CHAPTER XV.
THE PRESIDENTIAL CAMPAIGN OF 1864.
The Republican reverses of the fall of 1862 were not repeated in 1863. Gettysburg and Vicksburg, the anti-draft riots in New York, and the formal acceptance of Vallandigham as a trusted party leader by the Democracy stimulated and strengthened the Union spirit of the North, and the State elections of that year were emphatic endorsements of the party of freedom and of its policy. The political verdicts of the spring of 1864 were equally gratifying to the friends of liberty and the advocates of a vigorous prosecution of the war, and, with the accession of General Grant to the command of the Union armies and his "advance all along the line," it became evident that nothing but discord among the Republicans could deprive them of a sweeping victory in the presidential election. The masses of that party were unequivocally in favor of Mr. Lincoln's renomination; the common people saw one of themselves in the White House and fully met his firm trust in them with an answering confidence. But among men of influence within the Republican ranks there was an exceedingly earnest opposition to his second candidacy. Some of this sprang from rival aspirations; more of it from disappointed office-seeking and from personal pique; but there was outside and above such considerations a strong feeling, entirely disinterested in origin and honorable in character, and held by thousands of sincere men, that the President was unduly conservative in policy and that a man of more aggressive temperament ought to be elected in his stead. There were also not a few experienced politicians who regarded the personal opposition to Mr. Lincoln as sufficiently formidable to jeopard party success, and who were inclined to think that the selection of some candidate who was not identified with the existing Administration, and thus would not be compelled to defend its acts, was demanded on the ground of superior "availability." The anti-Lincoln wing of the party at that time included such men as Mr. Chase and Mr. Greeley, was represented by many of the leading newspapers, including the entire New York press except the Times, and counted among its especially active members not a few of the most earnest and devoted of the original Abolitionists.
In this chaotic condition of party sentiment a call appeared (in April, 1864) addressed "To the Radical Men of the Nation," and requesting them to meet by representatives in convention at Cleveland, O., on May 31. Those of its signers who were best known were B. Gratz Brown, Lucius Robinson, John Cochrane, Frederick Douglass, Elizabeth Cady Stanton, George B. Cheever, James Redpath, Wendell Phillips and Emil Pretorious. Its tone will appear from this paragraph:
The imbecile and vacillating policy of the present Administration in the conduct of the war, being just weak enough to waste its men and means to provoke the enemy, but not strong enough to conquer the rebellion—and its treachery to justice, freedom and genuine democratic principles in its plan of reconstruction, whereby the honor and dignity of the nation have been sacrificed to conciliate the still-existing and arrogant slave power, and to further the ends of unscrupulous partisan ambition—call in thunder tones upon the lovers of justice and their country to come to the rescue of the imperiled nationality and the cause of impartial and universal freedom threatened with betrayal and overthrow.
The way to victory and salvation is plain. Justice must be throned in the seats of national legislation, and guide the executive will. The things demanded, and which we ask you to join us to render sure, are the immediate extinction of slavery throughout the whole United States by Congressional action, the absolute equality of all men before the law without regard to race or color, and such a plan of reconstruction as shall conform entirely to the policy of freedom for all, placing the political power alone in the hands of the loyal, and executing with vigor the law for confiscating the property of the rebels.
This document was widely published, and the New York Tribune in advance approved the calling of this convention, although it did not in the end support its action. The call was answered by about 350 persons from fifteen States; while very few of them were men of more than limited reputation, yet they made up a body representing widespread convictions strongly and sincerely held. Ex-Governor W. F. Johnston of Pennsylvania was the temporary and Gen. John Cochrane of New York the permanent presiding officer of the convention. It nominated John C. Fremont for President, and General Cochrane for Vice-President, and adopted a platform exceedingly radical in terms, including declarations in favor of unconditional emancipation, a one-term presidency, the Monroe doctrine, and the wholesale confiscation of the property of the rebels. Two letters were received by it which at the time produced a strong impression. In one of them, Lucius Robinson, then Comptroller of New York, severely condemned "a weak Executive and Cabinet," and urged the nomination of General Grant, "a man who has displayed the qualities which give all men confidence." In the second, Wendell Phillips attacked a Republican administration with that polished invective which had made him one of the most formidable assailants of the slave power. He wrote:
For three years the Administration has lavished money without stint and drenched the land in blood, and it has not yet thoroughly and heartily struck at the slave system. Confessing that the use of this means is indispensable, the Administration has used it just enough to irritate the rebels and not enough to save the state. In sixty days after the rebellion broke out the Administration suspended habeas corpus on the plea of military necessity—justly. For three years it has poured out the treasure and blood of the country like water. Meanwhile slavery was too sacred to be used; that was saved lest the feelings of the rebels should be hurt. The Administration weighed treasure, blood, and civil liberty against slavery, and, up to the present moment, has decided to exhaust them all before it uses freedom heartily as a means of battle.... A quick and thorough reorganization of States on a democratic basis—every man and race equal before the law—is the only sure way to save the Union. I urge it, not for the black man's sake alone, but for ours—for the nation's sake. Against such recognition of the blacks Mr. Lincoln stands pledged by prejudice and avowal. Men say, if we elect him he may change his views. Possibly. But three years have been a long time for a man's education in such hours as these. The nation cannot afford more. At any rate the constitution gives this summer an opportunity to make President a man fully educated. I prefer that course.
The Administration, therefore, I regard as a civil and military failure, and its avowed policy ruinous to the North in every point of view. Mr. Lincoln may wish the end—peace and freedom—but he is wholly unwilling to use the means which can secure that end. If Mr. Lincoln is re-elected I do not expect to see the Union reconstructed in my day, unless on terms more disastrous to liberty than even disunion would be. If I turn to General Fremont, I see a man whose first act would be to use the freedom of the negro as his weapon; I see one whose thorough loyally to democratic institutions without regard to race, whose earnest and decisive character, whose clear-sighted statesmanship and rare military ability justify my confidence that in his hands all will be done to save the state that foresight, skill, decision, and statesmanship can do.
Generals Fremont and Cochrane promptly accepted the nominations thus tendered them. General Fremont resigned his commission in the army before doing so, and in his letter of acceptance accused the Administration of "incapacity and selfishness," of "managing the war for personal ends," of giving to the country "the abuses of a military dictation without its unity of action and vigor of execution," and of "feebleness and want of principle" in its dealings with other powers. He further vindicated the Cleveland action by declaring that, "if Mr. Lincoln had remained faithful to the principles he was elected to defend, no schism could have been created," and added: "If the convention at Baltimore will nominate any man whose past life justifies a well-grounded confidence in his fidelity to our cardinal principles, there is no reason why there should be any division among the really patriotic men of the country." There was a lack of any popular response to this demonstration, and it at once appeared—and, in fact, this was the sum of the original expectations of its shrewder promoters—that this movement was only formidable as a rallying point for any serious disaffection which might spring up in the future.