United States presidential election, 1864
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‹ 1860  1868 › |
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| United States presidential election, 1864 | ||||
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| November 8, 1864 | ||||
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| Nominee | Abraham Lincoln | George B. McClellan | ||
| Party | National Union Party | Democratic | ||
| Home state | Illinois | New Jersey | ||
| Running mate | Andrew Johnson | George Hunt Pendleton | ||
| Electoral vote | 212 | 24 | ||
| States carried | 22 | 4 | ||
| Popular vote | 2,218,388 | 1,812,807 | ||
| Percentage | 55.0% | 45.0% | ||
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| Presidential election results map. Red denotes states won by Lincoln/Johnson, blue denotes those won by McClellan/Pendleton, and brown denotes Confederate States. Numbers indicate the number of electoral votes allotted to each state. | ||||
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Incumbent President President-elect |
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In the United States Presidential election of 1864, Abraham Lincoln was re-elected as president. Lincoln ran under the National Union banner against his former top Civil War general, the Democratic candidate, George B. McClellan. McClellan was the "peace candidate" but did not personally believe in his party's platform.
The election of 1864 was conducted during the Civil War, and as such, none of the states controlled by governments loyal to the Confederate States of America participated.
Republicans loyal to Lincoln, in opposition to a group of Republican dissidents who nominated John C. Frémont, joined with a number of War Democrats to form the National Union Party. The new political party was formed to accommodate the War Democrats.
On November 8, Lincoln won by over 400,000 popular votes and easily clinched an electoral majority. Several states allowed their citizens serving as soldiers in the field to cast ballots, a first in United States history. Soldiers in the Army gave Lincoln more than 70% of their vote.
Contents |
[edit] National Union Party nomination
National Union candidate:
- Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States from Illinois
[edit] Candidates gallery
Before the election, the War Democrats joined the Republicans to form the National Union Party.[1] With the outcome of the Civil War still in doubt, some political leaders, including Salmon Chase, Benjamin Wade, and Horace Greeley, opposed Lincoln's renomination on the ground that he could not win. But Lincoln was still popular with his supporters and the National Union Party nominated Lincoln for a second term as president.[2]
Lincoln, dissatisfied with Radical Republican Vice President Hannibal Hamlin, had the convention nominate Military-Governor Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, a War Democrat, as his running mate. Johnson was ideally suited to run as a vice presidential candidate with Lincoln in 1864. He had strongly supported the Union, he was a Southerner, and he was a leading member of the War Democrats.[3] Andrew Johnson was nominated over three other War Democrats - former New York Senator Daniel S. Dickinson, Buchanan cabinet member Joseph Holt, and General Ben Butler.
| Presidential Ballot | ||
| Ballot | 1st Before Shifts | 1st After Shifts |
|---|---|---|
| Abraham Lincoln | 494 | 516 |
| Ulysses S. Grant | 22 | 0 |
| Not Voting | 3 | 3 |
Source: US President - R Convention. Our Campaigns. (April 2, 2009).
| Vice Presidential Ballot | ||
| Ballot | 1st | 2nd |
|---|---|---|
| Andrew Johnson | 200 | 492 |
| Hannibal Hamlin | 150 | 9 |
| Daniel Dickinson | 108 | 17 |
| Benjamin Butler | 28 | 0 |
| Lovell Rousseau | 21 | 0 |
| Schuyler Colfax | 6 | 0 |
| Ambrose Burnside | 2 | 0 |
| Joseph Holt | 2 | 0 |
| Preston King | 1 | 0 |
| David Tod | 1 | 1 |
Source: US Vice President - R Convention. Our Campaigns. (April 2, 2009).
[edit] Democratic Party nomination
Democratic candidates:
- George B. McClellan, Army major general from New Jersey
- Thomas H. Seymour, former U.S. representative from Connecticut
[edit] Candidates gallery
The Democratic Party was bitterly split between the War Democrats and the Peace Democrats. Also making matters complicated were the factions that existed among the Peace Democrats. Moderate Peace Democrats who supported the war against the Confederacy, such as Horatio Seymour, were preaching the wisdom of a negotiated peace. After Gettysburg, when it was clear the South could no longer win the war, moderate Peace Democrats proposed a negotiated peace that would secure Union victory. They believed this was the best course of action because an armistice could finish the war without finishing the South.[4] Radical Peace Democrats known as Copperheads, such as Thomas H. Seymour, declared the war to be a failure and favored an immediate end to hostilities without securing Union victory.[5]
Since the Democrats were divided by issues of war and peace, they sought a strong candidate who could unify the party. The compromise was to nominate pro-war General George B. McClellan for president and anti-war Representative George H. Pendleton for vice president. McClellan, a War Democrat, was nominated over Thomas H. Seymour, a Copperhead. The convention then adopted a peace platform[6] — a platform McClellan personally rejected.[7] McClellan supported the continuation of the war and restoration of the Union, but the party platform, written by Copperhead Clement Vallandigham, was opposed to this position.
| Presidential Ballot | ||||
| Ballot | 1st Before Shifts | 1st After Shifts | ||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| George B. McClellan | 174 | 202.5 | ||
| Thomas H. Seymour | 38 | 23.5 | ||
| Horatio Seymour | 12 | 0 | ||
| Abstaining | 1.5 | 0 | ||
| Charles O'Conor | 0.5 | 0 | ||
| Vice Presidential Ballot | ||
| Ballot | 1st Before Shifts | 1st After Shifts |
|---|---|---|
| George H. Pendleton | 55.5 | 226 |
| James Guthrie | 65.5 | 0 |
| Lazarus W. Powell | 32.5 | 0 |
| George W. Cass | 26 | 0 |
| John D. Caton | 16 | 0 |
| Daniel W. Voorhees | 13 | 0 |
| Augustus C. Dodge | 9 | 0 |
| John S. Phelps | 8 | 0 |
| Abstaining | 0.5 | 0 |
[edit] General election
The 1864 election was the first time since 1812 that a presidential election took place during a war. For much of 1864, Lincoln himself believed he had little chance of being re-elected. Confederate forces had triumphed at the Battle of Mansfield, the Battle of the Crater, and the Battle of Cold Harbor. In addition, the war was continuing to take a very high toll. The prospect of a long and bloody war started to make the idea of "peace at all cost" offered by the Copperheads look more desirable. Because of this, McClellan was thought to be a heavy favorite to win the election.
However, several political and military events made Lincoln's re-election inevitable. First, the Democrats had to confront the severe internal strains within their party at the Democratic National Convention. The political compromises made at the Democratic National Convention were contradicting and made McClellan's campaign inconsistent and difficult. Finally, with William Tecumseh Sherman marching inexorably toward Atlanta and Ulysses S. Grant pushing Lee into the outer defenses of Richmond, it became increasingly obvious that a Union military victory was inevitable and close at hand. The Lincoln/Johnson ticket ran with the slogan “Don't change horses in the middle of a stream.” McClellan's chances of victory faded even more after John C. Frémont's withdrew from the presidential race as the Radical Republican Party candidate. Frémont abandoned his political campaign in September 1864, after he brokered a political deal in which Lincoln removed U.S. Postmaster General Montgomery Blair from office.
[edit] Results
Only 24[citation needed] states participated, because 11 had declared a secession from the Union and claimed to have formed their own nation: the Confederate States of America (CSA). Three new states participated for the first time: Nevada, West Virginia, and Kansas. The reconstructed portions of Tennessee and Louisiana elected presidential Electors, although Congress did not count their votes.
| Presidential candidate | Party | Home state | Popular vote(a) | Electoral vote(a), (b) |
Running mate | Running mate's home state |
Running mate's electoral vote(a), (b) |
|
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Count | Pct | |||||||
| Abraham Lincoln | National Union(c) | Illinois | 2,218,388 | 55.0% | 212 | Andrew Johnson(c) | Tennessee | 212 |
| George Brinton McClellan | Democratic | New Jersey | 1,812,807 | 45.0% | 21 | George Hunt Pendleton | Ohio | 21 |
| Other | 692 | 0.0% | – | Other | – | |||
| Total | 4,031,887 | 100% | 233 | 233 | ||||
| Needed to win | 117 | 117 | ||||||
Source (Popular Vote): Leip, David. 1864 Presidential Election Results. Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections (July 27, 2005). Source (Electoral Vote): Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996. Official website of the National Archives. (July 31, 2005).
(a) The states in rebellion did not participate in the election of 1864.
(b) One Elector from Nevada did not vote
(c) Andrew Johnson had been a Democrat, and after 1869 was a Democrat. The Republican Party called itself the National Union Party to accommodate the War Democrats in this election.
[edit] Close states
Red font color denotes states won by Republican Abraham Lincoln; blue denotes those won by Democrat George B. McClellan.
States where the margin of victory was under 5% (68 electoral votes)
- New York 0.92%
- Connecticut 2.76%
- Pennsylvania 3.51%
- Delaware 3.62%
[edit] See also
- American election campaigns in the 19th century
- Electoral history of Abraham Lincoln
- History of the United States (1849–1865)
- Third Party System
- United States House elections, 1864
[edit] References
- Leip, Dave. "1864 Presidential Election - Home States". Dave Leip's Atlas of U.S. Presidential Elections. http://www.uselectionatlas.org/USPRESIDENT/home.php?year=1864&f=0. Retrieved on January 11 2009.
- Harold M. Dudley. "The Election of 1864," Mississippi Valley Historical Review, Vol. 18, No. 4 (Mar., 1932), pp. 500-518 full text in JSTOR
- David E. Long. Jewel of Liberty: Abraham Lincoln's Re-election and the End of Slavery (1994)
- Merrill, Louis Taylor. "General Benjamin F. Butler in the Presidential Campaign of 1864." Mississippi Valley Historical Review 33 (March 1947): 537-70 full text in JSTOR
- Nelson, Larry E. Bullets, Ballots, and Rhetoric: Confederate Policy for the United States Presidential Contest of 1864 University of Alabama Press, 1980.
- Nevins, Allan. Ordeal of the Union: The War for the Union vol 8 (1971)
- Randall, James G. and Richard N. Current. Lincoln the President: Last Full Measure. Vol. 4 of Lincoln the President. 1955.
- Vorenberg, Michael. "'The Deformed Child': Slavery and the Election of 1864" Civil War History 2001 47(3): 240-257. ISSN 0009-8078 full text in JSTOR
- Jack Waugh Reelecting Lincoln: The Battle for the 1864 Presidency (1998), a popular study
- White, Jonathan W. "Canvassing the Troops: the Federal Government and the Soldiers' Right to Vote" Civil War History 2004 50(3): 291-317. ISSN 0009-8078
[edit] Notes
- ^ World Book
- ^ The Complete Book of U.S. Presidents
- ^ World Book
- ^ They Also Ran
- ^ The American Pageant
- ^ 1864 Democratic Platform
- ^ "George B. McClellan". Ohio History Central. http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/entry.php?rec=258. Retrieved on 2007-03-06.
[edit] External links
- 1864 popular vote by counties
- 1864 State-by-state popular results
- Transcript of the 1864 Democratic Party Platform
- Harper's Weekly - Overview
- more from Harper's Weekly
- How close was the 1864 election? - Michael Sheppard, Michigan State University
- Abraham Lincoln: A Resource Guide from the Library of Congress
[edit] Navigation
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