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ELECTION SURPRISES: LINCOLN'S 1864 RE-ELECTION VICTORY - Page 2

© John S. Cooper

As the war dragged on and looked as though it would continue indefinitely, things looked bad for Lincoln's chances. Thurlow Weed, powerful editor and a Lincoln supporter, told Lincoln that his re-election was impossible. Henry J. Raymond, chairman of the Republican national executive committee, urged Lincoln to make a peace move, but Lincoln refused. The Cincinnati Gazette suggested that both Lincoln and Fremont withdraw from the race and that the Republicans find someone who "would inspire confidence and infuse a life into our ranks...."

The Democrats emphasized the "ignorance, incompetence, and corruption of Mr. Lincoln's administration." They counted on war-weariness to win them votes. On August 23, Raymond wrote Lincoln saying that the chances of a Republican victory were extremely slim.

Shortly after that letter, Lincoln wrote a few lines on a piece of paper and asked his cabinet members to sign it without reading it. After the election, he showed them what he had written and they had signed: "It seems exceedingly probable that this administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to so cooperate with the President-elect as to save to Union between the election and the inauguration, as he will have secured his election on such ground that he cannot possibly save it afterward."

Just about the time Lincoln reconciled himself to defeat at the polls, the military situation began to change. Admiral David Glasgow Farragut took Mobil Bay, General William Tecumseh Sherman took Atlanta and began his devastating March to the Sea, Ulysses S. Grant made progress at Petersburg, and General Phillip Sheridan won a resounding victory over Jubal Early in the Shenandoah Valley. Fremont withdrew from the race on September 21, 1864. He gave his support to Lincoln and asked his supporters to work for Lincoln's re-election.

Lincoln won a solid victory in the popular vote, taking 55%. He won in a landslide in the Electoral College. But just a few months earlier, he was preparing to turn power over to the new President after losing his bid for re-election. This aspect of the war is often forgotten because of the election results. Lincoln served less than six weeks of his second term before he was assassinated. The formation of the coalition National Union Party placed a Democrat, Andrew Johnson, in the White House, and provided a very different Reconstruction era than we would have experienced under a Republican president.

After the election, Harper's Weekly ran a cartoon showing an extraordinarily tall Lincoln with the caption: "Long Abraham Lincoln a Little Longer."

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