1864 United States presidential election

Presidential electoral votes by state.

Abraham Lincoln, the Republican running on a coalition ticket, won by a landslide over the Democratic candidate, George B. McClellan.

It was conducted during the Civil War, and as such the Confederate states did not participate. Republicans across the country were jittery over the summer, but that was before the Democrats had to confront their severe, internal strains at their convention. 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. The Lincoln/Johnson ticket ran with the slogan “Don't change horses in the middle of a stream.” The Republican party name was changed to Union, to appeal to War Democrats; the new named vanished after the election. Johnson, however, never became a Republican.

The Republican/Union party made an all-out effort, ridiculing McClellan for his pacifist platform, and denouncing Democrats as traitorous Copperheads. 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.

Nominations

"National Union Party" nomination

Abraham Lincoln was renominated by the Republican Party, which changed its name for the 1864 election to the "National Union Party”. Lincoln's nomination was not unanimous, however, as 22 disgruntled opponents of Lincoln voted for Ulysses S. Grant, who was not a candidate. Seeing an opportunity to work with the War Democrats under the Union banner, the convention nominated Governor Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, a War Democrat, as Lincoln's running mate over incumbent Vice President Hannibal Hamlin and three other War Democrats - former New York Senator Daniel S. Dickinson, Buchanan cabinet member Joseph Holt and General Ben Butler.

File:~mccl2.jpg

National Union (Republican) Party poster for Pennsylvania in 1864

Democratic Party nomination

The Democratic Party was bitterly split between the War Democrats and the anti-war Copperheads. The compromise was to nominate pro-war General George B. McClellan along with an anti-war platform. McClellan defeated Horatio Seymour and others for the nomination; he and ticketmate George H. Pendleton were nominated on a peace platform—a platform McClellan personally rejected.

General election

The 1864 election was the first time since 1812 that a presidential election took place during a war. McClellan's chances of victory faded after Union victories in Georgia and Virginia, followed by the withdrawal of John C. Fremont's independent candidacy for President.

A foretaste of the national election came in the state elections held in the months prior to the presidential election. In these six state elections (Oregon on 6/5, Vermont on 9/6, Maine on 9/11, Ohio and Pennsylvania on 10/10, and West Virginia on 10/26), the Union Republican Party won a sweeping victory. These six states elected 44 Union Republicans in U.S. House races, compared to just 10 Democrats, for a net gain of 18 seats for the Union Republicans. The stage had been set for Lincoln.

Results

Only 24 states participated, because 11 had seceded from the Union and were currently in a state of rebellion. 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.

Electoral results

Presidential candidate	Party	Home state	Popular vote(a)		Electoral vote(a), (b)	Running mate
			Count	Percentage		Vice-presidential candidate	Home state	Electoral vote(a), (b)
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. Retrieved July 27, 2005. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |access-date= (help)

Source (Electoral Vote): "Electoral College Box Scores 1789–1996". National Archives and Records Administration. Retrieved July 31, 2005. {{cite web}}: Check date values in: |access-date= (help)

^(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 Republicans did not run a presidential candidate in 1864 but formed the National Union Party to accommodate the War Democrats.

References

• 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

• American election campaigns in the 19th century
• History of the United States (1849–1865)
• Third Party System

External links

• 1864 popular vote by counties
• 1864 State-by-state popular results
• Transcript of the 1864 Democratic Party Platform