Samuel Fenton Cary, February 18, 1814 (Cincinnati, Ohio) – September 29, 1900 (Cincinnati, Ohio)
VP candidate for Greenback Party 1876
Running mate with nominee: Peter Cooper (1791-1883)
Popular vote: 83,726 (0.99%)
Electoral vote: 0/369
The campaign:
The Greenback Party was initially an agrarian response to the economic Panic of 1873. It could be argued it was the ancestor of the later Populist Party boom of the 1890s. Philanthropist Peter Cooper, the Party's nominee, was 85 years old at the time of the campaign.
The 1876 vote results was one of the most messed up affairs in Presidential election history, practically starting a second Civil War. There was one state where the Cooper/Cary ticket were possible spoilers-- Indiana, the very place where the Party was born. The tally there was Tilden 213,526 (48.65% and 15 electoral votes), Hayes 208,011 (47.39%) and Cooper 17,233 (3.93%).
Cooper and Cary were on the ballot in 18 states with their strongest showing being in Kansas (6.26%). In subsequent elections the Greenbacks would add urban and industrial laborers to their ranks.
Election history:
1867-1869 - US House of Representatives (Ohio) (Independent Republican)
1868 - US House of Representatives (Ohio) (Democratic) - defeated
1875 - Lieutenant Governor of Ohio (Democratic) - defeated
Other occupations: attorney, Ohio Paymaster General during US-Mexican War earning him the title of "General Cary", prohibitionist and anti-slavery and rights of labor lecturer and author, Collector of Internal Revenue (Ohio 1st Dist.), Chief of Staff for three Ohio governors
Buried: Spring Grove Cemetery (Cincinnati, Ohio)
Notes:
Cary was the only Republican in the House to vote against impeaching President Andrew Johnson.
Became the Greenback Party VP nominee after Sen. Newton Booth (Calif.) turned it down.
Declined a position on the Ohio Supreme Court.
Delegate for Lincoln at the 1864 Republican Convention.
The city of Cary, NC is named in his honor.
