The 1864 Presidential Election

                The election of 1864 took place at the height of the Civil War. The election of 1864 was between the incumbent Republican candidate Abraham Lincoln, and the Democratic challenger, George B. McClellan.  McClellan had served as a Union general during the Civil War and in 1861 was made General - in- Chief of all Federal Armies.[1] McClellan's military background was a large part of what made the election of 1864 so interesting.

McClellan Campaign Banner From the 1864 Election

  

              In 1864, the reelection of Lincoln was very much in doubt. In early 1864, it did not appear that the outcome of the war would be in the Union's favor.[2] This situation hurt the Republican cause while at the same time boosting the Democrat's chances. The perceived Union failures made the Lincoln administration look bad, and so lessened its chances for victory in the coming election.[3] However, the Democratic platform caused some problems for McClellan's chances in the election.

A McClellan Campaign Button From the 1864 Election

               One of the problems of George McClellan's candidacy was the platform that he was running on. Gorge McClellan had been nominated on a Democratic plank of peace at any cost, in favor of ending the war as quickly as possible, even if that meant allowing the Confederacy to remain independent and render the sacrifices of the war redundant.[4] Unfortunately for McClellan, his actual feelings were overshadowed by his party's official platform.

A pro-McClellan Broadside from 1864

                The Democrat peace platform proved troublesome for McClellan. The 1864 election was the first election in U.S. history where soldiers would cast absentee ballots, and the soldier vote would prove to be decisive in the campaign.[5] The main difficulty was the Democratic peace platform, as mentioned before. Generally, Union soldiers were adverse to supporting a party that advocated peace at the expense of all the soldier's sacrifices in the war.[6] The anti-McClellan cartoon below illustrates this point.

  

              In this cartoon, the two Union soldiers say that they will vote for Lincoln because McClellan is tied to the Democrat peace platform, while McClellan tries to tell them that it is not his fault, and that it was forced upon him when he accepted the nomination. On the right, two peace Democrats are scheming as to how they can best make peace to benefit the Confederacy if McClellan wins the election. Clearly the opposition wanted to propagate the perception of McClellan and the peace platform was that a victory for McClellan was essentially a victory for the Confederacy.

    

            Songs were a popular means of spreading a candidate's message in the 19th Century. The following song is a pro-McClellan song that explains the Democratic platform.

                This song uses the apparent lack of progress in the war to demonstrate that a new president is needed, and that McClellan is the answer. It also refutes the assertion that McClellan wanted peace with the Confederacy at any cost, as the song claims that while McClellan will in fact attempt peaceful reconciliation, if the South refuses then he will force them back into the Union with military force. This is perhaps what McClellan himself wanted, but that did not necessarily reflect the rest of his party. Again, there were many Democrats who were actually proponents of immediate peace and the independence of the Confederacy.[7] Unfortunately, McClellan was associated with this peace platform whether that was what he believed or not.

               Another anti-McClellan cartoon displays that McClellan's personal views and his party's views hurt his candidacy.

                This cartoon contrasts McClellan's acceptance of the Democratic nomination on the peace platform, while at the same time speaking in favor of continuing the war. Obviously this provoked some criticism, but at the same time it is understandable. McClellan clearly wanted the nomination, he accepted it after all, but would also obviously have to embrace his party's policy to at least some degree. His acceptance of the nomination and the peace plank, and his attempt to propagate his own opinion made him appear to be hypocritical or indecisive.

               A final problem for the McClellan presidential campaign was that the war was swinging in favor of the Union. While the war was going poorly for the Union in early 1864, by September confidence in the Lincoln administration was restored by Sherman's march into Georgia and Grant's assault on Richmond.[8] The following cartoon reflects how the course of the war impacted the election.

                The dog in the cartoon represents General Grant, with the dogs cowering in the doghouse (which represents Richmond) representing the Confederate leaders. Lincoln and McClellan are looking on, with McClellan saying that Lincoln should call Grant off before he hurts the other dogs, while Lincoln points out that those were the same Confederates that chased McClellan off  and that they are now helpless before Grant.

                Ultimately the problems of McClellan's presidential campaign lay in his unfortunate connection to the Democratic peace platform, the contradictions of the platform and his own view, and the turn of the tide of the Civil War in favor of the Union.

Bibliography

Primary Sources:

“Daily National Republican. (Washington, D.C.) 1862-1866, August 31, 1864, Second Edition, Image 2.” Accessed on April 24, 2015. http://chroniclingamerica.loc.gov/lccn/sn86053570/1864-08-31/ed-1/seq-2/.

"Gen. George McClellan Campaign Button for 1864 Presidential Election." Accessed on April 25, 2015. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2011661491/

"McClellan for President, by John C. Cross." Accessed on April 26, 2015. http://www.loc.gov/item/amss003085/

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"The Chicago Platform and Candidate." Accessed on April 24, 2015. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/resource/pga.04752/

"The Old Bull Dog on the Right Track." Accessed on April 25, 2015. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2003674579/

"The Political "Siamese" Twins, the Offspring of Chicago Miscegenation." Accessed on April 25, 2015. http://www.loc.gov/pictures/item/2003674598/

Secondary Sources:

"George B. McClellan- 1864 Election Broadside." Accessed on April 24, 2015. http://www.civilwar.org/education/history/primarysources/george-b-mcclellan-1864.html

Harris, William C. "Conservative Unionists and the Presidential Election of 1864." Civil War History 38, no. 4 (December 1992): 298-318. http://muse.jhu.edu/journals/cwh/summary/v038/38.4.harris.html

Kamaras, Nicholas Paul. "George B. McClellan and the Election of 1864." PhD diss., University of                Delaware, 1976. http://search.proquest.com/docview/302788157?accountid=12085

Weintraub, Stanley. "1864: McClellan vs. Lincoln MTQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History                 22, no. 3 (Spring 2010):  98-104. http://search.proquest.com/docview/223674500?            accountid=12085

Winther, Oscar Osburn. "The Soldier Vote in the Election of 1864." New York History 25, no. 4 (October, 1944): 440-458. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23148753

Recommended Reading

Kamaras, Nicholas Paul. "George B. McClellan and the Election of 1864." PhD diss., University of                Delaware, 1976. http://search.proquest.com/docview/302788157?accountid=12085

Waugh, John. Reelecting Lincoln: The Battle for the 1864 Presidency. Boston: De Capo Press, 2009. 

Weintraub, Stanley. "1864: McClellan vs. Lincoln MTQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History 22, no. 3 (Spring 2010):  98-104. http://search.proquest.com/docview/223674500?            accountid=12085

Winther, Oscar Osburn. "The Soldier Vote in the Election of 1864." New York History 25, no. 4 (October, 1944): 440-458. http://www.jstor.org/stable/23148753

                [1] Nicholas Paul Kamaras, "George B. McClellan and the Election of 1864"  (PhD diss., University of Delaware, 1976), 4-5.

                [2] Stanley Weintraub, "1864: McClellan vs. McClellan," MHQ: The Quarterly Journal of Military History 22, no. 3 (Spring 2010): http://search.proquest.com/docview/223674500?accountid=12085

                [3] Ibid.

                [4] Ibid.

                [5] Ibid.

                [6] Ibid.

                [7] Kamaras, "Election of 1864," 101.

                [8] Ibid., 127.