Lincoln's Campaign Biographies

4. The 1864 Campaign: The Rail Splitter as Father Abraham

77 c h a p t e r f o u r The 1864 Campaign: The R ail Splitter as Father Abr aham Adivided opposition was certainly a key factor in Lincoln’s success in 1860. Facing two Democratic rivals as well as a thirdparty candidate, however, did not ensure Lincoln’s victory. Voters cast their ballots for a variety of reasons, whether out of loyalty to one party or hostility to another, religious beliefs, ethnocultural factors, local issues, or on the advice of or pressure from family and friends. Certainly, a compelling image of a self-made Westerner, a man of the people, and an honest man who will save democracy from corrupt politicians and slaveholding aristocrats, transmitted through campaign biographies and other genres of print, motivated many Northern and Western voters. Would the Lincoln image of 1860 hold up four years later? When Lincoln ran for reelection in 1864, the political landscape had changed dramatically for him and for the nation. The purpose of his 1864 biographical accounts, unlike their 1860 counterparts, was not to introduce Lincoln to American voters, but to endorse the reelection of a president who had led the nation through a long and bloody civil war, issued the Emancipation Proclamation, and withstood vigorous political opposition, including members of his own party. Both revered and reviled within the Northern states, Lincoln, by the summer of 1864, was in trouble politically. His chances for reelection appeared to be slipping away as the war dragged on and battlefield casualties continued to mount at a shocking rate. The 78 | The 1864 Campaign Copperhead segment of the Democratic Party was gaining the upper hand on its pro-war counterparts, while convincing growing numbers of Northerners that Lincoln was not only waging a vengeful, brutal war on fellow Americans but was shredding the Constitution and abusing the powers of the presidency. As proof, they pointed to the Emancipation Proclamation, the suspension of habeas corpus, conscription , and Lincoln’s support of the confiscation of property and slaves of those siding with the Confederacy. As Democratic hopes of defeating Lincoln rose significantly in the summer of 1864, Republicans , even ardent supporters of the president, grew increasingly despondent. Some looked to General Ulysses S. Grant as a possible replacement for Lincoln while a coterie of Radical Republicans and abolitionists nominated General John C. Frémont as their presidential candidate a week before the Republican convention.1 Despite doubts concerning his chances at reelection, Lincoln was nominated on the first ballot at the Republican convention, held in Baltimore in early June. His adept use of patronage and shrewd cultivation of the press—awarding printing contracts and government positions to friendly newspapermen—enabled him to maintain enough support within the Republican Party and among War Democrats to fight off the possibility of serious opposition at the convention. Continuing the brilliant strategy begun in 1862 of linking support for Unionism and the war with patriotism, “non-partisan partisanship ” as one historian calls it, Lincoln and Republicans adopted the name National Union Party and replaced Vice President Hamlin with War Democrat Andrew Johnson as Lincoln’s running mate. At the same time, the party endorsed a constitutional amendment outlawing slavery throughout the nation, an action which dealt a fatal blow to the Frémont campaign.2 In late August, the Democrats, with prowar and peace factions battling for control of the convention, met in Chicago to nominate candidates for president and vice president. Mirroring its internal divisions, the party nominated General George B. McClellan, who made clear his intention to end the war on the battlefield by demanding reunion as a precondition for peace talks, while choosing antiwar Democrat from Ohio George H. Pendleton for vice president and The 1864 Campaign | 79 adopting a peace platform that called for immediate negotiations to end the war.3 Days before Democrats met in Chicago, Lincoln received a bleak assessment regarding his reelection chances from Henry J. Raymond, editor of the New York Times and chairman of the Republican/National Union Party Committee. “The tide is setting strongly against us,” Raymond reported despondently, and nothing but the “most resolute and decided action, on the part of the Government and its friends, can save the country from falling into hostile hands.” Blaming the dark political situation on “the want of military successes” and the “impression in some minds, the fear and suspicion in others, that we are not to...