA MA ME MI MO NC PA RI SC VT WV 1873 CT IA MA ME MN MS OH TX VA WI 1874 AL CT DE KS MA ME MI MO NJ NV OR SC VT 1875 CA CT IA KY MA MD ME MN OH OH WI 1876 AL CO CT Apr. CT Nov. FL IL IN KS LA MA ME MI MO NC RI SC VT WV
U.S. elections	1864 1866 1868 1870 1872 1874 1876

Key events

Prelude	American Indian Wars Slavery in the United States A Vindication of the Rights of Woman (1792) The Equality of the Sexes and the Condition of Women (1838) Woman in the Nineteenth Century (1839) Seneca Falls Convention (1848) National Women's Rights Convention (1850) American Civil War Confiscation Act of 1861 Confiscation Act of 1862 District of Columbia Compensated Emancipation Act (1862) Militia Act of 1862
1863	Emancipation Proclamation General Order No. 143 Lincoln's presidential Reconstruction Ten percent plan National Bank Act Women's Loyal National League New York City draft riots 1863 State of the Union Address
1864	Wade–Davis Bill 1864 elections 1864 State of the Union Address
1865	13th Amendment Second inauguration of Abraham Lincoln Address Black Codes Special Field Orders No. 15 Freedmen's Bureau Freedmen's Bureau bills Confederates surrender at Appomattox Assassination of Abraham Lincoln Shaw University New Departure 1865 State of the Union Address Founding of the Ku Klux Klan
1866	Civil Rights Act of 1866 Memphis massacre of 1866 New Orleans Massacre of 1866 Swing Around the Circle Southern Homestead Act of 1866 Fort Smith Conference and Cherokee Reconstruction Treaty of 1866 Choctaw and Chickasaw Treaty of Washington of 1866 Tennessee readmitted to Union Petition for Universal Freedom National Labor Union Ex parte Garland Ex parte Milligan Slave Kidnapping Act of 1866 1866 elections
1867	Tenure of Office Act Command of Army Act Indian Peace Commission Knights of the White Camelia Pulaski riot Reconstruction Acts Reconstruction military districts Constitutional conventions of 1867 Habeas Corpus Act of 1867 Peonage Act of 1867 First impeachment inquiry into Andrew Johnson 1867 State of the Union Address
1868	14th Amendment Second impeachment inquiry into Andrew Johnson Impeachment of Andrew Johnson Timeline Impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson Impeachment managers investigation Articles of impeachment Arkansas readmitted to Union Florida readmitted to Union North Carolina readmitted to Union South Carolina readmitted to Union Louisiana readmitted to Union Alabama readmitted to Union Opelousas massacre Fourth Reconstruction Act Georgia v. Stanton 1868 elections 1868 State of the Union Address
1869	National Woman Suffrage Association American Woman Suffrage Association Alabama Claims Annexation of Santo Domingo Board of Indian Commissioners Public Credit Act of 1869 Black Friday (1869) Ex parte McCardle First transcontinental railroad 1869 State of the Union Address
1870	15th Amendment Enforcement Act of 1870 Justice Department Naturalization Act of 1870 Kirk–Holden war Shoffner Act 1870 elections 1870 State of the Union Address
1871	Ku Klux Klan hearings Second Enforcement Act Ku Klux Klan Act Alcorn State University Meridian race riot of 1871 Treaty of Washington New York custom house ring Civil service commission United States expedition to Korea 1871 State of the Union Address
1872	General Mining Act of 1872 Crédit Mobilier scandal Modoc War Star Route scandal Salary Grab Act Amnesty Act 1872 elections 1872 State of the Union Address
1873	Panic of 1873 Colfax massacre Timber Culture Act Slaughter-House Cases Virginius Affair Coinage Act of 1873 Long Depression Comstock laws 1873 State of the Union Address
1874	Brooks–Baxter War Battle of Liberty Place Coushatta massacre Red River War Timber Culture Act White League Election Massacre of 1874 Vicksburg massacre Black Hills Gold Rush Sanborn incident Anti-Moiety Acts 1874 elections 1874 State of the Union Address
1875	United States v. Cruikshank Civil Rights Act of 1875 Red Shirts Mississippi Plan Clifton Riot of 1875 Yazoo City Riot of 1875 Specie Payment Resumption Act Whiskey Ring Wheeler Compromise Delano affair Pratt & Boyd 1875 State of the Union Address
1876	Hamburg massacre South Carolina civil disturbances of 1876 Ellenton massacre Great Sioux War of 1876 Battle of the Little Bighorn United States v. Reese Trader post scandal Centennial Exposition Cattellism Safe burglary conspiracy 1876 elections 1876 State of the Union Address
1877	Electoral Commission Compromise of 1877 Nez Perce War Desert Land Act Great Railroad Strike of 1877
Aftermath	Posse Comitatus Act (1878) Civil Rights Cases (1883) United States v. Harris (1883) Plessy v. Ferguson (1896) Williams v. Mississippi (1898) Wilmington insurrection of 1898 Giles v. Harris (1903) Disenfranchisement

Aspects

Historiography	Bibliography of the Reconstruction era James Shepherd Pike The Prostrate State (1874) James Bryce The American Commonwealth (1888) Claude G. Bowers The Tragic Era (1929) Columbia University John Burgess Walter Lynwood Fleming Dunning School William Archibald Dunning Charles A. Beard Howard K. Beale W. E. B. Du Bois Black Reconstruction in America (1935) C. Vann Woodward Joel Williamson William R. Brock The American Crisis (1963) John Hope Franklin From Slavery to Freedom (1947) After Slavery (1965) Leon Litwack Been in the Storm So Long (1979) Eric Foner Reconstruction: America's Unfinished Revolution, 1863–1877 (1988) Kenneth M. Stampp Steven Hahn A Nation Under Our Feet (2003) The Second Founding: How the Civil War and Reconstruction Remade the Constitution (2019)
Memory	Winslow Homer A Visit from the Old Mistress (1876) Thomas Dixon Jr. The Leopard's Spots (1902) The Clansman: A Historical Romance of the Ku Klux Klan (1905) D. W. Griffith The Birth of a Nation (1915) United Daughters of the Confederacy Gone with the Wind (1939) David W. Blight Race and Reunion (2001)
Legacy	Women's suffrage in the United States Labor history of the United States Gilded Age Jim Crow era Civil rights movement American frontier
Other topics	African American founding fathers of the United States Forty acres and a mule Habeas corpus History of the United States (1865–1917) Paramilitary Race (human categorization) Reconstruction Treaties Suffrage Technological and industrial history of the United States White supremacy Whitecapping

Category