1864 United States presidential election (A Win Denied)

The 1864 United States presidential election was the 20th quadrennial presidential election. It was held on Tuesday, November 8, 1864. Near the end of the American Civil War, the Democratic nominee, former General George B. McClellan narrowly defeated, incumbent president, Abraham Lincoln of the National Union party and John C. Frémont of the Radical Democracy party by a narrow electoral margin of 119-114, however he lost the popular vote by 4.5%.

Despite some intra-party opposition from Salmon Chase and the Radical Republicans, Lincoln won his party's nomination at the 1864 National Union National Convention. Rather than re-nominate Vice President Hannibal Hamlin, the convention selected Andrew Johnson of Tennessee, a War Democrat, as Lincoln's running mate. John C. Frémont ran as the nominee of the new Radical Democracy Party, which criticized Lincoln for being too moderate on the issue of racial equality. The Democrats were divided between the Copperheads, who favored immediate peace with the Confederacy, and War Democrats, who supported the war. The 1864 Democratic National Convention nominated McClellan, a War Democrat, but adopted a platform advocating peace with the Confederacy, which McClellan rejected. The Confederacy seemed to have survival potential in summer 1864, but was visibly collapsing by election day in November.

McClellan won a close majority in the electoral vote, whilst losing the popular vote to Lincoln by just under 185,000 votes. Lincoln won the popular vote partly as a result of the recent Union victory at the Battle of Atlanta. As the Civil War was still raging, no electoral votes were counted from any of the eleven southern states that had joined the Confederate States of America, had these votes been counted Lincoln would have won the election by a margin of 131-119.

McClellan's victory marked the first time an incumbent president lost the election whilst winning the popular vote, as well as the first time a wartime president did not win re-election. McClellan's victory would be met with protests in Ohio, Pennsylvania, and Maryland, along with minor soldier protests in military-controlled Louisiana and Tennessee cause by the denial of the states' electoral votes.

Background
The 1864 presidential election took place during the American Civil War. According to the Miller Center for the study of the presidency, the election was noteworthy for occurring at all, an unprecedented democratic exercise in the midst of a civil war.

A group of Republican dissidents who called themselves Radical Republicans formed a party named the Radical Democracy Party and nominated John C. Frémont as their candidate for president. In the Border States, War Democrats joined with Republicans as the National Union Party, with Lincoln at the head of the ticket. The National Union Party was a temporary name used to attract War Democrats and Border State Unionists who would not vote for the Republican Party. It faced off against the regular Democratic Party, including Peace Democrats.

Nominations
The 1864 presidential election conventions of the parties are considered below in order of the party's popular vote.

National Union Party nomination
National Union candidates:
 * Abraham Lincoln, President of the United States
 * Ulysses S. Grant, Commanding General from Illinois

Split in the Republican Party
As the Civil War progressed, political opinions within the Republican Party began to diverge. Senators Charles Sumner and Henry Wilson from Massachusetts wanted the Republican Party to advocate constitutional amendments to prohibit slavery and guarantee racial equality before the law. Initially, not all northern Republicans supported such measures.

Democratic leaders hoped that the radical Republicans would put forth their own ticket in the election. The New York World newspaper, particularly interested in undermining the National Union Party, ran a series of articles predicting a delay for the National Union Convention until late in 1864 to allow Frémont time to collect delegates to win the nomination. Frémont supporters in New York City established a newspaper called the New Nation, which declared in one of its initial issues that the National Union Convention would be a "nonentity". The New York World also published false information (further purported by S. Cox) to limit Lincoln's popularity.

National Union Party
Before the election, some War Democrats joined the Republicans to form the National Union Party. With the outcome of the Civil War still in doubt, some political leaders, including Salmon P. Chase, Benjamin Wade, and Horace Greeley, opposed Lincoln's re-nomination on the grounds that he could not win. Chase himself became the only candidate to contest Lincoln's re-nomination actively, but he withdrew in March when a slew of Republican officials, including some within the state of Ohio upon whom Chase's campaign depended, endorsed Lincoln for re-nomination. Lincoln was still popular with most members of the Republican Party, and the National Union Party nominated him for a second term as president at their convention in Philidelphia, Pennslvanyia, on June 7–8, 1864. The party platform included these goals: "pursuit of the war, until the Confederacy surrendered unconditionally; a constitutional amendment for the abolition of slavery; aid to disabled Union veterans; continued European neutrality; enforcement of the Monroe Doctrine; encouragement of immigration; and construction of a transcontinental railroad." It also praised the use of black troops and Lincoln's management of the war.

With incumbent vice president Hannibal Hamlin remaining indifferent about the prospect of a second term in office, Andrew Johnson, the former senator from and current military governor of Tennessee, was named as Lincoln's vice presidential running-mate. He had been governor of Tennessee from 1853 to 1857 and was elected by the legislature to the Senate in 1857. In his congressional service, he sought passage of the Homestead Bill which was enacted soon after he left his Senate seat in 1862. When the Southern slave states, including Tennessee, seceded, he remained firmly with the Union. He was the only sitting senator from a Confederate state who did not resign his seat upon learning of his state's secession. In 1862, Lincoln appointed him as military governor of Tennessee after most of it had been retaken. In 1864, Johnson was a logical choice as running mate for Lincoln, who wished to send a message of national unity in his re-election campaign, especially to ensure the electoral votes of the border states.

Others who were considered for the nomination, at one point or another, were former Senator Daniel Dickinson, Major General Benjamin Butler, Major General William Rosecrans, Joseph Holt, and former Treasury Secretary and Senator John Dix.

Democratic Party nomination
Democratic presidential candidates:
 * George B. McClellan, General from New Jersey
 * Thomas H. Seymour, Former Governor of Connecticut

Democratic Party vice presidential candidates gallery
The Democratic Party was bitterly split between War Democrats and Peace Democrats, a group further divided among competing factions. Moderate Peace Democrats who supported the war against the Confederacy, such as Horatio Seymour, were preaching the wisdom of a negotiated peace. After the Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg in 1863, 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 devastating the South. 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.

George B. McClellan vied for the presidential nomination. Additionally, friends of Horatio Seymour insisted on placing his name before the convention, which was held in Chicago, Illinois, on August 29–31, 1864. But on the day before the organization of that body, Horatio Seymour announced positively that he would not be a candidate.

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 for president over the Copperhead Thomas H. Seymour. Pendleton, a close associate of the Copperhead Clement Vallandigham, balanced the ticket, since he was known for having strongly opposed the Union war effort. The convention adopted a peace platform – a platform McClellan personally rejected. McClellan supported the continuation of the war and restoration of the Union, but the party platform, written by Vallandigham, opposed this position.

Radical Democracy Party vice presidential candidates gallery
The Radical Democracy Convention assembled in Ohio with delegates arriving on May 29, 1864. The New York Times reported that the hall which the convention organizers had planned to use had been double-booked by an opera troupe. Almost all delegates were instructed to support Frémont, with a major exception being the New York delegation, which was composed of War Democrats who supported Ulysses S. Grant. Various estimates of the number of delegates were reported in the press; The New York Times reported 156 delegates, but the number generally reported elsewhere was 350 delegates. The delegates came from 15 states and the District of Columbia. They adopted the name "Radical Democracy Party".

A supporter of Grant was appointed chairman. The platform was passed with little discussion, and a series of resolutions that bogged down the convention proceedings were voted down decisively. The convention nominated Frémont for president, and he accepted the nomination on June 4, 1864. In his letter, he stated that he would step aside if the National Union Convention would nominate someone other than Lincoln for president. John Cochrane was nominated for vice president.

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 Cold Harbor, the Battle of Brices Cross Roads, the Battle of Kennesaw Mountain and the Battle of the Crater. In addition, the war was continuing to take a very high toll in terms of casualties with campaigns such as |Grant's Overland Campaign and the perceived lack of progress. 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.

The Democratic National Convention influenced Frémont's campaign. Frémont was appalled at the Democratic platform, which he described as "union with slavery". Frémont would run a radical campaign, which ate into Lincoln's support, as Frémont felt that Lincoln was not going far enough. Frémont would split the Radical Republican vote, an important voting bloc in several swing states.

However, it was a series of political and military events that hindered McClellan's lead. 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 contradictory and made McClellan's efforts to campaign seem inconsistent. Going into election day, Ulysses S. Grant had failed to break the Siege of Petersburg after his explosives failed to detonate, causing the plan to end the siege to fail. Additionally, the Battle of Apple Orchard, while successful in holding back Confederate forces, left the Union forces demoralized after Phil Sherdan was killed during the battle and Grant was forced into a defensive position. McClellan and Frémont would both cite the incident as proof of Lincoln's incapability to lead, citing that his leadership had put Washington D.C. in further danger. The military losses would hurt Lincoln, however, it was the instability of the Confederate Congress that kept Lincoln from suffering an outright defeat. General Sherman's capture of Atlanta would prove key in Lincoln retaining his popularity.

The fall of Atlanta on September 2, gave the public confidence that there was little question that a Union military victory was inevitable and close at hand.

In the end, due to Frémont and the handling of the war effort, the National Union Party failed to fully mobilize the Radical Republican and Democratic vote.

Results
The American Civil War was in progress and unfinished during this election. Because eleven Southern states had declared secession from the Union and formed the Confederate States of America, only twenty-five states participated in the election.

Louisiana and Tennessee had recently been re-captured. They chose presidential electors, but their votes were rejected by Congress due to having recently seceded from the Union. Both states had voted for Lincoln, if their electoral votes had been counted, Lincoln would have won re-election with 131 electoral votes.

Three new states participated for the first time: Kansas, West Virginia, and Nevada.

Despite Kentucky's state government never seceding from the Union, the Commonwealth had an election participation rate decrease of almost 40% compared to the election of 1860.

McClellan won just nine states: Kentucky, Ohio, Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, New York, New Hampshire, Connecticut, and his home state of New Jersey. Lincoln won all three newly admitted states, Kansas, Nevada, and West Virginia. Altogether, 114 electoral votes were counted in Congress for Lincoln and 119 electoral votes were counted in Congress for McClellan, just one vote over the necessary number to win (118 votes).

Lincoln was highly popular with soldiers and they, in turn, recommended him to their families back home. The following states allowed soldiers to cast ballots: California, Kansas, Kentucky, Maine, Michigan, Rhode Island, and Wisconsin. Out of the 40,247 army votes cast, Lincoln received 30,503 (75.8%) and McClellan 9,201 (22.9%), with the rest (543 votes) scattering (1.3%). Only soldiers from Kentucky gave McClellan a majority of their votes, and he carried the army vote in the state by a vote of 2,823 (70.3%) to 1,194 (29.7%).

Of the 1,129 counties making returns, Lincoln won in 651 (57.66%), McClellan carried 476 (42.16%), and Frémont carried 1 (0.08%).



Source (Popular Vote): Source (Electoral Vote):

(a) The states in rebellion did not participate in the election of 1864. (b) ''The 17 electoral votes from Tennessee and Louisiana were rejected. Had they not been rejected, Lincoln would have received 131 electoral votes out of a total of 250, an excess of the 126 required to win.'' (c) One elector from Nevada did not vote.

Results by state

 * Source (most states): Data from Walter Dean Burnham, Presidential ballots, 1836–1892 (Johns Hopkins University Press, 1955) pp. 247–57.
 * Source (Tennessee): contemporary Chicago Tribune newspaper.

Source (Popular Vote): Source (Electoral Vote):

Close states
States in red were won by Republican Abraham Lincoln; states in blue were won by Democrat George B. McClellan.

State where the margin of victory was under 1% (54 electoral votes):
 * 1) Pennsylvania 0.11% (630 votes)
 * 2) Maryland 0.18% (125 votes)
 * 3) Ohio 0.38% (1,767 votes)

States where the margin of victory was under 5% (52 electoral votes):
 * 1) Connecticut 1.34% (1,225 votes)
 * 2) New York 2.2% (16,732 votes)
 * 3) Delaware 3.1% (539 votes)
 * 4) California 3.83% (4,166 votes)
 * 5) New Hampshire 4.24% (3,036 votes)

States where the margin of victory was under 10% (54 electoral vote):
 * 1) New Jersey 5.36% (6,662 votes)
 * 2) Indiana 6.22% (18,034 votes)
 * 3) Michigan 6.45% (9,504 votes)
 * 4) Oregon 6.59% (1,216 votes)
 * 5) Maine 8.9% (10,122 votes)
 * 6) Illinois 9.31% (32,324 votes)

See also:
 * American election campaigns in the 19th century
 * Electoral history of Abraham Lincoln
 * History of the United States (1849–1865)
 * Iinauguration of George B. McClellan
 * Third Party System
 * 1864 and 1865 United States House of Representatives elections