The Montgomery advertiser., 1908-09-10

It fs difficult for thfs generation, ac- knowledging Abraham Lincoln as one of the greatest of men and as great est leader of the Republican party. to realize the fact that he won his nomination and reelection to the Presidency in 1864 over the greatest obstacles. Practically every leader In the Republican party was opposed to Iincoln's renomination. Nearly every prominent Republican in the country believed that Lincoln could not defeat General Mcclellan If he were renorni- mated But the people of the whole North rose up in their might ran rouEh-sho cd over the politicians and in- structed their delegates to vote for -Old Abe"
 Months after the nomination was made 1t seemed certain that McClel- len would be elected The Republican campaign leaders gave up hope and Lincoln himself admitted defeat. Two months before the election the tide turned the other way, thanks to Democratic blunder and victory won by the Union armies in the South.
 The Democratic party had been wonderful political machine and had dominated the country for sixty years. It had been more powerful in the North than in the South for a goodly portion of that six decades. It was too strong in the North to de In brief four years. So greatly did the Republican organization fear 1t, not wtfhstanding It's broken condition. that the Republican leaders deliberately ab- 3ured their party name and called national -Union" convention to meet at Baltimore early in June. The Un- ioua marty tt was that renomtnated Lincoln. not the Republican.
 The Democrats of the States remain ing fin the Union were divided into two carnps---war Democrats and Peace Democrats. Both factions were ratnsE freq with their criticism of Lincolnts administration, but neither could say the hard things that the Radical Re- puhlicans" were saying. The Peace Democrats were those who believed In letting the Southern States go. or Tn anything to bring peace. They were all accused, and many were guilty, or being in sympathy with the Confeder- ates. They were the "dough-faces who had supported Pierce and Buch . anan and Breclxinridge in the past. They were now the hated and despised scopperheads." One of the more pleas ant Republican campaign songs of the period was:
 A0f all the factious men we've seen. Exixting now or long since dead, No one was ever known so mean, < As him we call a Copperhead. {. A draft -evading Copperh cad,
 A rebel-aiding Copperhead.
 A scowling. slandering, bowling pan
 dering,
 vicious. States-riRhts' copperhead."
 If the copperheads were hated, they were not so dangerous to Lincoln po- IiticaIly as the ''radicals" of his own party. He knew where to place the copperheads. but it was hard for him to fight the radicals like Fremont Thad Stevens. Ben Wade and others of that fix who were opposed to him because he would not agree to the con- fascation of all private property in the South. It was even more difficult for lincoln to meet the determined oppo- X ;tion of men Nike salmon P. Chase,
 lIiam H. Seward and Edwin Nj. .ax Soston who held him in i'll concealed contempt. And 1t was painful to Lin- coin to see men like Horace Greeley and Charles Sumner openly oppose his renomination on the ground that he could not possibly be elected.
 The Radical Republicans" held a national mass convention at Cleveland