1868 Medal DeWitt USG 1868-23 Brass Grant & Colfax Campaign

Coin Details

Description

This brass campaign medal for the Grant & Colfax ticket from the 1868 election is cataloged as DeWitt USG 1868-23. The joint Grant-Colfax branding on campaign material served the political purpose of reassuring professional Republican politicians that Grant, who had no political experience, would govern through established party channels represented by the experienced Speaker Colfax. Grant's military background was his supreme political asset, but it also raised concerns among some Republicans that he might prove to be another Andrew Johnson — a nominally Republican president who pursued his own agenda at the expense of party unity. Campaign medals bearing both names signaled the ticket's commitment to collective Republican governance. The brass composition was standard for campaign tokens of the Reconstruction era. Grant's 1868 victory inaugurated a period of Republican dominance that would last until 1884, and his administration's Reconstruction policies — including the enforcement of the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Amendments through federal military intervention — represent the most ambitious effort to secure civil rights for African Americans until the 1960s.

Rarity Notes

Brass campaign medal from 1868. DeWitt USG 1868-23. Grant & Colfax ticket. The 1868 election material is collected for its Reconstruction-era significance.

Cross References

PCGS #653292; DeWitt USG 1868-23; 1868 Presidential Election; U.S. Grant; Schuyler Colfax