You, a friend, or Dennis, the guy at work who insists on bringing up politics even though you're just trying to get your lunch out of the office fridge in peace dammit, have probably decried America's two party system at some point. The usual proposed answer to this status quo, on either side of the spectrum, is to support a third party. This approach has a number of challenges: it requires massive fundraising and/or grassroots organization, has an uphill climb in terms of name recognition, and risks having its success co-opted by the existing parties.
But on this day in 1869, one man found another way to break the stranglehold enjoyed by Democrats and Republicans: he simply used his self-granted powers as U.