Liberal Republican Party was a United States political party formed in 1872 to oppose the reelection of President Ulysses S. Grant. It was made up of members of the Republican Party who suspected Grant’s Administration of corruption. They also disliked Grant’s policies on civil service, tariff reform, and the South. Liberals and reformers started the party, but it soon attracted a mixed group of politicians. The party members found it difficult to agree on a candidate or a platform at the party convention, which was held in Cincinnati, Ohio.
In the end, the party nominated newspaper editor Horace Greeley for the presidency on a platform of “universal amnesty and universal enfranchisement.” This meant the immediate establishment of civil governments in each of the former Confederate states, and the removal of all restrictions on the political rights of their citizens. The Liberal Republican Party, even with Democratic support, was badly defeated in the election of 1872 and quickly disappeared.
