Lincoln and McClellan Election of 1864

[Gene C]

Has anyone heard this story before?
The source is questionable, I have no proof it isn't true, but I find it highly unlikely.

Mr. Lincoln said to Mr. Blair: "I shall be re-elected. No one can doubt it. I do not doubt it, nor do you. It is patent to all. General
McClellan must see it as plainly as we do. Why should he not act upon it, and help me to give peace to this distracted country?
Would it not be a glorious thing for the Union cause and the country, now that my re-election is certain, for him to decline to run, favor my election, and make certain a speedy termination of this bloody war? Don't you believe that such a course upon his part
would unify public partisan sentiment, and give a decisive and fatal blow to all opposition to the re-establishment of peace in the country? I think he is man enough and patriot enough to do it. Do you?
You have been his friend and mine. Will you try this last appeal to General McClellan's patriotism?"

Mr. Blair heartily assented; and, as the result of their consultation, Mr. Lincoln wrote a most remarkable autograph letter to his
rival, suggesting that he retire from the canvass and allow Mr. Lincoln's election, then visibly impending, to be as nearly unanimous
as might be. The compensations to General McClellan and his party for the timely relinquishment of a mere shadow were to be
McClellan's immediate elevation to be General of the Army, the
appointment of his father-in-law, Marcy, to be major-general, and
the very substantial recognition of the Democracy which would
necessarily have followed these arrangements. This letter containing these distinct proposals was placed in Mr. Blair's hands, and
by him delivered to General McClellan.

Source: Ward Hill Lamon in "Lincoln Talks" by Emanuel Hertz p.300-302
https://archive.org/details/lincolntalks...0/mode/2up