American History - Part 108 - Lincoln - Lincoln forms new Political Party - Reelected
Channel: ListenAndReadAlong
Date: 21/06/2013

Welcome to THE MAKING OF A NATION -- American history in VOA Special English.
In eighteen sixty-four the Union of northern states and the Confederacy of southern states were still fighting. The Civil War began in eighteen sixty-one.
Each side had its own constitution. Under the Union constitution, Americans were supposed to elect a president every four years. Eighteen sixty-four was such a year. And even though a great civil war was being fought, citizens of the North prepared to choose a leader.
This week in our series, Shep O'Neal and Maurice Joyce tell the story of the election of eighteen sixty-four.
    Abraham Lincoln was completing his first term as president. He hoped to lead the nation for another four years. He wanted to win the war between the states.  He wanted to re-build the Union.
Lincoln's Republican Party was divided. Moderate Republicans wanted to re-build the Union as soon as the war ended. They believed southern states should be welcomed back with full rights. Radical Republicans disagreed strongly. They demanded severe punishment for the southern rebels.
    For many months, President Lincoln worked to build a political majority. He formed a new group called the National Union Party. It included moderate Republicans and some Democrats.
Lincoln succeeded in gaining the support of state and local political leaders. It soon became clear that Lincoln would be the party's presidential candidate in the election.
    Several hundred radical Republicans held their own convention in Cleveland, Ohio. They formed a new political party called the Radical Democracy. They nominated explorer John Fremont as their candidate for the national election. Fremont had been the Republican presidential candidate eight years earlier.
Most of the radical Republicans in Congress did not take part in the convention in Cleveland. They refused to support Fremont.  They felt he had no chance to win the election.
    President Lincoln's new National Union Party held its convention in Baltimore, Maryland.  Convention delegates quickly approved a party statement. The statement supported the Union and the war.  It opposed slavery.
Delegates then were ready to nominate their candidates for president and vice president.  On the first ballot, they chose Lincoln to run again.  And they chose Democrat Andrew Johnson of Tennessee to run as vice president.
    When the people voted in November, their choice was between Abraham Lincoln and George McClellan.
A vote for Lincoln meant a vote for continuing the Civil War until it was won. Until the Union was saved.  A vote for McClellan meant a vote for stopping the war. Stopping short of victory.
By midnight of election day, it was clear that Lincoln had won. He got only about a half-million more popular votes than McClellan. But when electoral votes were counted, he got two hundred twelve to McClellan's twenty-one.
    Before Lincoln's second inaugural, he agreed to hold peace talks with representatives of the Confederacy.  The talks would be held at a Union fort on the Chesapeake Bay.
Lincoln was very firm in one demand. The talks, he said, must discuss peace for "our one common country."  There could be no talk, he said, of Confederate independence.
The Confederate representatives said they could not accept those terms. The peace talks ended in failure.
    On March fourth, eighteen sixty-five, Abraham Lincoln was sworn-in as president for a second term. This is part of what he   "On this occasion four years ago, all thoughts were directed to a coming Civil War.  All feared it.  All tried to prevent it.  Both parties opposed war.  But one of them would make war rather than let the nation live.  And the other would accept war, rather than let it die.  And the war came.
"We hope -- and we pray -- that this terrible war may pass away quickly. But God may wish it otherwise. He may have it continue until the riches earned from two hundred fifty years of slavery are gone.  It may continue until every drop of blood made by the slaveowner's whip is paid for by another made by the soldier's sword.
"With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right -- as God gives us to see the right -- let us strive on to finish the work we are in. Let us heal the nation's wounds.  Let us do all possible to get and keep a just and lasting peace among ourselves and with all nations."
    That night, the White House was open to the public.  Thousands of people went to see the president. Poet Walt Whitman gave this des  "I saw Mr. Lincoln, dressed all in black.  He was shaking hands, looking very sad, as if he would give anything to be somewhere else."
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