After the war, he emerged as a prominent critic of President Andrew Johnson, calling for Johnson's impeachment. Julian introduced a women's suffrage constitutional amendment in 1868. Julian lost his bid for re-nomination in 1870, and eventually resumed his legal practice in Indianapolis. He opposed the administration of President Ulysses S. Grant and became a leader of the Liberal Republicans. After Grant defeated Liberal Republican nominee Horace Greeley in the 1872 presidential election, Julian became a member of the Democratic Party. In 1885, President Grover Cleveland appointed him surveyor general of the New Mexico Territory. Julian was the son-in-law of Ohio politician Joshua Reed Giddings and the father of Grace Julian Clarke, a women's suffrage advocate.