In 1868, Long worked diligently to reorganize the Democratic Party, and he sought out Salmon P. Chase to be the Democratic nominee for president. Chase accepted. One issue that helped Long settle on Chase as a candidate was that both men were "hard money" men; hence, both men opposed further reliance on the "Greenback" policy that had funded the Union's war effort. Further, both men were against continuing the military governance—deemed "military despotism" by Long—of the South, and both men regarded suffrage as a "states' rights" issue. Both men could champion the principle of universal suffrage sought by Northerners while acquiescing to the very real possibility that the South would continue to disenfranchise blacks with state laws. Long was one of Chase's men working behind the scenes at the 1868 Democratic National Convention. Political maneuvering during the convention left Chase and his men out in the cold, and the Democratic nomination went to the chairman of the convention, who was also the governor of New York: Horatio Seymour.