The 1872 Prohibition National Convention was a

presidential nominating convention A United States presidential nominating convention is a political convention held every four years in the United States by most of the political parties who will be fielding nominees in the upcoming U.S. presidential election. The formal purp ...

held at Comstock's Opera House, in

Columbus, Ohio Columbus () is the state capital and the most populous city in the U.S. state of Ohio. With a 2020 census population of 905,748, it is the 14th-most populous city in the U.S., the second-most populous city in the Midwest, after Chicago, and t ...

on February 22, 1872, to select the presidential ticket for the

1872 presidential election The 1872 United States presidential election was the 22nd quadrennial presidential election, held on Tuesday, November 5, 1872. Despite a split in the Republican Party, incumbent President Ulysses S. Grant defeated Democratic-endorsed Liberal R ...

. It was the first presidential nominating convention of the newly organized

Prohibition Party The Prohibition Party (PRO) is a political party in the United States known for its historic opposition to the sale or consumption of alcoholic beverages and as an integral part of the temperance movement. It is the oldest existing third party ...

and would continue nominating presidential candidates in every presidential election leading it to become the longest continuous third party in the United States.

Presidential nomination

On December 9, 1871, a national convention was called to occur on February 22, 1872, by the National Prohibition Committee and was attended by 194 delegates.

Simeon B. Chase Simeon Brewster Chase (April 18, 1828 – January 9, 1909) was an American politician who served as the Speaker pro tempore of the Pennsylvania House of Representatives and was active in the Prohibition Party. Life Simeon Brewster Chase was bo ...

was selected as the chairman of the party after being introduced by incumbent Chairman John Russell. The delegates at the convention proposed Chairman Simeon B. Chase, Chief Justice

Salmon P. Chase Salmon Portland Chase (January 13, 1808May 7, 1873) was an American politician and jurist who served as the sixth chief justice of the United States. He also served as the 23rd governor of Ohio, represented Ohio in the United States Senate, a ...

, former Liberty Party presidential nominee

Gerrit Smith Gerrit Smith (March 6, 1797 – December 28, 1874), also spelled Gerritt Smith, was a leading American social reformer, abolitionist, businessman, public intellectual, and philanthropist. Married to Ann Carroll Fitzhugh, Smith was a candidat ...

, former Portland Mayor

Neal Dow Neal Dow (March 20, 1804 – October 2, 1897) was an American Prohibition advocate and politician. Nicknamed the "Napoleon of Temperance" and the "Father of Prohibition", Dow was born to a Quaker family in Portland, Maine. From a young age, he ...

, Major general Benjamin Butler, Justice David Davis, James Black,

Horace Greeley Horace Greeley (February 3, 1811 – November 29, 1872) was an American newspaper editor and publisher who was the founder and newspaper editor, editor of the ''New-York Tribune''. Long active in politics, he served briefly as a congressm ...

, and John Russell as presidential nominees and Henry Fish, James Black, John Blackman, Secretary

Gideon T. Stewart Gideon Tabor Stewart (August 7, 1824 – June 10, 1909) was an American lawyer and politician who served as the Prohibition Party's vice presidential nominee in 1876. He was elected three times as grand worthy chief templar of the Good Templars o ...

, Julius A. Spencer, John Russell, and Stephen B. Ransom for the vice presidential nomination. The candidates were sent to a special committee and it chose James Black for the presidential nomination and former Chairman John Russell for the vice presidential nomination. The committee rejected Greeley, who had won the nominations of both the Liberal Republican and Democratic parties, for not being supportive of women's suffrage and Butler for his stances on alcoholic prohibition; Black and Russell were sent back to the delegates and approved by acclamation.

References

{{Authority control Prohibition Party 1872 conferences 1872 United States presidential election