1864: Lincoln and a Referendum on the Union Effort

Election Results
Lincoln/Johnson: 212 electoral votes, 2.21 million popular votes
McClellan/Pendleton: 21 electoral votes, 1.81 million popular votes

Summary:
In the midst of a terrible civil war with the body count mounting, the execution of a presidential election and local politics in the United States was surprising. More surprising is that there was no real talk of suspending or postponing the election. General Ulysses Grant encouraged soldiers to vote using absentee balloting where applicable or taking advantage of time given by furlough to return home to vote in non-absentee states. The Democratic Party made gains in the 1862 midterm elections for Congress amid concerns of rising casualties and Lincoln’s advisors worried over how the execution of the war would affect his ability to lead and to win a second term.

The Democrats were not the only ones who had concerns about Lincoln’s management of the war effort. A group of Republicans (called Radical Republicans) felt that the president was far too moderate in his approach to political equality in the slave states and his approach toward Reconstruction in areas that were coming under Union control (particularly Louisiana and Texas). Lincoln’s standard for readmission to the Union was an oath of loyalty and submission to emancipation by 10 percent of the voting (read white male) population in each of the states. The Radicals, who passed the Wade-Davis Bill in 1864, wanted a 50 percent oath of loyalty and harsh restrictions on these states even after readmission. In the 1864 Republican convention, the Radicals tried to put together a splinter group under the name Radical Democracy and with California Governor John C. Fremont as its candidate to challenge Lincoln in the general election. While Radicals did not care for Lincoln’s execution of the war, they did not want to destroy the strength of the party (which was northern unity) and instead settled for a strong hand in the party platform. The vice presidential candidate was changed to former Democrat Andrew Johnson, a legislator from Tennessee, who many felt would aid the president in certain Democratic areas.

The Democrats went hard after Lincoln for the legal measures used to defeat the Southern states. They called Lincoln at various points a butcher, a despot, and a fiend while lamenting his suspension of the right of habeas corpus in order to hold rebels. In the nominating convention, the Democrats nominated former Union general George McClellan, who was removed from his role as head of the Union Army for not pursuing General Robert Lee after the Battle of Antietam. McClellan’s argument during the campaign was that Lincoln was changing the purpose of the war from reuniting the nation to destroying the institution of slavery. But rank-and-file Democrats recognized Lincoln’s use of the Emancipation Proclamation as a military tactic to cause disunity within the border and slave states. The Proclamation was not applicable everywhere and Lincoln was well aware that he needed to play politics even while they were beating back rebellion. Lincoln and his advisors had valid concerns but won easily come election day.