gave way to despondency, and, although he never said so in words, one
could clearly see by the anxiety he manifested that he was sorely
perplexed to account for the animus of certain men against him. He
appeared to be especially anxious about New York, and to fear that
the enmity of Seward’s old friends and the hostility of Mr. Greeley
might cause him to lose the delegation from the Empire State. I was
in Washington at that time on professional business, and was able to
impart to him positive information regarding his strength in various
parts of the State. To his inquiry about the situation in New York,
I told him that, while Greeley was still in the sulks, yet I thought
Seward and Weed were coming around to him (Lincoln) handsomely, and
that their action would undoubtedly influence the Seward partisans.
I added that in my opinion Greeley would before long forget his
disappointment and fall into line. Mr. Lincoln listened attentively and
nodded assent. “That’s good news,” he said, heartily, seemingly well
pleased with my prognostications.
Col. A. K. McClure, of Pennsylvania, stood very close to the President
at this time and did not disguise from him the treachery of several
Republican leaders.
Anxiety had become an obsession with the President. This seemed due to
a physical and mental reaction after three years of incessant worry and
strain. And yet at this hour General Grant appeared to be smashing his
way through the Wilderness, toward Richmond; General Sherman had left
Chattanooga on his march to the sea by which the Confederacy was cut
in two; the dashing Sheridan was harassing the enemy in the Shenandoah
Valley, and the collapse of the rebellion was foreshadowed.
I am sure Mr. Lincoln cared but little for his own political future,
but he was most desirous of carrying out his plans regarding
reconstruction, and the frankness with which he had spoken his views on
the subject made enemies of such men as Greeley, Sumner, and Stevens.
Had he dissembled, concealing his sympathies for the suffering civilian
population in the South who had taken no active part in the rebellion,
until such time as he could properly lay his plans before Congress and
explain them, hostility against him would have been confined to a few
politicians actuated by envy or personal ambition.
But Mr. Lincoln made no secret of his desire for the prompt
reorganization of the seceded States, immediately peace was attained;
and for their readmission into the Union, with representation in both
Houses of Congress, thus carrying out the thought always uppermost
in his mind of the restoration of the Union. And yet his sorrows,
worriments, and perplexities could not drown his sense of humor, as the
following occurrence shows:
A conference was held on shipboard in Hampton Roads about the time
that the collapse of the Confederacy seemed imminent, the consultants
including the Vice-President of the Confederacy, Alexander H. Stevens,
and R. M. T. Hunter and J. A. Campbell, on the one side, and Mr.
Lincoln and Mr. Seward on the other.
Mr. Hunter, to enforce his contentions, referred to the correspondence
between Charles the First, of England, and Parliament.
“Mr. Lincoln’s face,” it is reported, “wore the inscrutable expression
which generally preceded his hardest hits,” as he replied: “Upon
questions of history I must refer you to Mr. Seward, for he is
posted in such things, and I do not profess to be; my only distinct
recollection of the matter is that Charles lost his head.”
Under the reconstruction policy planned by the great President and
carried out by his successor, President Johnson, the rebel States were
taken back in the Union with the same representation in Congress they
had before they started on the war of secession.
To obviate the danger which would arise from the control of the
Southern States by the unrepentant rebels, and to minimize the danger
that might result from the large number of members they would have in
Congress, it was deemed necessary to give the illiterate and shiftless
negroes, just emerging from slavery, and who constituted a majority of
the voters in many of the Southern States, the right to vote.
This resulted in the detestable State governments composed of negroes
and “carpet-bag” whites, no less corrupt than the negroes. The whites
were called “carpet-baggers,” because they came from the North, with
no intention of remaining permanently; they only wanted to exploit
the South for their own profit; and they generally traveled in light
marching order, with all their worldly possessions packed in the
familiar carpet-bag of the period.
Sumner, Stevens, and Winter Davis opposed this reconstruction policy,
contending that the rebel States should be held as conquered territory
until a new generation should arrive on the scene.
I did not hesitate to say at the time that they were right. Had their
policy been adopted the terrible evils of the “carpet-bag” governments
would have been avoided.
In the last conversation I had with Mr. Lincoln on the subject of his
renomination, about ten days before the convention of 1864, I tried
to convince him that his doubts and fears were unwarranted, but I
did not succeed in lightening the gloom. He probably thought me too
young a man to form an accurate opinion, but I had investigated for
myself, as well as advised with the best-informed Republicans in my
State. It seemed as though he could not forget that previous miraculous
nomination by a convention in which two-thirds of the delegates favored
another candidate; he feared lest now the boot might be on the other
leg.
The Republican National Convention assembled at Baltimore on June
7, 1864, the aged Rev. Dr. Robert J. Breckinridge, of Kentucky,
being temporary chairman, and ex-Governor William Dennison, of Ohio,
permanent presiding officer.
All opposition melted away when the platform was read and adopted. The
third plank therein denounced “slavery as the cause of the rebellion,
always and everywhere hostile to principles of republican government;
therefore, national safety demands its utter and complete extirpation
from the soil of the Republic.”
Mr. Lincoln was renominated on the first ballot, receiving the
unanimous vote of every State, with the exception of Missouri, the
delegation from which State was instructed for General Grant. The
Missouri vote was at once changed to Lincoln, making the nomination
unanimous.
At that convention I circulated among the representatives from other
States, and overheard many mutterings of dissatisfaction at the
inevitability of the choice, but not a hostile word was spoken from the
rostrum. I joined with delegates from my State in addressing a message
of congratulation to Mr. Lincoln at Washington.
Greeley, of course, was obliged to come around to support Lincoln’s
re-election, but he could not refrain from damning him with faint
praise.
Under the caption of “Opening the Presidential Campaign,” Mr. Greeley,
in the _Tribune_ of February 23, 1864, thus indicated his change of
front toward Mr. Lincoln:
He has been patriotic, honest, and faithful. He has done his utmost to
serve and save the country.... He is not infallible, not a genius, not
one of those rare, great men who mould their age into the similitude
of their own high character, massive abilities, and lofty aims. But,
considering his antecedents and his experience of public affairs we
are sure the verdict of history in his case will be “well done, thou
good and faithful servant.” The luster of his good deeds will far
outlive the memory of his mistakes and faults.
Perhaps Greeley stood too close to his subject, but surely these
condescending words may be considered a masterpiece of ineptitude.
Nor was Mr. Greeley averse to reprinting hostile criticisms from
outside sources, as the following excerpts will witness:
In the New York _Tribune_, June 21, 1864, under the heading, “Rebel
Views of our Nomination--A Railsplitter and a Tailor,” the Richmond
_Examiner_ is quoted as saying:
The Convention of Black Republicans in Baltimore have nominated for
President of their country Abraham Lincoln, the Illinois railsplitter.
The great army of contractors and office-holders--in short, those who
live by war and on the country--have succeeded, at least, in starting
Lincoln fairly for another race. It amounts to a declaration that
those conventioners desire to see four years more in all respects like
unto the last four years.
Another extract from the Richmond _Examiner_ also appears in the
_Tribune_ at about the same date:
The only merit we can discover in this Baltimore ticket is the merit
of _consistency_; it is all of a piece; the tail does not shame the
head, nor the head shame the tail. A railsplitting buffoon and a
boorish tailor, both from the backwoods. Both growing up in uncouth
ignorance, they would afford a grotesque subject for a satiric poet.
I had known from the President’s own lips, at my last interview,
that he desired the selection of Andrew Johnson, a Tennessean, whose
steadfast support of the Federal cause in these troublesome times had
attracted attention. I was not in sympathy with that plan, because I
thought that Johnson would cost the party many votes among the radicals
in New England.
Nobody could forecast at that time with reasonable certainty the
Democratic candidates, and there was considerable fear that General
Grant might be named. He was popularly believed to be bringing
the rebellion to an early finish; if he succeeded in forcing the
capitulation of General Lee before the Democratic convention met in
Chicago at the end of August, the opposition party might seize upon him
and could probably elect him. Grant had been an old-line Democrat and,
so far as known, had voted for Douglas in 1860. There was no political
reason why Grant could not accept such a nomination.
In June, General McClellan’s name had not been seriously considered. He
was a man with a grievance, for he had been removed from the command of
the Federal Army after a long endurance of his procrastinating policy
by the administration. The universal affection felt for McClellan
throughout the Northern Army, especially the Army of the Potomac, seems
difficult of explanation.
IX
THE CAMPAIGN OF 1864
The campaign for the Republican ticket began before the name of
the Democratic candidate was known. Speakers were haranguing the
people in every Northern State, but if Mr. Lincoln’s doubts about
his renomination had been serious, his fear of defeat at the polls
developed into a veritable mental panic. Both Nicolay and Gideon
Welles refer to the following note, which, indorsed on the back by all
the Cabinet members, was sealed and committed to the keeping of the
Secretary of the Navy, with instructions that it should not be opened
until after election. I believe that the original has been presented by
Miss Nicolay to the Library of Congress:
This morning, as for some days past, it seemed improbable that
this administration will be re-elected. Then it will be my duty
to co-operate with the President-elect so as to save the Union
between the election and the inauguration, as my successor will have
secured his election on such grounds that he cannot possibly save it
afterwards.
_August 23, 1864._ A. LINCOLN.
It will be seen that this remarkable document bears date six days
before the assembling of the Democratic convention at Chicago, on
August 29. At that time Mr. Lincoln was aware of the plan to nominate
McClellan, and feared his strength.
In the interval between the Republican convention, early in June, and
the gathering of the Democrats at the end of August, the progress of
the Federal arms had not realized expectations. Grant had not taken
Richmond, and Sherman had not administered a decisive blow to General
Johnson.
Politically, the situation was somewhat more hopeful. The selection
of Andrew Johnson as Vice-President on the Republican ticket had
conciliated many Northern Democrats like Judge Holt, General Dix,
and General Butler; moreover, it had prevented recognition of the
Confederacy by France and England. Lincoln’s foresight in substituting
the Tennessean for Hannibal Hamlin, of Maine, was generally admitted.
McClellan developed more strength than was suspected. The best opinion
is that, had the election occurred directly after his nomination and
before people had had opportunity to study the platform upon which
he had consented to stand, he would have been successful. Soon after
the Democratic convention adjourned, however, the capture of Atlanta
by Sherman was announced; then followed the sturdy blows of Grant
at the Confederate capital and Sheridan’s series of victories in the
Shenandoah Valley. These happy events completely changed the political
attitude of the country.
The Democratic managers at Chicago had committed the execrable blunder
of declaring in their platform that the war had been a failure and
that the public welfare demanded “an immediate effort be made for a
cessation of hostilities, with a view to an ultimate convention of all
the States.”
Little more than two months remained before election day in November,
and every speaker that could be commandeered was put into active
service. Lincoln himself took no active part in the campaign outside
of a few addresses to soldiers, but mass-meetings were held every day
and night of the week, and popular preachers with Republican sympathies
filled their discourses with appeals in behalf of Lincoln and the
necessity of his re-election for the preservation of the Union. Henry
Ward Beecher became a tower of strength to the Lincoln cause, and in
and out of Plymouth pulpit he advocated the duty of sustaining the
administration that had already saved the Union and must ultimately put
down the rebellion. I addressed meetings every night.
The campaign soon became one of great acrimony on both sides. Night and
day, without cessation, young men like myself, in halls, upon street
corners, and from cart-tails, were haranguing, pleading, sermonizing,
orating, arguing, extolling our cause and our candidate, and denouncing
our opponents. A deal of oratory, elocution, rhetoric, declamation, and
eloquence was hurled into the troubled air by speakers on both sides.
Denunciation of Lincoln by Democratic spellbinders was of the bitterest
character. Newspapers affiliated with the anti-war party criticized
every act of the administration and belittled the conduct of the war by
Federal generals in the field. Therefore, Republican speakers did not
mince words in criticism of the Democratic Presidential candidate, Gen.
George B. McClellan.
On September 27, five weeks before election day, I spoke to an audience
that filled every seat in Cooper Institute, on the questions of the
hour. Read in the calmness of to-day my language appears unwarrantedly
aggressive, but at that time it seemed conservative. As an example of
the spirit of the campaign I venture to quote a few extracts:
The battle that will be fought in November between the Union and the
Confederate forces north of the Potomac will end in the destruction
or exhaustion of the Southern Confederacy. Abraham Lincoln is the
commander of the Union forces. I will now prove that George B.
McClellan is the leader of the Confederate forces.
While at the head of the Army, McClellan attempted to dictate to
President Lincoln a policy acceptable to the Confederate South.
Every man in the North influenced by “Copperheads,” who opposed the
war, demanded that this “fighting general” be replaced at the head
of our armies. He had become harnessed to the slave power, and he,
with General Pendleton, candidate for Vice-President, became the
incarnation of the Democratic peace platform.
McClellan’s nomination was received with enthusiasm and cheers by
the Confederate soldiers; the Southern newspapers declared that
McClellan’s election would be helped by Grant’s defeat in the field.
Confederate bonds advanced on the announcement of McClellan’s
nomination. Every Southern sympathizer in the North, passive or active
in his devotion to Jefferson Davis, will vote for McClellan.
He says in his letter of acceptance that his sentiments are identical
with those of the platform which pronounced the war a failure, and
he promised, if the Democratic candidate were elected, an immediate
cessation of hostilities.
I called attention to the fact that such men as Fernando Wood,
Vallandigham, and Horatio Seymour, once Governor of New York, supported
McClellan, thus indorsing the letter of acceptance, in which he
promises to enforce the policy set forth in the peace platform of his
party.
McClellan’s military career, consistent with his whole history, may
be summed up in one word--“delay”--which gave to the Confederacy what
it needed--time. Is it not then true that McClellan heads, in this
campaign, the Confederate forces North?
I then read the following excerpt from the Democratic platform:
Resolved, that this Convention does explicitly declare, as the sense
of the American people, that after four years of failure to restore
the Union by the experiment of war during which, under the pretense
of a military necessity for a war-power higher than the Constitution,
the Constitution itself has been disregarded in every part; and
public liberty and private right alike trodden down, and the material
prosperity of the country essentially impaired, justice, humanity,
liberty, and the public welfare demand that immediate efforts be
made for the cessation of hostilities, with a view to the ultimate
convention of the States or other peaceful means, to the end that at
the earliest practicable moment peace may be restored on the basis of
Federal Union of the States. Resolved, that the direct interference of
the military authorities of the United States in the recent elections
held in Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, and Delaware was a shameful
violation of the Constitution and a repetition of such acts in the
approaching election will be held as revolutionary and resisted with
all the means and power under our control.
* * * * *
In other words [I resumed], it was a bold and pernicious declaration
of hostilities that war should close at once and that a convention
should be called at a later period, to revise the Constitution. But it
is easy to comprehend that when such a convention should be called,
Jefferson Davis would refuse to enter its doors, and be prepared to
enforce his refusal.
Jefferson Davis, his resources crippled and with his last levies on
the firing-line, is naturally anxious that Lincoln be defeated, for he
knows, by this time, that with Lincoln as President the Confederacy
will be compelled to abandon a hopeless contest. Davis cannot, and
will not, continue the fight if Lincoln is re-elected, notwithstanding
his threat to “fight to the last ditch.”
Lincoln’s re-election will banish all hope of triumph for the
Confederacy. A firm and everlasting peace will follow, based upon
a reconstructed Union and freedom everywhere. The American Union,
strong, powerful, and freed from slavery, will be honored the world
over.
“Be it storm, or summer weather,
Peaceful calm or battle jar,
Stand in beauteous strength together,
Sister States as once ye were.”
Large sums of money were expended in expensive printing during that
campaign. Some of the publications were elaborately designed and
illustrated. Recently one of the Lincoln and Johnson posters has been
presented to me, and the miniature reproduction on the following page
should be of interest.
The names of the electors for the State of New York include that of
the writer. The poster is printed in several colors, it is five feet
high and three and one-half feet wide. It is in a perfect state of
preservation.
As I have indicated, the victories of Sheridan and Sherman produced a
revulsion against peace sentiment throughout the North that literally
swamped McClellan. The popular vote was large, Lincoln securing
2,213,665 votes, and McClellan 1,802,237 votes. Except among the troops
from Pennsylvania and Kentucky, the soldier vote was overwhelmingly in
favor of Lincoln. This was a surprise.
[Illustration:
Union Nominations
CLARRY & REILLEY, ENG.
For Electors of President and Vice President of the United States,
HORACE GREELEY, PRESTON KING,
Obadiah Bowne William H. McKinney Guy R. Pelton Thaddeus Hait
Hiram Horton John Clarke John E. Seely John W. Stebbins
James S.T. Stranahan Thomas B. Asten Alexander Davidson John Tweddle
Allen C. Churchill John J. Knox Jedediah Dewey William Bristol
George Ricard Isaac T. Smith James W. Taylor Cornelius L. Allen
Ebenezer Blakely Thomas Kingsford Myron H. Weaver Joseph Cander
Abram J. Dittenhoefer George Opdyke Charles L. Beale Alonzo W. Morgan
George W. Bradford James Alley John P. Darling
FOR PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,
ABRAHAM LINCOLN
FOR VICE PRESIDENT OF THE UNITED STATES,
ANDREW JOHNSON.
FOR GOVERNOR,
REUBEN E. FENTON
FOR LIEUTENANT GOVERNOR,
THOMAS G. ALVORD.
For Canal Commissioner, For Inspector of State Prisons,
FRANKLIN A. ALBERGER. | DAVID P. FORREST
FOR SHERIFF OF THE CITY AND COUNTY OF NEW YORK,
JOHN W. FARMER.
FOR DISTRICT ATTORNEY For Clerk of the City and County of New-York,
WM. T. B. MILLIKEN. | JAMES M. THOMPSON.
FOR CORONERS,
LOUIS NAUMANN EDWARD COLLIN JAMES W. RANNEY, ALEXANDER WILDER
FOR CITY JUDGE, FOR SUPERVISOR,
Orlando L. Stewart | Andreas Willman.
=SIMEON DRAPER=, Pres’t Union Gen. Com. =HARVEY H. WOODS=, Sec. U. G. C.
=R. C. HAWKINS=, Ch’n Ex. Com. U. G. C.
M. B. BROWN & CO., STEAM JOB PRINTERS,
201 S 208 WILLIAM STREET, NEW YORK.
Poster for Lincoln’s Second Presidential Campaign.]
It is interesting to illustrate the growth of our country by a
comparison with the popular vote of 1912 when Wilson received 6,291,776
votes, Taft 3,481,119, and Roosevelt 4,106,247.
Of the electoral votes, Lincoln received 212, and McClellan only 21.
Until the defeat of Mr. Taft by Woodrow Wilson in 1912, this was a
record of defeat. In the latter year Mr. Wilson received 435 votes, Mr.
Taft 15, and Mr. Roosevelt 81.
The electoral ticket for Lincoln having been successful in New York
State, the thirty-three electors, of whom I was one, met at Albany and
cast the votes of the State for Abraham Lincoln and Andrew Johnson.
The ballots were inscribed on wooden blocks, and read as follows:
President, Abraham Lincoln
and underneath, in brackets,
[Abram J. Dittenhoefer] Elector
A few weeks later I took one of these wooden block ballots with me to
Washington and showed it to the President. He asked me if I would not
give it to him as a souvenir, which I was very glad to do.
Horace Greeley and Preston King were the two electors-at-large.
Although Greeley had violently opposed the renomination of Lincoln,
wise counsels put him at the head of the Presidential electors, a
compliment that Mr. Greeley told me highly gratified him, in view of
his previous attitude toward the President.
When Mr. Greeley became the Democratic candidate for President in 1872
and many Republicans seceded from the Republican party, Mr. Greeley
requested me to act as chairman of the executive committee of the
Liberal Republican Central Committee in New York City, and I consented
to do so. Chauncey M. Depew, who also identified himself with the
Liberal Republican organization, became the candidate of the party for
Secretary of State of New York. I afterward regretted that I had joined
in that movement, and my regret was intensified when Greeley’s campaign
turned out to be so great a fiasco.
Lincoln’s assassination, April 12, 1865, thwarted the generous,
noble-hearted plans which he had devised for the restoration of the
Union, and resulted in imposing upon the Southern people by Andrew
Johnson, Lincoln’s successor, the corrupt “carpet-bag” régime.
Lincoln’s place in the history of civilization is immutably fixed.
During the last ten years of his career, he was the greatest of all
living men. As statesman and reformer he belongs not alone to America,
but to the whole world.
George Washington established this Republic, but the curse of human
slavery adhered to the otherwise splendid Government he was so largely
instrumental in creating.