El Paso herald. (El Paso, Tex.) 1901-1931, 1912-06-10
vTASHINGTON, D. c. June 10
AZ The renomination Of Abraham
v Lincoln v-az not accOmDIfshad
LINCOLN'S

without difficulty. and. as Lincoln MIN
self said at the time, 1T is one thins
to nominate and another to elect The
nomination of Gen. George B. Nc
I Clellan as tie Democratic candidate
Z against Lincoln in 1864 was made With
I out difficulty. but the same cOnven-
riOn that nominated him destroyed his
l chances Of election by adopting pat
Z form thau declared, in effect, tine war
| IS failure.
Lincoln was frankly a candidate Tor
! denomination, and said that he didn't
I think it was good policy 70 swap
/ horses in the middle Of stream. He
/ was opposed openly or secretly Dy
] nearly every leader Of prominence in
I the Republican party Seward, Chase
I and Stanton, whom he had hOnOred
: above all men, despised him for his
/ humble origin and his unpublished man
3 ner; Greeley and sumner were furious
{ with him because he permitted the war
10 De fought by soldiers and not from
editorial tripods and library desks;
. stevens and Wade hated him because
I he would not aid them in their purpose
] south, as well as the Confederacy;
I Wendell Phillips and the other abOli-
] uonlsts believed him a traitor because
ne did not at once eXtirpate slavery.
Few Leaders Favored Lincoln.
There were few leaders for Lincoln,
nut the plain people he loved so well
were for him, and the politicians could
| not prevail against him And, it must
De said, that Lincoln himself was
something OF a politician.
Inc Democratic party had been in
power Tor 90 years, and during most of
that time il had been stronger in the
north than in the south. Four years,
even four years Of war, were not sui
1lclenL utterly to destroy the Demo-
4 cratic organization in the northern
states. were not sufficient 10 place
the minority Republican party in com
plete control
On WashingtOn's birthday anniver-
sary, 1864, the Republican national
committee issued a call for a national
convention and, at Lincoln's sugges-
ton, abandoned the very name of Re
publican party 1t called a Union /
national convention to meet in Balti-
more on June & To this convention 1
both Republicans and War Democrats {
were invited TO send delegates. it IS
significant that this was she first Hz-
uonal convention in which the dele
gates apportiOned to the states were 4
twice the number Of electoral votes I
a. system now prevailing in both par /
ties
The ultra radical Republicans wers {
oispleased with the nature of this call I
and. becoming convinced that Lincoln /
certainly would be renOminated, they !
sought 10 fOrestall it. They called a I
national convention TO meet in CleVe- I
land a week before the regular Re
publican convention That convention \
nominated John G. Fremont who had
president and John Cochrane for vice
president Three days before the reg
-L-eAA ANNNA -l4aAall EOlLh EAlL4On met Cen 3
fremont accepted this nomination in
a letter IL which he said that under
the Lincoln administration the country
had THE abuses of q military dictator ]
snip, WlthC Ut Its unity Of action au1
vigOr OF execution" He further said ]
that, II lincoln should be renOminated
II would he fatal to the country. The
platform adopted by the radical con-
Fention struck at Lincoln for suspend
ing the habeas corpus. and then sn-
Guided this resolution. That she Con
N srF Hrs. b. =
their distribution among the soldiers
and actual settlers is a measure Of
Justice"
The regular Republican convention.
or strictly speaking, the Union con-
NentiOn, met in Baltimore on Tuesday.
On the Saturday night before. there
was a meeting Of Republican chiefs
ana bigWlgs in New York. at which il
was proposed TO stampede the conven-
Ilon TO Gen. Grant But this could not
De accomplished. and when the con- / q
TentlOn met LincOlu-s nomination was ,
generally conceded. although there /
was strong undercurrent of opDOsf- ,
ION ana rear on the part Of the Lin
I'm 4Sn OF stampede The New
ork Herald correspondent. on the /
ground, said. Were il not for the fact I
tnat nearly tWO-thirds of the cOnven-
Jon are officehOlders, Lincoln could
not be nominated Il was Remarkable [ 2
SudI Praclically every delegate from I 7
New england was a postmaster or a
no1ueE OF some other federal or civil z
ol1lce- And the newspapers Of the OD- I 7
position cat this time they were nearly 2
an OF the oppositiOn) united in de- {
clarlng that the denomination and re- =
election Of Lincoln not only would de- =
sUoy the union, but 10 would work !
ruin ruin and destruction to the whole Re
2 uDIlcan system Of government" q
Many War Democrats.
mere were great many War Demo- { =
-rats In the Baltimore convention and |
49,! CSuteLed shelr opposition TO the i
-snomlnalon of Hannibal Hamlin for / i
ice president, because they thought |
mat the Democrats ought to have 4 [ /
representative on the Union ticket In !
ms they were supported by Mr.. Lin /
ON Irlends, and the result was that | ]
eAuTeW Johnson Of Tennessee. a War /
Jemoerat who had refused to follow l
- slate OUT or the union, was nOmin-
4ted Tor second place on the ticket.
Inc great fight in the convention
'ome on the platform and on the ques- :
ION OF admitting delegates from south
IN states where reconstruction gov il
5rnments had been set up by Lincoln / II
Lnauueus stevens, the leader of the
house OF representatives, a radical and
IN uncOmprOmising foe OF Lincoln. was n
present and fought to the last to have 2,
ne convention repudiate LincOln's =
'cAenle OF reconstruction. Stevens at u
ehpted to induce the convention to "
tQopL resolution declaring that the MI
II states in rebellion were actually and ~
egalIy out of the union, and that the "
'outnern territory held by the federal IT
nllltary forces, was conquered for Z "
-lSn territory. The Lincoln men held =
- the view tuaL mad Deen the uuQues- I 80
Toned Republican doctrine a. the be
sinnlng of the war, that the states nd nj
lot have the right TO secede, and that / =
nerefore, they never were actually out ! al
u the union. stevens was defeated in CT
very test in the convention. but here W
lready was apparent the great strug-
'le that soon was to be precipitatei ! III
etween congress and president John OF
on, but of course, no man then knew 10
ow near was Lincoln's tragic end
Lincoln was nominated in the con- an
ention by a vote of 49T TO % for ht
irant, the Missouri delegation voting D.
or Grant under instructions The u.
otes Of louisiana. Arkansas and Ten III
essee were included in the Lincoln
ote. Johnson was nominated for vice I a
resident on the first ballot
Democrats Name Mcclellan. sN
The Democratic convention met in m
hicago on August %, a date late i'm Ia
he year. Long before the convention II
let it was apparent that the Demo- TO
rats had concentrated upon Gen NC fr
lellan as their candidate. The cam M,
align opened in fact before the Dem -
cratic nomination was made. so GER 20
ain was the country that Mcclellan / at
-Ould be named Al