Shaping of the Presidential Campaign--Criticisms of Mr. Lincoln--Chase's
Presidential Ambitions--The Pomeroy Circular--Cleveland
Convention--Attempt to Nominate Grant--Meeting of Baltimore
Convention--Lincoln's Letter to Schurz--Platform of Republican
Convention--Lincoln Renominated--Refuses to Indicate Preference for
Vice-President--Johnson Nominated for Vice-President--Lincoln's Speech
to Committee of Notification--Reference to Mexico in his Letter of
Acceptance--The French in Mexico
The final shaping of the campaign, the definition of the issues, the
wording of the platforms, and selection of the candidates, had grown
much more out of national politics than out of mere party combination or
personal intrigues. The success of the war, and fate of the Union, of
course dominated every other consideration; and next to this the
treatment of the slavery question became in a hundred forms almost a
direct personal interest. Mere party feeling, which had utterly vanished
for a few months in the first grand uprising of the North, had been once
more awakened by the first Bull Run defeat, and from that time onward
was heard in loud and constant criticism of Mr. Lincoln and the acts of
his supporters wherever they touched the institution of slavery. The
Democratic party, which had been allied with the Southern politicians in
the interests of that institution through so many decades, quite
naturally took up its habitual rôle of protest that slavery should
receive no hurt or damage from the incidents of war, where, in the
border States, it still had constitutional existence among loyal Union
men.
On the other hand, among Republicans who had elected Mr. Lincoln, and
who, as a partizan duty, indorsed and sustained his measures, Frémont's
proclamation of military emancipation in the first year of the war
excited the over-hasty zeal of antislavery extremists, and developed a
small but very active faction which harshly denounced the President when
Mr. Lincoln revoked that premature and ill-considered measure. No matter
what the President subsequently did about slavery, the Democratic press
and partizans always assailed him for doing too much, while the Frémont
press and partizans accused him of doing too little.
Meanwhile, personal considerations were playing their minor, but not
unimportant parts. When McClellan was called to Washington, and during
all the hopeful promise of the great victories he was expected to win, a
few shrewd New York Democratic politicians grouped themselves about him,
and put him in training as the future Democratic candidate for
President; and the general fell easily into their plans and ambitions.
Even after he had demonstrated his military incapacity, when he had
reaped defeat instead of victory, and earned humiliation instead of
triumph, his partizan adherents clung to the desperate hope that though
they could not win applause for him as a conqueror, they might yet
create public sympathy in his behalf as a neglected and persecuted
genius.
The cabinets of Presidents frequently develop rival presidential
aspirants, and that of Mr. Lincoln was no exception. Considering the
strong men who composed it, the only wonder is that there was so little
friction among them. They disagreed constantly and heartily on minor
questions, both with Mr. Lincoln and with each other, but their great
devotion to the Union, coupled with his kindly forbearance, and the
clear vision which assured him mastery over himself and others, kept
peace and even personal affection in his strangely assorted official
family.
The man who developed the most serious presidential aspirations was
Salmon P. Chase, his Secretary of the Treasury, who listened to and
actively encouraged the overtures of a small faction of the Republican
party which rallied about him at the end of the year 1863. Pure and
disinterested, and devoted with all his energies and powers to the cause
of the Union, he was yet singularly ignorant of current public thought,
and absolutely incapable of judging men in their true relations He
regarded himself as the friend of Mr. Lincoln and made strong
protestations to him and to others of this friendship, but he held so
poor an opinion of the President's intellect and character, compared
with his own, that he could not believe the people blind enough to
prefer the President to himself. He imagined that he did not covet
advancement, and was anxious only for the public good; yet, in the midst
of his enormous labors found time to write letters to every part of the
country, protesting his indifference to the presidency, but indicating
his willingness to accept it, and painting pictures so dark of the
chaotic state of affairs in the government, that the irresistible
inference was that only he could save the country. From the beginning
Mr. Lincoln had been aware of this quasi-candidacy, which continued all
through the winter Indeed, it was impossible to remain unconscious of
it, although he discouraged all conversation on the subject, and
refused to read letters relating to it. He had his own opinion of the
taste and judgment displayed by Mr. Chase in his criticisms of the
President and his colleagues in the cabinet, but he took no note of
them.
"I have determined," he said, "to shut my eyes, so far as possible, to
everything of the sort. Mr. Chase makes a good secretary, and I shall
keep him where he is. If he becomes President, all right. I hope we may
never have a worse man."
And he went on appointing Mr. Chase's partizans and adherents to places
in the government. Although his own renomination was a matter in regard
to which he refused to talk much, even with intimate friends, he was
perfectly aware of the true drift of things. In capacity of appreciating
popular currents Chase was as a child beside him; and he allowed the
opposition to himself in his own cabinet to continue, without question
or remark, all the more patiently, because he knew how feeble it really
was.
The movement in favor of Mr. Chase culminated in the month of February,
1864, in a secret circular signed by Senator Pomeroy of Kansas, and
widely circulated through the Union; which criticised Mr. Lincoln's
"tendency toward compromises and temporary expedients"; explained that
even if his reëlection were desirable, it was practically impossible in
the face of the opposition that had developed; and lauded Chase as the
statesman best fitted to rescue the country from present perils and
guard it against future ills. Of course copies of this circular soon
reached the White House, but Mr. Lincoln refused to look at them, and
they accumulated unread in the desk of his secretary. Finally, it got
into print, whereupon Mr. Chase wrote to the President to assure him he
had no knowledge of the letter before seeing it in the papers. To this
Mr. Lincoln replied:
"I was not shocked or surprised by the appearance of the letter, because
I had had knowledge of Mr. Pomeroy's committee, and of secret issues
which I supposed came from it, ... for several weeks. I have known just
as little of these things as my friends have allowed me to know.... I
fully concur with you that neither of us can be justly held responsible
for what our respective friends may do without our instigation or
countenance.... Whether you shall remain at the head of the Treasury
Department is a question which I will not allow myself to consider from
any standpoint other than my judgment of the public service, and, in
that view, I do not perceive occasion for a change."
Even before the President wrote this letter, Mr. Chase's candidacy had
passed out of sight. In fact, it never really existed save in the
imagination of the Secretary of the Treasury and a narrow circle of his
adherents. He was by no means the choice of the body of radicals who
were discontented with Mr. Lincoln because of his deliberation in
dealing with the slavery question, or of those others who thought he was
going entirely too fast and too far.
Both these factions, alarmed at the multiplying signs which foretold his
triumphant renomination, issued calls for a mass convention of the
people, to meet at Cleveland, Ohio, on May 31, a week before the
assembling of the Republican national convention at Baltimore, to unite
in a last attempt to stem the tide in his favor. Democratic newspapers
naturally made much of this, heralding it as a hopeless split in the
Republican ranks, and printing fictitious despatches from Cleveland
reporting that city thronged with influential and earnest delegates.
Far from this being the case, there was no crowd and still less
enthusiasm. Up to the very day of its meeting no place was provided for
the sessions of the convention, which finally came together in a small
hall whose limited capacity proved more than ample for both delegates
and spectators. Though organization was delayed nearly two hours in the
vain hope that more delegates would arrive, the men who had been counted
upon to give character to the gathering remained notably absent. The
delegates prudently refrained from counting their meager number, and
after preliminaries of a more or less farcical nature, voted for a
platform differing little from that afterward adopted at Baltimore,
listened to the reading of a vehement letter from Wendell Phillips
denouncing Mr. Lincoln's administration and counseling the choice of
Frémont for President, nominated that general by acclamation, with
General John Cochrane of New York for his running-mate, christened
themselves the "Radical Democracy," and adjourned.
The press generally greeted the convention and its work with a chorus of
ridicule, though certain Democratic newspapers, from motives harmlessly
transparent, gave it solemn and unmeasured praise. General Frémont,
taking his candidacy seriously, accepted the nomination, but three
months later, finding no response from the public, withdrew from the
contest.
At this fore-doomed Cleveland meeting a feeble attempt had been made by
the men who considered Mr. Lincoln too radical, to nominate General
Grant for President, instead of Frémont; but he had been denounced as a
Lincoln hireling, and his name unceremoniously swept aside. During the
same week another effort in the same direction was made in New York,
though the committee having the matter in charge made no public avowal
of its intention beforehand, merely calling a meeting to express the
gratitude of the country to the general for his signal services; and
even inviting Mr. Lincoln to take part in the proceedings. This he
declined to do, but wrote:
"I approve, nevertheless, whatever may tend to strengthen and sustain
General Grant and the noble armies now under his direction. My previous
high estimate of General Grant has been maintained and heightened by
what has occurred in the remarkable campaign he is now conducting, while
the magnitude and difficulty of the task before him do not prove less
than I expected. He and his brave soldiers are now in the midst of their
great trial, and I trust that at your meeting you will so shape your
good words that they may turn to men and guns, moving to his and their
support."
With such gracious approval of the movement the meeting naturally fell
into the hands of the Lincoln men. General Grant neither at this time
nor at any other, gave the least countenance to the efforts which were
made to array him in political opposition to the President.
These various attempts to discredit the name of Mr. Lincoln and nominate
some one else in his place caused hardly a ripple on the great current
of public opinion. Death alone could have prevented his choice by the
Union convention. So absolute and universal was the tendency that most
of the politicians made no effort to direct or guide it; they simply
exerted themselves to keep in the van and not be overwhelmed. The
convention met on June 7, but irregular nominations of Mr. Lincoln for
President had begun as early as January 6, when the first State
convention of the year was held in New Hampshire.
From one end of the country to the other such spontaneous nominations
had joyously echoed his name. Only in Missouri did it fail of
overwhelming adhesion, and even in the Missouri Assembly the resolution
in favor of his renomination was laid upon the table by a majority of
only eight. The current swept on irresistibly throughout the spring. A
few opponents of Mr. Lincoln endeavored to postpone the meeting of the
national convention until September, knowing that their only hope lay in
some possible accident of the summer. But though supported by so
powerful an influence as the New York "Tribune," the National Committee
paid no attention to this appeal. Indeed, they might as well have
considered the request of a committee of prominent citizens to check an
impending thunderstorm.
Mr. Lincoln took no measures whatever to promote his own candidacy.
While not assuming airs of reluctance or bashfulness, he discouraged on
the part of strangers any suggestion as to his reëlection. Among his
friends he made no secret of his readiness to continue the work he was
engaged in, if such should be the general wish. "A second term would be
a great honor and a great labor, which together, perhaps, I would not
decline if tendered," he wrote Elihu B. Washburne. He not only opposed
no obstacle to the ambitions of Chase, but received warnings to beware
of Grant in the same serene manner, answering tranquilly, "If he takes
Richmond, let him have it." And he discouraged office-holders, civil or
military, who showed any special zeal in his behalf. To General Schurz,
who wrote asking permission to take an active part in the presidential
campaign, he replied:
"Allow me to suggest that if you wish to remain in the military service,
it is very dangerous for you to get temporarily out of it; because,
with a major-general once out, it is next to impossible for even the
President to get him in again.... Of course I would be very glad to have
your service for the country in the approaching political canvass; but I
fear we cannot properly have it without separating you from the
military." And in a later letter he added: "I perceive no objection to
your making a political speech when you are where one is to be made; but
quite surely, speaking in the North and fighting in the South at the
same time are not possible; nor could I be justified to detail any
officer to the political campaign during its continuance and then return
him to the army."
Not only did he firmly take this stand as to his own nomination, but
enforced it even more rigidly in cases where he learned that Federal
office-holders were working to defeat the return of certain Republican
congressmen. In several such instances he wrote instructions of which
the following is a type:
"Complaint is made to me that you are using your official power to
defeat Judge Kelley's renomination to Congress.... The correct
principle, I think, is that all our friends should have absolute freedom
of choice among our friends. My wish, therefore, is that you will do
just as you think fit with your own suffrage in the case, and not
constrain any of your subordinates to do other than as he thinks fit
with his."
He made, of course, no long speeches during the campaign, and in his
short addresses, at Sanitary Fairs, in response to visiting delegations,
or on similar occasions where custom and courtesy decreed that he must
say something, preserved his mental balance undisturbed, speaking
heartily and to the point, but skilfully avoiding the perils that beset
the candidate who talks.
When at last the Republican convention came together on June 7, 1864, it
had less to do than any other convention in our political history; for
its delegates were bound by a peremptory mandate. It was opened by brief
remarks from Senator Morgan of New York, whose significant statement
that the convention would fall far short of accomplishing its great
mission unless it declared for a Constitutional amendment prohibiting
African slavery, was loudly cheered. In their speeches on taking the
chair, both the temporary chairman, Rev. Robert J. Breckinridge of
Kentucky, and the permanent chairman, William Dennison of Ohio, treated
Mr. Lincoln's nomination as a foregone conclusion, and the applause
which greeted his name showed that the delegates did not resent this
disregard of customary etiquette. There were, in fact, but three tasks
before the convention--to settle the status of contesting delegations,
to agree upon a platform, and to nominate a candidate for
Vice-President.
The platform declared in favor of crushing rebellion and maintaining the
integrity of the Union, commending the government's determination to
enter into no compromise with the rebels. It applauded President
Lincoln's patriotism and fidelity in the discharge of his duties, and
stated that only those in harmony with "these resolutions" ought to have
a voice in the administration of the government. This, while intended to
win support of radicals throughout the Union, was aimed particularly at
Postmaster General Blair, who had made many enemies. It approved all
acts directed against slavery; declared in favor of a constitutional
amendment forever abolishing it; claimed full protection of the laws of
war for colored troops; expressed gratitude to the soldiers and sailors
of the Union; pronounced in favor of encouraging foreign immigration;
of building a Pacific railway; of keeping inviolate the faith of the
nation, pledged to redeem the national debt; and vigorously reaffirmed
the Monroe Doctrine.
Then came the nominations. The only delay in registering the will of the
convention occurred as a consequence of the attempt of members to do it
by irregular and summary methods. When Mr. Delano of Ohio made the
customary motion to proceed to the nomination, Simon Cameron moved as a
substitute the renomination of Lincoln and Hamlin by acclamation. A long
wrangle ensued on the motion to lay this substitute on the table, which
was finally brought to an end by the cooler heads, who desired that
whatever opposition to Mr. Lincoln there might be in the convention
should have fullest opportunity of expression. The nominations,
therefore, proceeded by call of States in the usual way. The
interminable nominating speeches of recent years had not yet come into
fashion. B.C. Cook, the chairman of the Illinois delegation, merely
said:
"The State of Illinois again presents to the loyal people of this nation
for President of the United States, Abraham Lincoln--God bless him!"
Others, who seconded the nomination, were equally brief. Every State
gave its undivided vote for Lincoln, with the exception of Missouri,
which cast its vote, under positive instructions, as the chairman
stated, for Grant. But before the result was announced, John F. Hume of
Missouri moved that Mr. Lincoln's nomination be declared unanimous. This
could not be done until the result of the balloting was made known--four
hundred and eighty-four for Lincoln, twenty-two for Grant. Missouri then
changed its vote, and the secretary read the grand total of five hundred
and six for Lincoln; the announcement being greeted with a storm of
cheering which lasted many minutes.
The principal names mentioned for the vice-presidency were Hannibal
Hamlin, the actual incumbent; Andrew Johnson of Tennessee; and Daniel S.
Dickinson of New York. Besides these, General L.H. Rousseau had the vote
of his own State--Kentucky. The radicals of Missouri favored General
B.F. Butler, who had a few scattered votes also from New England. Among
the principal candidates, however, the voters were equally enough
divided to make the contest exceedingly spirited and interesting.
For several days before the convention met Mr. Lincoln had been besieged
by inquiries as to his personal wishes in regard to his associate on the
ticket. He had persistently refused to give the slightest intimation of
such wish. His private secretary, Mr. Nicolay, who was at Baltimore in
attendance at the convention, was well acquainted with this attitude;
but at last, over-borne by the solicitations of the chairman of the
Illinois delegation, who had been perplexed at the advocacy of Joseph
Holt by Leonard Swett, one of the President's most intimate friends, Mr.
Nicolay wrote to Mr. Hay, who had been left in charge of the executive
office in his absence:
"Cook wants to know, confidentially, whether Swett is all right; whether
in urging Holt for Vice-President he reflects the President's wishes;
whether the President has any preference, either personal or on the
score of policy; or whether he wishes not even to interfere by a
confidential intimation.... Please get this information for me, if
possible."
The letter was shown to the President, who indorsed upon it:
"Swett is unquestionably all right. Mr. Holt is a good man, but I had
not heard or thought of him for V.P. Wish not to interfere about V.P.
Cannot interfere about platform. Convention must judge for itself."
This positive and final instruction was sent at once to Mr. Nicolay, and
by him communicated to the President's most intimate friends in the
convention. It was therefore with minds absolutely untrammeled by even
any knowledge of the President's wishes that the convention went about
its work of selecting his associate on the ticket. It is altogether
probable that the ticket of 1860 would have been nominated without a
contest had it not been for the general impression, in and out of the
convention, that it would be advisable to select as a candidate for the
vice-presidency a war Democrat. Mr. Dickinson, while not putting himself
forward as a candidate, had sanctioned the use of his name on the
special ground that his candidacy might attract to the support of the
Union party many Democrats who would have been unwilling to support a
ticket avowedly Republican; but these considerations weighed with still
greater force in favor of Mr. Johnson, who was not only a Democrat, but
also a citizen of a slave State. The first ballot showed that Mr.
Johnson had received two hundred votes, Mr. Hamlin one hundred and
fifty, and Mr. Dickinson one hundred and eight; and before the result
was announced almost the whole convention turned their votes to Johnson;
whereupon his nomination was declared unanimous. The work was so quickly
done that Mr. Lincoln received notice of the action of the convention
only a few minutes after the telegram announcing his own renomination
had reached him.
Replying next day to a committee of notification, he said in part:
"I will neither conceal my gratification nor restrain the expression of
my gratitude that the Union people, through their convention, in the
continued effort to save and advance the nation, have deemed me not
unworthy to remain in my present position. I know no reason to doubt
that I shall accept the nomination tendered and yet, perhaps I should
not declare definitely before reading and considering what is called the
platform. I will say now, however, I approve the declaration in favor of
so amending the Constitution as to prohibit slavery throughout the
nation. When the people in revolt, with a hundred days of explicit
notice that they could within those days resume their allegiance without
the overthrow of their institutions, and that they could not resume it
afterward, elected to stand out, such amendment to the Constitution as
is now proposed became a fitting and necessary conclusion to the final
success of the Union cause.... In the joint names of Liberty and Union,
let us labor to give it legal form and practical effect."
In his letter of June 29, formally accepting the nomination, the
President observed the same wise rule of brevity which he had followed
four years before. He made but one specific reference to any subject of
discussion. While he accepted the convention's resolution reaffirming
the Monroe Doctrine, he gave the convention and the country distinctly
to understand that he stood by the action already adopted by himself and
the Secretary of State. He said:
"There might be misunderstanding were I not to say that the position of
the government in relation to the action of France in Mexico, as assumed
through the State Department and approved and indorsed by the convention
among the measures and acts of the Executive will be faithfully
maintained so long as the state of facts shall leave that position
pertinent and applicable."
This resolution, which was, in truth, a more vigorous assertion of the
Monroe Doctrine than the author of that famous tenet ever dreamed of
making, had been introduced in the convention by the radicals as a
covert censure of Mr. Lincoln's attitude toward the French invasion of
our sister republic; but through skilful wording of the platform had
been turned by his friends into an indorsement of the administration.
And, indeed, this was most just, since from the beginning President
Lincoln and Mr. Seward had done all in their power to discourage the
presence of foreign troops on Mexican territory. When a joint expedition
by England, France, and Spain had been agreed upon to seize certain
Mexican ports in default of a money indemnity demanded by those
countries for outrages against their subjects, England had invited the
United States to be a party to the convention. Instead, Mr. Lincoln and
Mr. Seward attempted to aid Mexico with a sufficient sum to meet these
demands, and notified Great Britain of their intention to do so, and the
motives which prompted them. The friendly assistance came to naught; but
as the three powers vigorously disclaimed any designs against Mexico's
territory or her form of government, the United States saw no necessity
for further action, beyond a clear definition of its own attitude for
the benefit of all the parties.
This it continued to repeat after England withdrew from the expedition,
and Spain, soon recalling her troops, left Napoleon III to set the
Archduke Maximilian on his shadowy throne, and to develop in the heart
of America his scheme of an empire friendly to the South. At the moment
the government was unable to do more, though recognizing the veiled
hostility of Europe which thus manifested itself in a movement on what
may be called the right flank of the republic. While giving utterance to
no expressions of indignation at the aggressions, or of gratification at
disaster which met the aggressor, the President and Mr. Seward continued
to assert, at every proper opportunity the adherence of the American
government to its traditional policy of discouraging European
intervention in the affairs of the New World.