1864 United States Presidential Election (Brothers No More)

The United States Presidential Election of 1864, the 20th U.S. presidential election, was held on November 8, 1864. Held during the Civil War, this election was an important referendum on the ongoing war effort. Initially, Republican/National Union candidate Abraham Lincoln looked certain to win, but the increasing failures of the Union war efforts gave George McClellan a chance. In the end, Lincoln won by a small margin and went on to oversee the final surrender of the Union.

Background
This election was held in the midst of the American Civil War/War of Southern Independence, and was thus extremely important in determining the Union's war strategy moving forward. At first, it was not even certain that this election would take place. The Union was not faring particularly well in the war, and it was thought that an election at such a fragile time could hurt the war effort even more. Lincoln eventually decided to move forward with the election, to avoid looking like a tyrant and because he was afraid that not holding the election would make the U.S. look desperate.

The Republican Party re-branded itself as the National Union Party for this election, in an effort to attract war Democrats to their cause. To this end, they nominated the Democrat Andrew Johnson as vice president (replacing Hannibal Hamlin). Lincoln's nomination was never in doubt, despite the state of the war.

The Democrats, on the other hand, did not initially see much of a chance of winning the election. They decided to campaign on a promise of making peace with the Confederacy, and nominated General George B. McClellan to add legitimacy to their cause. Representative George H. Pendleton of Ohio was nominated as his running mate.

The Campaign
Not much actual campaigning was done by either side. Few promotional pamphlets could be produced, as materials were needed for the war. As most capable men were fighting in the war, there weren't many people on the ground to promote either candidate. Lincoln was totally focused on the war effort and did not even consider giving any campaign speeches, besides those given on the battlefield in front of the army. McClellan did travel around a bit, but even this was difficult due to the presence of Confederate armies in Pennsylvania and Maryland. Trains, like the ones that McClellan would travel in, were often stopped and sometimes raided by Confederate troops.

Lincoln was at first perceived to be far ahead of McClellan, as most people were still supportive of his efforts leading the war. Most believed that they needed continuity of leadership in such uncertain times. However, as Union armies lost battle after battle, and the Confederate armies moved further north, and the blockade against the South was broken up by France, citizens began to lose faith in their president. McClellan's promise of immediate surrender suddenly seemed very attractive, even to the voters on the battlefield.

In the last two months before the election, McClellan rapidly gained popularity. Every lost battle was another reason to cast a vote in his name. Every lost son and husband was another reason to shun the Republican Party forever. While he knew that defeat was now a very real possibility, Lincoln refused to campaign. He continued to focus wholly on the war.

Election Results and Aftermath
By election day, the election was considered a toss-up. Once the votes were counted, it was about as close as everyone thought it would be.

By a margin of 30 electoral votes and 22,000 popular votes, Abraham Lincoln won a second term. The election ended up coming down to a thin margin in New York; if McClellan had won just 5,000 more votes there, he would've been the victor.

At his inaugural address in March, President Lincoln promised to fight the war until its finish. Already, many Republican voters were regretting their choice. It was said that if this election had been held in March, or even in December instead of November, McClellan would have won. Just two months after Lincoln promised to fight until the end, the Union was forced to surrender. The country was devastated, and naturally a lot of the blame found its way to the president. Lincoln tried to comfort the mourning nation, but he found that anything he did was now universally reviled by the public. People couldn't wait until the next election so they could throw Lincoln out of office and give the nation a fresh start. For the rest of his term, Lincoln sank into a depression of his own and didn't do much except make appointments and sign procedural papers.