Lincoln and the Thirteenth Amendment

[STS Lincolnite]

Regarding the 1864 election.

I would recommend the following book: Emancipation, the Union Army, and the Re-election of Abraham Lincoln by Jonathan W. White. I have read Jon's book and heard him speak a couple of times. He gave a great talk last year at the Lincoln Forum Symposium. It deals with the soldiery and not civilians, but gives a lot of good insight that I think in some cases could be generalized to the US population.

Many of the points brought up in here are addressed in the book. He sort of shoots down the idea espoused by some that the soldiers were all voting for Lincoln because they suddenly saw the evils of slavery. I always found that idea a little too tidy myself.

Rogerm stated he felt that many or most were voting against McClellan. I think that is certainly a factor especially when thinking of it as the McClellan ticket. McClellan's running mate was George Pendleton. Pendleton was roundly considered a copperhead cut from the same cloth as Clement Vallandingham. Many soldiers absolutely refused to vote for McClellan because of Pendleton. Some therefore voted for Lincoln and some just didn't vote at all.

I also agree with Christian that although there were more people by 1864 that had come to accept emancipation, there were many that did not. Many because they feared freed blacks would move north and compete for jobs and many others because they felt that emancipation would lead to equal rights and they did not want that. Much depended on how people's individual priorities played out.

Personally, I think all are true but that the key factor that tipped the scales in the 1864 election - for the soldier and civilian vote - was Sherman's taking of Atlanta (as Laurie alluded to). Considering all the above and many other things, I think many people were still on the fence as to how to vote up until that time. The victory gave the voters an ability to feel comfortable with a vote for the Republican party as it now was clear that the end of the war was really only a matter of time and that the Union would be victorious. Many voters felt that a vote for the Democratic candidate would lead to an end to the war but with the Union split (as Gene alluded to) - they were not comfortable wth that. The soldiers and others wanted to win on the battlefield (a true military victory; not what they might have felt a "hollow" end to the war) and preserve the Union in order to "justify" the sacrifice of all the people that died to achieve that goal.

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Reflecting a little further, and circling back to the focus of the thread, I think that the 1864 election was a critical factor in the passage of the 13th amendment. Lincoln's re-election gave him the political clout to maneuver and push it through. As a lame duck, I highly doubt he would have been able to do so. And McClellan and party certainly wouldn't have supported such an amendment.