By Jonathan R. Allen 

On November 8, 1864 Abraham Lincoln was reelected to a second term as President of the United States.

This was one of the few elections in world history held in the middle of a civil war. As the president, and with the current dire circumstances of the ongoing Civil War, Abraham Lincoln might have tried to cancel or postpone the election until the Civil War was over. Instead, Lincoln said;

"If the rebellion could force us to forego, or postpone a national election, it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us."

Things had not been going well for the Union. The Confederate Army had advanced so close to Washington, D.C., that President Lincoln was able to use field glasses to watch a battle while standing on top of a parapet. On July 30, 4,000 Union soldiers were killed in a disastrous attempt to invade Petersburg, Virginia. The army needed 500,000 more soldiers, so Lincoln would probably have to call for another unpopular draft. The war debt was becoming unsustainable. As the presidential election day drew near, President Lincoln's hopes for a second term were fading. On August 23, Lincoln wrote a memo to his cabinet saying;

"This morning, and for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this Administration will not be re-elected."

In 1864 the Democrat Party had as its candidate George B. McClellan, the former Union general who with his constant delays and preparations for battle, had caused so much frustration and trouble for President Lincoln. The Democrat's party platform was based on ending the war. But, this turned out to be a huge mistake when news arrived in early September that the Union Army had captured Atlanta and Mobile. Suddenly, the Democrats looked like the party of surrender and defeat, just as Union forces were starting to win battles, and the war.

Lincoln won the election with 2,330,552 votes to challenger George B. McClellan's 1,835,985 votes. Lincoln had 212 Electoral College votes to McClellan's 21 votes. Lincoln carried every state except New Jersey, Delaware, and Kentucky.

About the Author

I'm Jonathan R. Allen and I have been blogging about American Civil War history and stories since 2005. If you want to learn more, then please stop by my Learn Civil War History blog: http://www.learncivilwarhistory.com .

Article Source: Abraham Lincoln Elected to His Second Term

Mary Todd Lincoln

As a girlhood companion remembered her, Mary Todd was vivacious and impulsive, with an interesting personality--but "she now and then could not restrain a witty, sarcastic speech that cut deeper than she intended...." A young lawyer summed her up in 1840: "the very creature of excitement." All of these attributes marked her life, bringing her both happiness and tragedy.

Daughter of Eliza Parker and Robert Smith Todd, pioneer settlers of Kentucky, Mary lost her mother before the age of seven. Her father remarried; and Mary remembered her childhood as "desolate" although she belonged to the aristocracy of Lexington, with high-spirited social life and a sound private education.

Just 5 feet 2 inches at maturity, Mary had clear blue eyes, long lashes, light-brown hair with glints of bronze, and a lovely complexion. She danced gracefully, she loved finery, and her crisp intelligence polished the wiles of a Southern coquette.

READ MORE
http://www.whitehouse.gov/about/first-ladies/marylincoln

"A President is best judged by the enemies he makes when he has really hit his stride."
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- J. R. Pole

"All Coolidge had to do in 1924 was to keep his mean trap shut, to be elected. All Harding had to do in 1920 was repeat ''Avoid foreign entanglements.'' All Hoover had to do in 1928 was to endorse Coolidge. All Roosevelt had to do in 1932 was to point to Hoover."
- Robert E. Sherwood

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