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The 1868 Grand Council elections took place on 14 February 1868, for the purpose of choosing the Sixth Grand Council of the Confederation of North America. The Conservative Party under Councilman Herbert Clemens of Indiana won a majority of 85 seats, the first Conservative majority in ten years.

Astor

Liberal Party nominee Victor Astor.

The 1868 Grand Council elections were the first since 1853 with no incumbent candidate running for re-election as Governor-General. The incumbent Governor-General, Kenneth Parkes of the Liberal Party, chose to step down after two terms.

Previously, candidates for Governor-General had been chosen by each party's caucus in the Grand Council. However, at Parkes' suggestion, Liberal delegates from throughout the C.N.A. met together at a national convention in Burgoyne. Thanks to Parkes' lavish bribery of the delegates, the convention chose his protégé, Northern Confederation Governor Victor Astor, as their candidate for Governor-General. Like Parkes, Astor was charming, politically astute, and thoroughly corrupt, owning at least 15 brothels in New York City and Philadelphia. Astor's acceptance speech at the convention had been written for him by Liberal party boss William Conrad.

McDowell2

Conservative Party nominee Herbert Clemens.

The Conservatives chose to emulate the Liberals by holding their own national convention in New York. After bitter faction fights, the Conservatives chose Clemens as their party leader and candidate for governor-general. Clemens was a veteran of the Rocky Mountain War who had become wealthy after the war running a dry goods store in Michigan City before winning a seat in the Grand Council.

The main issue of the 1868 election was the Liberals' corruption, contrasted with Clemens' own reputation for honesty. Clemens ran on a reform agenda, and also spent a considerable amount of his own personal fortune buying votes. This proved sufficient for the Conservatives to win a majority of 85 Grand Council seats to the Liberals' 65.


1868 Grand Council Elections
Conservative Party Liberal Party
Indiana 13 11
Manitoba 19 2
Northern Confederation 11 33
Quebec 14 8
Southern Confederation 21 9
Vandalia 7 2
Total 85 65

Sobel's sources for the 1868 Grand Council elections are Milton O'Casey's I Never Told a Lie: The Political Career of Victor Astor (New York, 1950); and Arthur Kurtz' Clemens of Indiana: Pirate with a Clerical Collar (New York, 1960).

C.N.A. Grand Council Elections
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