The election this year was confined to the States that had remained loyal to the Constitution and the Union. Eleven States had seceded.
The Republicans re-nominated Lincoln for President, with Andrew Johnson for Vice-President. The Democratic party nominated Gen. Geo. B. McClellan for President, and Geo. H. Pendleton for Vice-President. The result was as follows:
| The popular vote for | Lincoln and Johnson was | 2,223,035 |
| ” ” | McClellan and Pendleton | 1,811,754 |
| Lincoln’s popular majority | 411,281 | |
| Electoral votes for | Lincoln | 212 |
| ” ” | McClellan | 21 |
| Lincoln’s electoral majority | 191 | |
The total number of popular votes was 4,034,789. Lincoln’s vote at this election was the largest that had ever been cast for one candidate, though there were less votes cast by all parties by 600,000 than in the nineteenth election. Two new States, Kansas and West Virginia, had been admitted since the previous election, which with the 11 in rebellion omitted, left 24 States voting.
The civil war closed with the submission of the seceded States to the general government soon after Lincoln’s re-inauguration; but he was assassinated about the same time, on the evening of April 13th, 1865, and died on the following day, leaving a nation in mourning, and the civilized world struck with horror. Andrew Johnson acted as President during the remainder of this term. Mr. Johnson’s administration was marked by the great difference in the policy of reconstructing the seceded States adopted by him and by the Congress, by the limitations which the latter threw around him, and the attempt to impeach him, which failed by a few votes.
The Twenty-First Election, 1868.
Gen. Ulysses S. Grant was nominated by the Republicans for President, and Schuyler Colfax for Vice-President.
The nominees of the Democratic party were Horatio Seymour and Francis P. Blair.