since 1861, and later Chief Justice of the United States in 1864) for president in 1868, the candidate he viewed least vulnerable to charges of disloyalty to the Party during the Republican/Unionists Lincoln-Johnson Administrations, (1861–69). Horatio Seymour's electoral defeat in the 1868 election paled in comparison to the later nomination of Liberal Republican Horace Greeley's disastrous 1872 presidential campaign. In 1870, the Democratic Party faced a crisis when the Committee of Seventy emerged to cleanse the government of corruption. A riot at Tammany Hall led to the campaign to topple William M. Tweed. Belmont stood by his party. While the party chairman had originally promoted Charles Francis Adams for the nomination, Greeley's nomination implied Democratic endorsement of a candidate who as publisher of the famous nationally dominant newspaper, the New York Tribune, had often earlier referred to Democrats before, during and after the War as "slaveholders", "slave-whippers", "traitors", and "Copperheads" and accused them of "thievery, debauchery, corruption, and sin". Although the election of 1872 prompted Belmont to resign his chairmanship of the Democratic National Committee, he nevertheless continued to dabble in politics as a champion of U.S. Senator Thomas F. Bayard of Delaware for the presidency, as a fierce critic of the process granting Rutherford B. Hayes the presidency in the 1876 election, and as an advocate of "hard money" financial policies. Personal life On November 7, 1849, Belmont married Caroline Slidell Perry (1829–1892). She was the daughter of naval officer Matthew Calbraith Perry (1794–1858), captain and commodore in the U.S. Navy, later famous for his expedition to open the trading ports of Japan in 1853. According to Jewish newspaper sources, he converted to Christianity at that time, taking his wife's Episcopal faith. Together, they were the parents of six children, with all of his surviving sons becoming involved in politics: Perry Belmont (1851–1947), who married Jessie Ann Robbins (1858–1935), the divorced wife of Henry T. Sloane. August Belmont Jr. (1853–1924), who married Elizabeth Hamilton Morgan (1862–1898). After her death, he married Eleanor Robson (1879–1979), an actress. Jane Pauline "Jennie" Belmont (1856–1875), who died aged 19. Fredericka Belmont (1856–1902), who married Samuel Shaw Howland (1849–1925), son of Gardiner Greene Howland of Howland & Aspinwall. Oliver Hazard Perry Belmont (1858–1908), who married Sarah Swan Whiting (1861–1924). They divorced, she married George L. Rives and he married Alva Erskine Smith (1853–1933), former wife of William Kissam Vanderbilt. Raymond Rodgers Belmont (1863–1887), who