Benjamin Gratz Brown

Benjamin Gratz Brown, May 28, 1826 (Frankfort, Ky.) – December 13, 1885 (Kirkwood, Mo.)

VP candidate for Liberal Republican Party and Democratic Party (1872)

Running mate with nominee: Horace Greeley (1811-1872)
Popular vote: 2,834,761 (43.8%)                 
Electoral vote: 66/352 (pledged but scattered upon Greeley's death shortly after the election)

The campaign:
Finding the Republican Party too moderate, Brown was an early member of the Liberal Republican Party and made a strong bid for the presidential nomination in 1872, but eventually threw his delegates behind Horace Greeley and thus took the VP slot. The Democrats took a "if you can't beat 'em, join 'em" stance and gave a pallid endorsement to the Greeley/Brown ticket.

The LRP, to use an oxymoron, was one of the most major minor parties in US presidential election history. But with such a disparate and conflicting political base the Party had problems with any message outside that of being anti-Grant. Greeley was not a professional politician and was an ineffective campaigner and Brown was alleged to have been drunk at several public events.

The LRP carried the states of Georgia, Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, Tennessee, and Texas. They came very close to winning Virginia but it would not have mattered, 1872 was a Grant landslide.

Greeley died shortly after the election, Brown came full circle in his political career and rejoined the Democratic Party although he never ran for office again, and the Liberal Republican Party vanished as quickly as it had appeared.

Election history:
1852-1858 - Missouri House of Representatives (Democratic/1854-1858 Republican)
1857 - Governor of Missouri (Republican) - defeated
1863-1867 - US Senate (Mo.) (Unconditional Union Party)
1871-1873 - Governor of Missouri (Liberal Republican Party)
1872 - Nominee, US President (Liberal Republican) - defeated

Other occupations: attorney, newspaper editor, colonel in the Union Army during the Civil War

Buried: Oak Hill Cemetery (Kirkwood, Mo.)

Notes:
His grandfathers Jesse Brown and Jesse Bledsoe both served as US Senators from Kentucky.
His cousin Francis Preston Blair Jr. served as a US Senator from Missouri and was the Democratic
  Party VP nominee in 1868.
Walked with a limp as a result of being shot in the leg in a duel in 1856.
Received 18 electoral votes for President after Greeley's death.
Was active in preventing Missouri from joining the Confederacy.

John Quincy Adams II

John Quincy Adams II, September 22, 1833 (Boston, Mass.) – August 14, 1894 (Quincy, Mass.)

VP candidate for Straight-Out Democratic Party (1872)

Running mate with nominee: Charles O'Conor (1804-1884)
Popular vote: 18,602 (0.3%)            
Electoral vote: 0/352

The campaign:
The Straight-Out Democratic Party was part of a major double-split reflecting one of the shifts in post-Civil War party politics.

The first split came from the Republicans. A significant number of Republicans were dissatisfied with the Grant administration and formed the Liberal Republican Party as an alternative, nominating journalist Horace Greeley. The Democratic Party threw in with the LRP and endorsed Greeley as well. Well, not all Democrats.

The conservative "Bourbon" Democrats didn't want Grant or Greeley and formed the short-lived Straight-Out Democratic Party. They nominated New York attorney Charles O'Conor for President and John Quincy Adams II for VP. O'Conor had already declined the nomination of the Labor Reform Party (a group that fizzled and later endorsed the Straight-Out Democrats) and also declined the nomination of the second party. Sources conflict, but it appears Adams was not so reluctant about being on the ticket.

The Straight-Outs forged ahead anyway and placed the O'Conor/Adams ticket on the ballot of 18 states. Grant won in a landslide and Greeley died shortly after the election throwing the Electoral College into disarray.

The Straight-Outs did not collect an impressive amount of popular votes, but it is interesting how they went beyond a regional appeal. The states where they polled more than 1% were pretty spread out: Oregon 587 (2.91%), Delaware 488 (2.24%), Texas 2,580 (2.21%), Michigan 2,875 (1.30%), Kentucky 2,374 (1.24%), California 1,061 (1.11%), Vermont 553 (1.04%), Iowa 2,221 (1.03%).

Election history:
1865 - Massachusetts House of Representatives (Republican)
1867 - Massachusetts House of Representatives (Democratic)
1867 - Governor of Massachusetts (Democratic) - defeated
1868 - Governor of Massachusetts (Democratic) - defeated
1868 - Democratic nomination for US President - defeated
1869 - Governor of Massachusetts (Democratic) - defeated
1870 - Governor of Massachusetts (Democratic) - defeated
1870 - Massachusetts House of Representatives (Democratic)
1871 - Governor of Massachusetts (Democratic) - defeated
1873 - Massachusetts House of Representatives (Democratic)
1873 - Lt. Governor of Massachusetts (Democratic) - defeated
1875 - Lt. Governor of Massachusetts (Democratic/Liberal Republican) - defeated
1879 - Governor of Massachusetts (Independent Democratic) - defeated

Other occupations: attorney, US Army Colonel in the Civil War,

Buried: Mount Wollaston Cemetery (Quincy, Mass.)

Notes:
Son of Charles Francis Adams Sr., Free Soil Party VP candidate 1848
Ran an experimental model farm
Harvard graduate 1853
Considered for a Cabinet position by Pres. Cleveland in 1893.
Son Charles Francis Adams III was US Navy Sec. in the Hoover administration.
Grandfather of behavioral sociologist George Casper Homans.