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ELECTION SURPRISES: LINCOLN'S 1864 RE-ELECTION VICTORY

© John S. Cooper

Records show that Abraham Lincoln was re-elected in 1864 by a huge electoral vote majority, taking 221 votes to his opponent's 21. But until a month or two before the election, it looked as though Lincoln would be defeated. For a while, it looked like the Republicans might even nominate someone else, not even giving Lincoln a chance to be re-elected.

Early in 1864, as both major parties prepared to choose their presidential nominees, there were many Republicans felt Lincoln could not be re-elected. Editor Horace Greeley declared, "Mr. Lincoln is already beaten. He cannot be elected. And we must have another ticket to save us from utter overthrow." Radical Republicans, blaming Lincoln for battlefield reverses and fearing he favored a "soft" policy toward the South after the war, looked around for another candidate. Some wanted Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase, and Chase wanted the nomination very much. Some suggested General Grant who flatly refused to even be considered.

When Grant was told that his name was being mentioned as a replacement for Lincoln, he pounded his fists on the arms of his chair and declared, "They can't do it! They can't compel me to do it!" When a listener, John Eaton from the War Department, asked him if he had told Lincoln how he felt, Grant said that he hadn't thought it worthwhile and added, "I consider it as important to the cause that he should be elected, as that the army should be successful in the field." When Eaton told Lincoln what Grant had said, Lincoln "fairly glowed with satisfaction."

But knowing that they faced an uphill battle for re-election, the Republicans formed a temporary coalition with Democrats who supported the war effort called the National Union Party. This party nominated Lincoln for President on the first ballot, and named for Vice-President Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, who had been one of the most prominent of the pro-war Democrats. Lincoln especially liked that Johnson was a southerner, which he thought would be useful after the war.

The dissenting Republicans, the Radical Republicans, held a separate convention in Cleveland, Ohio on May 31, 1864. They nominated Charles C. Fremont for President and John Cochrane of New York for Vice-President. Fremont had been the first Republican nominee for President in 1856, and had been a senior general early in the war until Lincoln fired him.

The Democrats nominated George B. McClellan, former general-in chief and twice commander of the Army of the Potomac, whom Lincoln had twice removed from command. McClellan had been immensely popular with his troops, and was known to be opposed to Lincoln's policies on slavery.

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