Figure 1.--While the Democrats and McClellen offered a program of compromise with the South, the Republican platform stressed both union and an end to slavery. Famed illustrator Thomas Nast drew a two page spread comparing the Reoublican and Democratic platform. In the pannel here published in "Harpers Illustrated Weekly" he powerfully illustrates what the Democrats meant when they offered in their platform to maintain "the rights of the states unimpaired".

The 1864 presidential election settled the fate of the Union. The Republican renominated President Lincoln. He ran on the Union ticket with a Democrat, Andrew Johnson as his vice president. The platform stressed union and an end to slavery. The Democrats nominated former General George B. McClellan, who Linclon relieved after Antitem. The Democrats offered an end to the War by compromising with the South. Their platform offered to return to a Union with the "rights of the states unimpaired". This meant reinstituting slavery. McClelan would have ended the War and would have rescended the Emancipation Proclamation, believing that this would bring the Southern states back in the Union. Battlefield losses and the success of the Federal naval blockade had by 1864 reached a level that the Confederacy could no longer hope to win the War militarily. That was not as apparent to the northern public as it is to us today armed with the benefits of hinesight. The terrible war losses were telling. Anti-war feeling grew in the north. There were draft riots in New York in which the rioters attacked Blacks, including orphans. The Confederacy's only hope was to draw out the War hoping that the northern public would not have the stmoache to sustain the War. The Democratic candidate, General George McClellan was clearly willing to come to terms with the Confederacy. It looked like Lincoln would lose the election. Lincoln was sure that he and the Republicans would lose the electiion. The costly Wilderness campaihn (1864) did not help the situation. One telling incident into Lincoln's soul was in the dark days of mid 1864 when it looked like his re-election was lost, he called in Stephen Douglas to organize a secret mission behind Southern lines to encourage slaves to escape to the North while it was still possible. Sherman after an extended, bloody campasign, finally took Atlanta (September 3), weeks before the election. This seems to have turned the tide of public opinion in the North and Lincoln was elected with a mandate he needed to achieve victory on the battlefield. Lincoln's reelection doomed the Confederacy and sealed the Federal Government's commitment to both emancipation and the pursuit of the War to final victory.

Created: 2:23 AM 4/1/2007
Last updated: 2:23 AM 4/1/2007