I would rather be defeated with the soldier vote behind me than to be...

[David Lockmiller]

(02-27-2020 11:45 AM)David Lockmiller Wrote:  I recently read the following quotation from Doris Kearns Goodwin’s book “Team of Rivals” at page 664.

As the election drew close, Lincoln told a visitor: “I would rather be defeated with the soldier vote behind me than to be elected without it.”

The source of this quote is Ida M. Tarbell, “A Reporter for Lincoln: Story of Henry E. Wing, Soldier and Newspaperman” (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1927), p. 70.

Ida Tarbell wrote more on page 70:

The strong and hostile winds of [public] opinion which had been blowing now for weeks became by August [1864] furious, biting gales, converging to one point—the President. He lived in a whirlwind of opposition, a man without a friend, his opponents confident, contemptuous; Congress sneering and hindering; intrigue in his cabinet, dismay in his party. Even his best and oldest friends came to tell him in solemn tones that his defeat was certain unless he should compromise—delay a draft, consider peace overtures, something to soothe the country’s agony until after election.

“Deceive as to my intention?” he retorted, scornfully refusing.

Lincoln’s deepest concern in August of 1864 was not civilian and official opposition, however strong and bitter it might be. He was more and more concerned with the army’s view of things.

“Henry,” he said in one of their long night talks in this dreary period, “I would rather be defeated with the soldier vote behind me than to be elected without it.”