Page images
PDF
EPUB

ern half of the country. The tactics which had been so efficacious in the successful Whig campaigns were again resorted to, and the Northern States were alive with processions, torch-light parades, and mass-meetings. In the South there was a grim determination to win the victory if possible, but not to submit to defeat. The mutterings of secession and war, in case Mr. Lincoln were elected, were frequently heard, but the supporters of the Republican party refused to believe that the South would be guilty of that madness. In the Northern section of the Democratic party there was an earnest effort to fuse all the elements in support of a union ticket of electors, with the implied, and in some cases the expressed, agreement that the electoral votes should be given to that candidate who should come the nearest to an election. This course was pursued only in the close States. Where there was no hope of a Democratic majority in any event, the two wings of the party had each its own electoral ticket. But it was all without avail. The early elections in Maine, Ohio, Indiana, and Pennsylvania, to say nothing of other States where the contest was not so close, foreshadowed the certain election of Mr. Lincoln, and the result in November more than justified the deductions from the September and October elections. Every Northern State except New Jersey was carried by the Republicans. The decision was hardly made by the people of the country before the South began to carry out the threats which had been only muttered before the election, and the new President succeeded to the administration of a government which was to fight for its very existence.

Thirty-three States took part in this election. Minnesota had been admitted to the Union on the 11th of May, 1858, and Oregon on the 12th of February, 1859. The popular and electoral vote was as follows:

[merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][merged small][ocr errors][ocr errors][merged small][merged small][merged small]

The vote of New Jersey was divided because of the 86 scratching" of the fusion ticket, so that three of the Lincoln electors were chosen.

The official record of the electoral count contains

nothing of interest. The proceedings were in strict accordance with precedent. But a single remark made by a member of the House of Representatives after the count was over suggests the condition of affairs at the time. Some trouble had been feared on the occasion of the count of votes, and no doubt precautions were taken against violence at any time, and particularly at that time. At any rate, the Southerners scented hostile preparations; and Mr. Hindman of Arkansas suggested that the committee to wait on the President elect "be directed to inform General Scott that there is no further need for his janizaries about the capitol, the votes being counted and the result proclaimed." The only attention paid to the sneer was in a retort from Mr. Grow of Pennsylvania, that "gentlemen seem to trouble themselves a good deal about General Scott on all occasions." The proceedings then terminated.

XXI.

THE WAR ELECTION.

THE election of 1864 took place while the country was still rent by civil strife. The war had been prosecuted by the Union armies with partial success; but, when the first mutterings of the coming political contest made themselves heard, the prospect of a speedy termination of the war was not cheering. President Lincoln was beset on the one hand by the Democrats, who maintained that the war had not been carried on according to the Constitution, and on the other by a small but active minority of the Republican party, who complained of his conservatism and his unwillingness to adopt the radical measures which they deemed essential to national success. With the great majority of his own party, however, he was strong. The people had learned to trust his calmness and good sense. They had seen him refuse to proclaim emancipation when it had been clamorously demanded by those who called themselves radicals; but when his own cool judgment told him that the time had come for that great measure, he had adopted it. His wisdom and strength commended him to thoughtful men, and his quaint shrewdness in word and act brought him very near to the common people.

Mr. Lincoln neither obtrusively urged himself as a candidate for re-election, nor made any coy professions of unwillingness to be chosen again. He was simply and frankly a candidate. He believed that it was best for the country, under the circumstances, that he should be con

tinued in office. It was not good policy, he said, and the phrase made the one argument which in any case would have turned the scale in his favor,-" to swap horses while crossing a stream."

The certainty that the Republican convention, — which was called on Feb. 22, 1864, to meet in Baltimore on the 7th of June, - would nominate Mr. Lincoln, led the radical opponents of his administration in various parts of the country to attempt to forestall its action by calling a convention to meet on an earlier day at Cleveland. Several calls were published, all of them inviting the people to meet in mass convention in that city on the 31st of May. Among the signers of these calls were the Rev. Dr. Cheever of New York, B. Gratz Brown of Missouri, Lucius Robinson of New York, and other gentlemen then or since prominent in public affairs. Wendell Phillips, Frederick Douglass, and others sent letters approving the objects of the convention.

In answer to these calls, about three hundred and fifty persons met in Cleveland on the appointed day. General John Cochrane of New York was made president. A platform was adopted as follows:

First. That the Federal Union shall be preserved.

Second. That the Constitution and laws of the United States must be observed and obeyed.

Third. That the rebellion must be suppressed by force of arms, and without compromise.

Fourth. That the rights of free speech, free press, and the habeas corpus be held inviolate, save in districts where martial law has been proclaimed.

Fifth. That the rebellion has destroyed slavery, and the Federal Constitution should be amended to prohibit its re-establishment, and to secure to all men absolute equality before the law.

Sixth. That integrity and economy are demanded at all times In the administration of the government, and that in time of war the want of them is criminal.

« PreviousContinue »