# The Life of Abraham Lincoln (Holland)/Chapter XXVII

The year 1864 was distinguished by two grand campaigns: one, political; the other, military: and, as the latter did not terminate with the year, it is well, perhaps, to give the former the precedence in the record. After four years, marked by mighty changes in the nation, the year of the presidential election had come again. It came in with doubt and darkness. The country was feeling the distresses of the war, and was wincing under the drafts made upon its vital and financial resources. Call after call for men had been made. Draft after draft had been enforced. Taxation brought home the burden to every man's door; and still no end appeared. Still the rebel confederacy seemed full of vitality; still it commanded immense resources of men and material; still its spirit and its words were uncompromising and defiant. During four years of administration, Mr. Lincoln had made many enemies, among those who had originally supported him; and the democratic party were not scrupulous in the use of means to bring him into disrepute with the people. Many republicans suffered under private grievances. Their counsels had not been sufficiently followed; their friends had not been properly served. Some thought Mr. Lincoln had been too fast and too severe in his measures; others thought that he had been too slow. All this was to have been expected; and it may well be imagined that no decision as to the true policy of the republican party, in its nominations, could have been made, without an exhibition of all the elements of discord.
That this period had been anticipated by friends and enemies abroad as one of the most terrible tests to which the republican institutions of the country had been or could be subjected, was evident. We were called upon in the very heat of civil war--that war involving questions upon which even the loyal portion of the country was almost evenly divided--to elect a president for four years. With immense armies in the field and immense navies afloat,--with fresh drafts for troops threatened or in progress,--with discord among the friends of the government and the foes of the rebellion,--and with a watchful opposition, skilled in party warfare, taking advantage of every mistake of the government and every success of its enemies, to push its own fortunes in the strife for power,--it is not strange that cool observers looked doubtfully upon the result, as it related to the power of a republican government to take care of itself, and maintain its hold upon the nation and its place among the governments of the world. How well the people behaved in this startling emergency, the calm discussions of the presidential campaign, the solemn and conscientious manner of the people at the polls, the triumph of the national arms, and the present peace and stability of the country, bear witness.
Mr. Chase, the distinguished Secretary or the Treasury, had his friends, and they were many and powerful. General Fremont had also his friends, who felt that he had not been well treated by the administration, and who were anxious for a diversion in his favor. Although both of these gentlemen had strong adherents among the politicians, and although either of them would have been cordially supported by the people under favorable circumstances, it was abundantly evident that the great masses of the people were in favor of Mr. Lincoln. He had had experience, and had grown wise under its influence. His unobtrusive character and his unbending honesty had won their confidence; and, although the future looked dark, they were conscious that progress had been made toward the destruction of the rebellion, and that, if the policy of war should be pursued, it would inevitably ultimate in the national success. They were convinced, also, that the way to a permanent peace was through war. Under these circumstances, they were reluctant to change leaders and rulers. The result was, that, at an early day, Mr. Chase withdrew his name from the list of candidates, and left much of the disaffected element afloat.
Outside of the republican and democratic parties, there was no organization; and, to institute one, an irresponsible call was issued, for a convention to be held at Cleveland, Ohio, on the thirty-first of May. The call represented that the public liberties were in danger, and declared for the "one-term principle," by which Mr. Lincoln should be set aside, however efficiently he might have served the government. The regular convention of the republican party, which was to be held at Baltimore on the eighth of June, was denounced in the call, as failing to answer the conditions of a truly national convention, in consequence of its proximity to "administrative influence."
The people recognized this call to be simply what it, in reality, was--an anti-Lincoln demonstration; and paid no attention to it, except in one or two instances. The Germans of Missouri did something by way of indorsement; as did also a few radicals elsewhere, who had really never been members of the republican party proper.
The convention was held at the appointed time; and it brought together an insignificant number of politicians, self-appointed to their seats in the convention. It was, in no sense, the offspring of the popular feeling or conviction; and its action found no response in the popular heart. Fremont's name formed the rallying point of the convention. Wendell Phillips and Frederick Douglass sent letters to it. Mrs. E. Cady Stanton approved of the convention in a letter. John Cochrane presided, and was honored with the nomination for Vice-president, on the ticket with General Fremont. The platform adopted dealt briefly with generalities, condemning no person save by implication, and containing no vital element which had not already been appropriated by the mass of republicans throughout the nation. Although the convention was organized and engineered to bring an influence to bear upon the Baltimore Convention, it failed to have influence anywhere.
The saddest feature of the whole movement was General Fremont's connivance with it, when he could not but see that its only influence would be to divide the friends of the government; and the eagerness with which he accepted his nomination. He opened his letter of acceptance by speaking of the convention as an assemblage of the "representatives of the people," when he ought to have known that they were nothing of the kind. General Fremont, it is to be remembered here, was the republican candidate for the presidency eight years before, receiving the honor of every republican vote. The party had once been beaten with him for its standard-bearer; and, if he had been thoroughly magnanimous, he would have remembered it. At the opening of the war, Mr. Lincoln had given him the highest military commission he had it in his power to bestow; and, after his Missouri failure, he had created a department for him. In this, he had not won distinguished honor; and when, at last, he was subordinated to another General, to meet the conditions of a great emergency, he threw up his position on a point of etiquette, and retired from his command. Mr. Lincoln had found it very difficult to please the General, or to satisfy his friends. The President was supposed to be jealous of him; and, if the readers of the life of Mr. Lincoln are not already convinced that such jealousy could have no place in him, no present attempt to vindicate his motives will avail. The truth was that Mr. Lincoln entertained none but the kindliest feelings toward him, though it is doubtful whether he had great confidence in his administrative and military ability. General Fremont knew, of course, that the little band of men gathered at Cleveland did not represent the republican party; and he knew that the republican party loved Mr. Lincoln. The party had been true to General Fremont, even if they had been disappointed in him. When he undertook to stab the official reputation of the President, he was engaged in the attempt to ruin the chosen man of the republican party. "Had Mr. Lincoln remained faithful to the principles he was elected to defend, no schism could have been created, and no contest could have been possible," said the General in his letter. Had the people decided that Mr. Lincoln was faithless to the principles he was chosen to defend? Had the republican party so decided? "The ordinary rights secured under the Constitution and laws of the country have been violated," continued the General. He charged the administration with managing the war for personal ends, with "incapacity and selfishness," with "disregard of constitutional rights," with "violation of personal liberty and the liberty of the press," and with "feebleness and want of principle." Among the objects of the convention itself; he recognized the effort "to arouse the attention of the people" to certain alleged facts, which he had enumerated; "and to bring them to realize that, while we are saturating southern soil with the best blood of the country, in the name of liberty, we have really parted with it at home." His own preference, he declared, would be to aid in the election of some one, other than Mr. Lincoln, who might be nominated at Baltimore, "But if Mr. Lincoln should be nominated," said he, "as I believe it would be fatal to the country to indorse a policy and renew a power which has cost us the lives of thousands of men, and needlessly put the country on the road to bankruptcy, there will be no other alternative but to organize against him every element of conscientious opposition, with the view to prevent the misfortune of his re-election."
General Fremont, virtuous above his party, virtuous above Mr. Lincoln, quick to see encroachments upon the rights of the people in advance of the people themselves, ready to find personal motives in the management of the war by the administration, and himself, of course, acting solely upon principle, failed to be appreciated by those whose good he so tenderly sought. The republican party gave him no response, other than at once and forever to count him out of its confidence and affections. Convention, platform, and candidates were early counted among political lumber; and whether the General at last withdrew from the field as a matter of principle, or from personal considerations, does not appear. He withdrew his name from the list of candidates before the people in September, after it became evident to everybody that his position was a damage to the national cause, administering a parting thrust at Mr. Lincoln in the words: "In respect to Mr. Lincoln, I continue to hold exactly the sentiments contained in my letter of acceptance. I consider that his administration has been politically and financially a failure, and that its necessary continuance is a cause of regret for the country." General Fremont, an old favorite of the republican party, and a man who virtually claimed to be a better republican than the majority of his party, said this, and said it with a purpose, or, wantonly, without a purpose, when he knew that the alternative of Mr. Lincoln's election was the election of General McClellan, on a peace platform, supported by such patriots as Fernando Wood and Clement L. Vallandigham.
Four days before the date appointed for the assembling of the Baltimore Convention, a meeting was held in New York to do honor to General Grant. The General had not then concluded the war, and had not, in fact, met with decisive successes with the army of the Potomac. There was no special occasion for the meeting, except to influence the Baltimore Convention in the selection of a candidate. To cover their real intent, they invited Mr. Lincoln to attend; and he sent the following letter in response:
   "Gentlemen--Your letter inviting me to be present at a mass meeting of the loyal citizens, to be held at New York on the fourth inst., for the purpose of expressing gratitude to Lieutenant-general Grant for his signal services, was received yesterday. It is impossible for me to attend. 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 does 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.
   "Yours truly, A. Lincoln."
The cordial tone of the President toward the General, effectually neutralized the object of the meeting; and, when the Baltimore Convention met, on the eighth of June, there was no name but that of the President that found adherents. Many of the delegates had come instructed to vote for him, from the conventions which sent them. Rev. Robert J. Breckinridge of Kentucky, a stern and eloquent old Unionist, was chosen temporary chairman; and Hon. William Dennison of Ohio was elected to be the permanent president of the convention. On the following day, Mr. Henry J. Raymond of New York, as chairman of the committee on resolutions, presented the platform, which was adopted with warm approval, and with entire unanimity. It pledged the convention, and those it represented, to aid the government in quelling by force of arms the rebellion then raging against its authority; approved the determination of the government not to compromise with rebels in arms; indorsed the acts and proclamations against slavery, and advocated a constitutional amendment abolishing it; returned thanks to the soldiers of the Union armies, and declared that the nation owed a permanent provision for those disabled by the war; approved of the administration of Mr. Lincoln and the acts and measures which he had adopted for the preservation of the nation against its open and secret foes; declared that the government owed protection to all its soldiers, without distinction of color; affirmed that the national faith, pledged for the redemption of the public debt, must be kept inviolate; and expressed approval of the position taken by the government that the people of the United States can never regard with indifference the attempt of any European power to overthrow by force, or to supplant by fraud, the institutions of any republican government on the Western Continent.
After the adoption of the resolutions, came the ballot for a presidential candidate. At the first ballot, every vote was given for Mr. Lincoln, except the twenty-two from Missouri which, under instructions, were given for General Grant; but the nomination was made unanimous on the motion of one of the Missouri delegates. Mr. Hamlin, the incumbent of the vice-presidential office, though an able and excellent man, was, from motives of policy, not regarded by many as the best candidate for that office; and Andrew Johnson of Tennessee received the nomination.
A single resolution in the platform, to which no allusion is made in the foregoing summary of its leading features, covertly demanded a change in the cabinet. The words, "We deem it essential to the general welfare that harmony should prevail in our national councils, and we regard as worthy of confidence and official trust those only who cordially indorse the principles proclaimed in these resolutions," were intended as an intimation that the convention would like to have the President dismiss the Postmaster-general, Montgomery Blair. The resolution was probably a concession to the Loyal Leagues, which, originally friendly to the nomination of Mr. Chase, took up the differences which were understood to exist between these two members of the cabinet, and demanded that Mr. Blair should retire. A committee consisting of John M. Ashley, John Covode and George S. Boutwell, waited upon the President, on one occasion, to urge Mr. Blair's dismissal; and on that occasion Mr. Lincoln said that, if he should be re-elected, he should probably make some changes in his cabinet--a reply which they took as an assent to their request, and so reported to the body that sent them. When the resolution in question appeared in the platform, Mr. Blair, understanding it, placed his resignation in the hands of the President, who delayed his acceptance of it until circumstances rendered the step desirable.
Washington was but a short distance from Baltimore; and Governor Dennison, the president of the convention, waited upon Mr. Lincoln, accompanied by a committee, to inform him of his nomination. After receiving the formal address of that gentleman, with a copy of the resolutions which had been adopted, Mr. Lincoln said:
   "Having served four years in the depths of a great and yet unended national peril, I can view this call to a second term in nowise more flattering to myself than as an expression of the public judgment that I may better finish a difficult work, in which I have labored from the first, than could any one less severely schooled to the task. In this view, and with assured reliance on that Almighty Ruler who has so graciously sustained us thus far, and with increased gratitude to the generous people for their continued confidence, I accept the renewed trust, with its yet onerous and perplexing duties and responsibilities."
During the same day, the President was waited upon by a committee of the Union League, which came with a tender of the congratulations, and a pledge of the confidence and support, of that organization; and, in the evening, by the Ohio delegation in the convention. To both these deputations he addressed brief remarks, in the spirit of those quoted as addressed to the committee of the convention. Some days subsequently, he received the formal notification, by letter, of his nomination, to which, on the twenty-seventh of June, he replied as follows:
   "Gentlemen:--Your letter of the fourteenth inst., formally notifying me that I have been nominated by the convention you represent for the Presidency of the United States, for four years from the fourth of March next, has been received. The nomination is gratefully accepted, as the resolutions of the convention, called the platform, are heartily approved. While the resolution in regard to the supplanting of republican governments upon the Western Continent is fully concurred in, 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 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. I am especially gratified that the soldier and seaman were not forgotten by the convention, as they forever must and will be remembered by the grateful country, for whose salvation they devote their lives.
   "Thanking you for the kind and complimentary terms in which you have communicated the nomination and other proceedings of the convention, I subscribe myself,
   "Your obedient servant,
   "Abraham Lincoln."
It was still more than two months before the assembling of the Democratic Convention, announced to be held at Chicago on the twenty-ninth of August. This convention had been deferred, with the confident expectation, if not the hope, that the events of the war would prepare the people to accept a peace policy, and leave the party free to take direct issue with the administration. During this interval, a peculiar change came over the spirit of the friends of Mr. Lincoln. Opening the campaign with perfect confidence concerning the results, a feeling of distrust and doubt crept over them; and, without any apparent cause, the thought became prevalent that a mistake had been made in the nomination. This arose partly from the consciousness that the country was really tired of a war of which they saw neither the end nor the signs of its approach; and partly from the uncertainty which prevailed concerning the action of the Democratic Convention, which was pretty sure to be based upon the results of military movements in progress, and of dubious issue. It was one of those strange and unaccountable contagions of public feeling and opinion which start, no man knows where; lead, no man knows whither; and die, at last, by no man's hand. Men did not catch it from newspapers, did not contract it from speeches, did not imbibe or absorb it in facts; but, simultaneously and universally, the friends of the administration were affected with a distrust of the future and a doubt of the wisdom of their choice.
There were still divisions in their ranks, but these were not formidable. Occasion was taken by the opposition press to magnify every mistake of the President and to condemn every doubtful measure. One Arguelles, convicted in Cuba of selling part of a cargo of negroes, illicitly landed, which, as an officer of the Spanish army, he had captured, was permitted to be taken from New York, and carried back to the island. This act--a thoroughly righteous one in the light of humanity and justice--was regarded by the opposition as a denial of the right of asylum; and a good deal of disturbance was created by it.
Early in July, Congress completed its action upon a plan of reconstruction, which it embodied in an elaborate bill. In the preparation of this bill, Henry Winter Davis of Maryland and Benjamin F. Wade of Ohio were prominently active. A good deal of time and discussion had been expended upon it, but it was passed and sent to the President less than one hour before the close of the session. He failed to approve it, and, on the eighth of July, issued a proclamation on the subject. In this proclamation, the President declared that he was unprepared, by a formal approval of the bill, to commit himself to any single plan of reconstruction, or to set aside the free state governments already formed in Arkansas and Louisiana on other plans. At the same time, he was willing that the plan embodied in the bill should be recognized as one among others; and so promulgated the bill itself, as a part of his proclamation. To the people of any rebel state who should adopt the plan provided by the bill, he pledged the executive assistance. The action of the President in this matter exceedingly offended Messrs. Wade and Davis, who joined in a bitter manifesto against him, and published it in the New York Tribune of August fifth. "The President," they declared, "by preventing this bill from becoming a law, holds the electoral votes of the rebel states at the dictation of his personal ambition." Furthermore: "A more studied outrage on the legislative authority of the people, has never been perpetrated." In its attack upon Mr. Lincoln's motives, it was an offensive paper, and pained the friends of the administration no less than it rejoiced its enemies.
Mr. Lincoln, himself, never permitted attacks of this character to trouble him. If they were very bitter, he did not read them at all; and many men of mark who wrote things for his particular eye, failed of their object utterly by his refusal to read, or listen to, their fulminations. After the Wade and Davis manifesto was issued, it was, on one occasion, the subject of conversation between him and a number of gentlemen who had called at the White House. After all the gentlemen had retired, save one, who was an intimate personal friend, Mr. Lincoln turned to him, and said: "The Wade and Davis matter troubles me very little. Indeed, I feel a good deal about it as the old man did about his cheese, when his very smart boy found, by the aid of a microscope, that it was full of maggots. 'Oh father!' exclaimed the boy, 'how can you eat that stuff? Just look in here, and see 'em wriggle!' The old man took another mouthful, and, putting his teeth into it, replied grimly: 'let 'em wriggle!'"
The evident anxiety of the people for peace was a subject of deep solicitude with the administration. Mr. Lincoln had no faith in the desire of the Richmond government for any peace which would be accepted by the loyal people of the country. It was, however, for the interest of the rebels to create a peace party in the northern states, in order to weaken the administration; and it was their policy to appear to be ready to make or receive propositions for peace. There were two things to which the administration was, in all good faith, irrevocably committed, viz: the restoration of the Union, under the Constitution, and the abolition of slavery. Without being false to his oath of office and to the American people who had poured out life and treasure to save the nation, and without being faithless to an oppressed race to whom he had pledged emancipation, Mr. Lincoln could entertain no propositions for peace, and could make none, which were not based on the essential conditions of national unity and freedom to the blacks. This state of facts tied his hands; yet he was made by his enemies to appear to be averse to peace; and some of his friends, of the more timid sort, felt that, unless he could be placed in a different light before the people, his chances of re-election were slender.
On the fifth of July, one W.C. Jewett wrote a letter from Niagara Falls to Horace Greeley of New York, stating that there were, in Canada, two ambassadors of the rebel government, with full powers to negotiate a peace; and requesting that Mr. Greeley proceed to Niagara for a conference, or secure from the President a safe-conduct for them to New York. Mr. Greeley inclosed the letter to Mr. Lincoln, remarking that he thought the matter deserved attention. He also wrote: "I venture to remind you that our bleeding, bankrupt, almost dying country, longs for peace--shudders at the prospect of fresh conscriptions, of further wholesale devastations, and of new rivers of human blood; and a wide-spread conviction that the government and its supporters are not anxious for peace, and do not improve proffered opportunities to achieve it, is doing great harm now, and is morally certain, unless removed, to do far greater in the approaching elections." Mr. Greeley subjoined to his letter a plan of adjustment which he deemed proper and practicable, the first two items of which covered the restoration of the Union and the abolition of slavery. Certainly, if these were leading and essential parts of the plan, it could make no difference whether they were made conditions precedent to negotiation, or essentials in any adjustment to be procured by negotiation.
The President replied to this communication, on the ninth: "If you can find any person, anywhere, professing to have any proposition of Jefferson Davis, in writing, embracing the restoration of the Union and abandonment of slavery, whatever else it embraces, say to him that he may come to me with you." On the thirteenth of July, Mr. Greeley wrote to the President, stating that he had information upon which he could rely, that two persons, duly commissioned and empowered to negotiate for a peace, were not far from Niagara Falls, and were desirous to confer with the President, or such persons as he might appoint. Their names were Clement C. Clay of Alabama and Jacob Thompson of Mississippi. If these persons could be permitted to see Mr. Lincoln, they wished a safe-conduct for themselves and for George N. Saunders to Washington. In the course of the letter, Mr. Greeley said: "I am, of course, quite other than sanguine that a peace can now be made; but I am quite sure that a frank, earnest, anxious effort to terminate the war on honorable terms, would immensely strengthen the government in case of its failure, and would help us in the eyes of the civilized world." George N. Saunders wrote to Mr. Greeley on the twelfth, that he was authorized to say that Mr. Clay and Professor Holcombe of Virginia were ready, with himself, to go to Washington, provided they should have a safe-conduct. To Mr. Greeley's letter of the thirteenth, Mr. Lincoln replied on the fifteenth: "I am disappointed that you have not already reached here with those commissioners. If they would consent to come on being shown my letter to you of the ninth inst., show that and this to them; and, if they will consent to come on the terms stated in the former, bring them. I not only intend a sincere effort for peace, but I intend that you shall be a personal witness that it is made." This note was taken to Mr. Greeley by Major Hay, who, having been empowered by telegraph to write a safe-conduct for the commissioners, embraced in his paper the names of Messrs. Clay, Thompson, Holcombe, and Saunders. With this, Mr. Greeley started for Niagara Falls, and, on arriving there on the seventeenth, addressed to the first three of these gentlemen, at the Clifton House, on the Canada side of the river, a note, stating that he was informed that they were duly accredited from Richmond as the bearers of propositions looking to the establishment of peace; that he understood, also, that they desired to visit Washington in the fulfillment of their mission, and that they wished George N. Saunders to accompany them. If these were the facts, he declared himself authorized by the President to offer them a safe-conduct and to accompany them.
On the following day, this note was replied to by Messrs. Clay and Holcombe, who frankly acknowledged that the safe-conduct of the President had been offered under a misapprehension of facts. They were not accredited from Richmond at all, as the bearers of propositions looking to the establishment of peace. They professed, however, to be in the confidential employ of their government, and to be familiar with its wishes and opinions on the subject; and they declared that, if the circumstances disclosed in the correspondence were communicated to Richmond, they, or others, would at once be invested with the requisite authority to negotiate. It should be remembered, at this point, that these men had not been made fully acquainted with the conditions on which the President had offered them a safe-conduct. Mr. Greeley had evidently forgotten to inform them concerning the terms of Mr. Lincoln's letter of the ninth, in which he promised a safe-conduct only to those who should be duly accredited with propositions for peace, conditioned upon the restoration of the Union and the abolition of slavery. These, it must be remembered, were the original and unaltered conditions on which Mr. Lincoln had consented to receive them.
Mr. Greeley replied to Messrs. Clay and Holcombe, on the eighteenth, that the state of facts differed materially from Mr. Lincoln's understanding of them, and that he should telegraph for fresh instructions, which he did at once. On receiving the dispatch, Mr. Lincoln sent Major Hay to Niagara, with the following letter:
   "Executive Mansion, Washington, July 18th, 1864.
   "To Whom It May Concern:--
   "Any proposition which embraces the restoration of peace, the integrity of the whole Union, and the abandonment of slavery, and which comes by and with an authority that can control the armies now at war against the United States, will be received and considered by the Executive government of the United States, and will be met on liberal terms on substantial and collateral points; and the bearer or bearers thereof shall have safe-conduct both ways.
   "Abraham Lincoln."
Major Hay, on his arrival at Niagara, went with Mr. Greeley to the Clifton House, and delivered the above missive to Professor Holcombe. Then Mr. Greeley returned to New York, where he soon afterwards received the response of Messrs. Clay and Holcombe. Their letter was exactly what might have been expected. They had supposed that a safe-conduct had been offered them on the ground that they were "duly accredited from Richmond, as bearers of propositions looking to the establishment of peace;" and, when they found conditions insisted on precedent to negotiation, they could see only a "sudden and entire change in the views of the President," and a "rude withdrawal of a courteous overture for negotiation, at the moment it was likely to be accepted." It will be noticed by the reader that the President had made no change whatever in his conditions from those first offered, and that the letter of Clay and Holcombe left him in a false position. Nothing appears in the correspondence, thus far published, to show that Mr. Greeley ever communicated to the commissioners the President's original conditions for a safe-conduct and an interview.
In order to place himself in a just position before the country, Mr. Lincoln applied to Mr. Greeley for permission to publish the entire correspondence, omitting certain unessential passages in Mr. Greeley's letters, which represented the country as being on the verge of destruction, intimated the possibility of a northern insurrection, and alluded to the importance of affecting favorably the North Carolina election. Mr. Greeley refused to have the correspondence published, unless these passages, which Mr. Lincoln thought would have a mischievous effect upon the public mind, should be retained. For the sake of the country and its cause, Mr. Lincoln submitted; but, determined to stand right in history, he sent a note to Henry J. Raymond, editor of the New York Times, under date of August 15, 1864, as follows:
   My Dear Sir:--I have proposed to Mr. Greeley that the Niagara correspondence be published, suppressing only the parts of his letters over which the red pencil is drawn in the copy which I herewith send. He declines giving his consent to the publication of his letters, unless these parts be published with the rest. I have concluded that it is better for me to submit, for the time, to the consequences of the false position in which I consider he has placed me, than to subject the country to the consequences of publishing these discouraging and injurious parts. I send you this, and the accompanying copy, not for publication, but merely to explain to you, and that you preserve them until their proper time shall come.
   "Yours truly,
   "Abraham Lincoln."
So Mr. Lincoln went through the canvass with the imputation resting upon him of having pursued a vacillating course with the unaccredited and irresponsible commissioners, and of repelling negotiations for peace. All the capital that could be made against him from the materials furnished by the affair, was assiduously used by the opposition and by the rebels themselves.
The time for holding the National Democratic Convention came at last. Still the fortunes of the military campaign were undecided; and the country was groaning under efforts to furnish men for the reinforcement of the armies. But the President found aid in unexpected quarters. By the direction of that Providence in which he so implicitly believed, every treasonable and personally inimical element in the nation became his ally. Mr. Vallandigham had returned to the country before his time; and the President permitted him to remain, unmolested. He became one of the pets of his party; and, attending the Chicago Convention as a delegate, was chosen chairman of the committee on resolutions. Governor Seymour of New York, his sympathizing friend, was the president of the convention. Congressman Long of Ohio was also there, with a full representation of all those who had, from the first, opposed the war, and sympathized with the rebellion. The platform adopted was composed largely of negations, touching the policy of the administration; but one thing it distinctly demanded, viz: "a cessation of hostilities." The candidates nominated were General George B. McClellan for President, and George H. Pendleton of Ohio for Vice-President. General McClellan was nominally a war democrat, and Mr. Pendleton really a peace democrat. Both wings of the party were thus accommodated, while the platform was all that the most extreme of peace men could ask. But the convention did not dissolve; it adjourned, "subject to be called at any time and place that the executive national committee shall designate." The act was a threat, and betrayed the entertainment of possibilities and incidental purposes not entirely creditable to the patriotism of the convention. Mr. Vallandigham's tongue was busy, in and out of the convention. He was treated as a man who had suffered persecution for the sake of democratic truth. He moved that the nomination of McClellan be made unanimous. He was active in all the affairs of the occasion; and he did more than any other man to destroy the prospects of the democratic party.
The spirit manifested by the demagogues who managed this convention, was not the spirit of the people, and not the spirit of the democratic masses. The majority of the democratic party had supported the war. Many of the best officers in the army were democrats, thoroughly devoted to the destruction of the rebellion by military means. The voice of the convention was, that all that had been expended in the war, of life and treasure, should be declared a waste. The best illustration of the spirit of the convention was found in the fact that, when it was announced that Fort Morgan had surrendered, the news fell upon it like a pall. It awoke no cheers; and was so evidently unwelcome intelligence, although a great national success, that the masses of the party were disgusted.
Whatever may have been the acts, intentions and spirit of the convention, this one thing was certain: that, from the time of its adjournment, no sensible politician had any doubt of the overwhelming triumph of the administration in the election. The cloud was lifted from the republican party at once; and the democratic leaders themselves, though they relaxed no effort, confessed that they were beaten, almost from the start.
On the twenty-third of September, Mr. Blair retired from the cabinet, in consequence of an intimation from the President that his retirement would be a relief to him. It will be remembered that the Baltimore platform contained a resolution which was intended to indicate a desire on the part of the convention that Mr. Blair should leave the cabinet; but Mr. Lincoln did not, probably, have any reference to this resolution in his action. Mr. Blair had made an excellent Postmaster-general--one of the very best who had administered the affairs of his department; and it was Mr. Lincoln's policy to adhere to his friends, and especially to those who did their duty. But there was a difficulty between Mr. Blair and Henry Winter Davis of Maryland, which, in Mr. Lincoln's judgment, endangered the adoption of the free state constitution in that commonwealth. He could solve the difficulty, and help the cause, by permitting Mr. Blair, whose resignation had been in his hands for months, to retire. The President and the Secretary parted excellent friends; and Mr. Lincoln showed his good will toward the retiring officer, by appointing to his place ex-Governor William Dennison of Ohio, one of Mr. Blair's most intimate personal and family friends.
A few days before this change in the cabinet, Mr. Lincoln wrote a letter to a convention of the friends of the new constitution in Maryland, held in Baltimore on the eighteenth of September, in which he expressed his earnest solicitude for its adoption. "It needs not be a secret," said he, "and I presume it is no secret, that I wish success to this provision." (The provision extinguishing slavery). "I desire it on every consideration. I wish to see all men free. I wish the national prosperity of the already free, which I feel sure the extinction of slavery would bring." The event he so much desired was consummated by a popular vote, on the eighth and ninth of October; and the President was serenaded by the loyal Marylanders in Washington, as an expression of their satisfaction and their congratulations. Mr. Lincoln responded with a speech. An extract will show something of the subjects of public discussion at the time, as well as reveal the President's relation to them:
   "Something said by the Secretary of State, in his recent speech at Auburn, has been construed by some into a threat that, if I shall be beaten at the election, I will, between then and the constitutional end of my term, do what I may be able, to ruin the government. Others regard the fact that the Chicago Convention adjourned not sine die, but to meet again, if called to do so by a particular individual, as the intimation of a purpose that, if their nominee shall be elected, he will at once seize control of the government. I hope the good people will permit themselves to suffer no uneasiness on either point. I am struggling to maintain the government, not to overthrow it. I am struggling specially to prevent others from overthrowing it. I, therefore, say that, if I live, I shall remain President until the fourth of next March, and that whoever shall be constitutionally elected in November shall be duly installed as President on the fourth of March; and, in the interval, I shall do my utmost that whoever is to hold the helm for the next voyage, shall start with the best possible chance of saving the ship."
The October elections indicated the inevitable result of the presidential canvass; and the successful movements of the armies confirmed the prospects of Mr. Lincoln's signal triumph. The efforts of the rebels south of the Union lines, and over the Canada boundary, to assist the peace party, and furnish capital for its operations, aided by organizations of disloyal elements within the loyal states, not only failed of their object, but helped to rally the popular feeling to the side of the administration.
An unpleasant incident of the canvass was the result of an interview between Mr. Lincoln and a committee of the opposition party in Tennessee. Andrew Johnson, the present President of the United States, was then military governor of that state; and under his sanction a convention was called, to reorganize the state, that it might take a part in the presidential election. This convention prescribed the form of an oath, that the body deemed proper for those to take who desired to vote. Governor Johnson ordered the election to be held, in accordance with the plan of the convention; and adopted its oath. The oath was one which no heartily loyal man would refuse to take, unless he should object to the following clause: "I will cordially oppose all armistices and negotiations for peace with rebels in arms, until the Constitution of the United States, and all laws and proclamations made in pursuance thereof, shall be established over all the people of every state and territory, embraced within the national Union." No man, of course, who heartily believed in the peace doctrine of the Chicago platform could take the oath; and there were evidently many men in Tennessee who would not subscribe to another clause--men who could not heartily say: "I sincerely rejoice in the triumph of the armies and navies of the United States."
Against this oath, a committee of General McClellan's friends protested; and they bore their protest to the President. Mr. Lincoln did not receive the paper good-naturedly. He undoubtedly regarded it as an attempt to get him into difficulty, and to make political capital against him. He had no faith in the genuine loyalty of the men who would not take the oath. He furthermore felt that it was a matter with which he had no right to interfere, and believed it to be one which Mr. John Lellyett, the bearer of the protest, knew he would not undertake to control. Under these circumstances, and in the condition of nervous and mental irritability, to which all the latter part of his life was subject, he save a reply which was not at all in his usual manner, and which pained his friends quite as much as it rejoiced his foes. The answer, as reported by Mr. Lellyett, was: "I expect to let the friends of George B. McClellan manage their side of this contest in their own way, and I will manage my side of it in my way." The committee asked for an answer in writing. "Not now," replied Mr. Lincoln. "Lay those papers down here. I will give no other answer now. I may or may not write something about this hereafter. I know you intend to make a point of this. But go ahead; you have my answer."
Now this was unquestionably an undignified and injudicious reply--one which the people would not receive with any consideration of the irritable mood in which it was uttered, or the provocation, real or supposed, which inspired it. Under date of October twenty-second, he made a reply in writing. His conclusion was that he could have nothing to do with the matter. The action of the convention and of Governor Johnson was nothing which had been inspired by the national Executive. The Governor, he believed, had the right to favor any plan he might choose to favor, which had been adopted by the loyal citizens of Tennessee; and the President could not see, in the plan adopted, "any menace, or violence, or coercion towards anyone." If the people should vote for president, under this plan, it would neither belong to the President, nor yet to the military Governor of Tennessee, to say whether the vote should be received and counted, but to a department of the government to which, under the Constitution, it was given, to decide. So, "except to give protection against violence," he declined to have anything to do with any presidential election. The result was the withdrawal of the McClellan ticket in that state, and renewed charges against the President of interfering in elections, with which he had thus refused to interfere.
No headway could be made, however, against Mr. Lincoln. The issue was too plain. Yet it is but just to say that it is doubtful whether the success of the McClellan ticket would have produced an immediate armistice. Results in a military point of view were too plainly in our hands, and the country was too thoroughly committed to the war for the re-establishment of the Union, to permit so disgraceful and ruinous a proceeding. But the democratic party had consented to place itself in the position it occupied, for the sake of winning power; and, when the people saw such men as Wood, and Long, and Pendleton, and Vallandigham, all pushing the fortunes of the democratic candidate, they lost faith in the party, and determined to support the administration, its policy, and its candidates. In the meantime, Grant, Sherman and Sheridan were leading on their victorious armies, and the political voice of these armies was almost unanimous for the republican nominees.
Before taking leave of the canvass, to record its results, it is simple justice to Mr. Lincoln to place by the side of the Tennessee case, his call for five hundred thousand men, made on the eighteenth of July, to be drafted after the fifth of September, if they should not be furnished previous to that date. His friends urged that the measure would be unpopular, and that it might cost him his election. His reply to every representation of this kind was that the men were needed, that it was his duty to call for them, and that he should call for them, whatever the effect might be upon himself. Does any one believe that a man who could treat a great question like this so nobly and patriotically, would busy himself with small politics in Tennessee, or connive with any small politicians there, in a scheme for cheating patriotic men out of votes, for his own advantage?
The day of election came at last, and resulted in an overwhelming majority of votes for Abraham Lincoln. Every state that voted, except three, gave majorities for the republican candidate, and two of these three were old slave states--Kentucky and Delaware. Only New Jersey among the northern states gave its vote for McClellan. West Virginia, Tennessee, Arkansas, and Louisiana supported Mr. Lincoln. The time had come, at last, of which he had spoken in Cooper Institute, more than four years before, when the republican party had ceased to be sectional, by obtaining support in the southern states. Mr. Lincoln's clear popular majority was 411,428, in a total vote of 4,015,902, which secured 212 of the 233 votes in the electoral college.
The President might well feel gratified with this result. His policy, motives, character and achievements had received the emphatic approval of the American people. "I am thankful to God for this approval of the people," said he, on the night of his election, to a band of Pennsylvanians who had called upon him; and he added: "But, while deeply grateful for this mark of their confidence in me, if I know my heart, my gratitude is free from any taint of personal triumph. I do not impugn the motives of anyone opposed to me. It is no pleasure to me to triumph over any one; but I give thanks to the Almighty for this evidence of the people's resolution to stand by free government, and the rights of humanity."
The election proved more than Mr. Lincoln's popularity; and this he understood. In subsequent remarks to the friendly political clubs of the District, he said: "It has demonstrated that a people's government can sustain a national election in the midst of a great civil war. Until now, it has not been known to the world that this was a possibility. It shows, also, how strong and sound we still are... It shows, also, to the extent yet known, that we have more men now, than we had when the war began. Gold is good in its place; but living, brave and patriotic men are better than gold." To a friend he said: "Being only mortal, after all, I should have been a little mortified if I had been beaten in this canvass before the people; but that sting would have been more than compensated by the thought that the people had notified me that all my official responsibilities were soon to be lifted off my back."
The election of Mr. Lincoln destroyed the last hope of the rebellion. There was to be no change of policy; and none could know better than the rebel leaders that that policy could not be long resisted. These leaders were little inclined to make peace; and it is doubtful whether their people would have permitted them to do so. They had promised their people independence; and the latter had fought with wonderful bravery and persistency for it. There was no way but to fight on, until the inevitable defeat should come.
For many days after the result of the election was known, Mr. Lincoln was burdened with congratulations; and yet, amid these disturbances, and the cares of office, which were onerous in the extreme, he found time to write the following letter:
   "Executive Mansion, Washington, Nov. 21, 1864.
   "Dear Madam:--I have been shown, in the files of the War Department, a statement of the Adjutant-general of Massachusetts, that you are the mother of five sons, who have died gloriously on the field of battle. I feel how weak and fruitless must be any words of mine which should attempt to beguile you from the grief of a loss so overwhelming. But I cannot refrain from tendering to you the consolation that may be found in the thanks of the republic they died to save. I pray that our Heavenly Father may assuage the anguish of your bereavement, and leave you only the cherished memory of the loved and lost, and the solemn pride that must be yours to have laid so costly a sacrifice upon the altar of freedom.
   "Yours very sincerely and respectfully,
   "Abraham Lincoln.
   "To Mrs. Bixby, Boston, Massachusetts."
From the day of the election to the close of the rebellion, the discordant political elements of the northern states subsided into silence and inaction. The election itself was attended with great dignity--almost, indeed, with solemnity. Men felt that they were deciding something more than a party question, and acted with reference to their responsibilities to God and their country. The masses of the democratic party were more than satisfied with the result; and such of their leaders as were thoroughly loyal undoubtedly felt that a victory to them, under all the circumstances, would have been, in many respects, a misfortune. Among the subjects of national thanksgiving on the last Thursday in November--the day of Mr. Lincoln's appointment--certainly the result of the election was not least to be considered, or last to be remembered with devout gratitude.