ALMOST PRESIDENT: HANNIBAL HAMLIN, PART II

During the war, Hamlin seemed to identify more with the radical Republicans in Congress than with President Lincoln, who took a more cautious approach than the radicals favored. Lincoln’s advisors decided that Hamlin was not in sympathy with Lincoln’s views or policies. Still, President Lincoln did not seem to hold that against Hamlin.

Hamlin had long pressed Lincoln to issue an emancipation proclamation. Lincoln feared at first that such an order freeing slaves might split the loyal border-states with slavery from the North. Eventually, Lincoln issued the Emancipation Proclamation. When he had completed the draft of the document, Lincoln invited Hamlin to dinner and gave Hamlin the honor of being the first to see it. Lincoln asked Hamlin for suggestions for the final draft. Hamlin later described Lincoln as “much moved at the step he was taking.”

In 1864, Lincoln faced a tough re-election campaign. In fact, Lincoln thought it more than likely that he would lose the election, and even prepared a letter instructing his cabinet to work with the incoming administration during the lame duck period in order to win the war before the inauguration. He felt certain that the new President would have secured his election on terms that would make it impossible to continue the war after the inauguration. In order to improve their chances for re-election, the Republicans formed a new party, the National Union Party. This party was a temporary coalition between the Republicans and the pro-war Democrats.

In this difficult campaign, Hamlin brought no special strength or advantage to the ticket. Maine, and New England, would vote Democratic regardless of whether Hamlin was on the ticket or not. Lincoln needed a pro-war Democrat to honor the coalition, and preferably a southern Democrat with an eye to helping to unify the nation after the war.

Hamlin, for all his complaints about the powerlessness of the Vice Presidency, intended to stand for re-election. He thought Lincoln supported him in this and was surprised when he was dumped from the ticket in favor of southern Democrat Andrew Johnson.

During the summer, the lame duck Vice President Hamlin found something more useful to do. He joined the army. In 1861, Hamlin had joined a Coast Guard unit in Maine. The Coast Guard was not a naval unit as it is today. It was a militia type army unit whose job it was

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