And There Was Light: Abraham Lincoln and the American Struggle

Immediately following his Gettysburg Address Lincoln contracted smallpox and entered quarantine for several weeks. He continued to work from his bedroom. This preceded the beginnings of his 1864 presidential campaign for re-election. Meacham describes Lincoln as being somewhat embarrassed by his own ambition to be re-elected. He reportedly told Thaddeus Stevens, the colorful abolitionist radical, that he believed he was best suited to continue to lead the Union through its current peril. Lincoln was taken with the idea, according to Meacham, that providence played a part in this calling.

In Meacham’s view, the case against Lincoln in 1864 could be mounted by all sorts of constituencies, many of whom were disillusioned with Lincoln for opposing reason. The last several presidents had all failed to win re-election. For Meacham, “[t]he very fact of the 1864 election was notable” (318). Since the country was engaged in a protracted civil war, it was by no means obvious that an election would occur. This was a testament to the Union’s dedication to democracy. Lincoln believed another election was absolutely imperative.

At the end of 1863 Lincoln proposed a Reconstruction plan for post-war reconciliation, though the war was ongoing. In March of 1864 he showed support for “limited Black suffrage” (321). At the same time, he made Grant the ranking general of the war. Some of his Republican colleagues who thought that Lincoln had been too moderate in his presidency, moved to get someone else nominated for the 1864 election. The “Radical Democracy” party was formed, and included such members as Elizabeth Cady Stanton and Frederick Douglass. They nominated John Fremont, who, as a Union general, had attempted to free enslaved people in Missouri.

A Confederate member of Mary Todd’s family visited the White House, having lost three brothers to the war. Meacham describes a moment when everyone bonded in grief. Lincoln seems to have been morbid during this era, thinking frequently of his own death, as well as the death of those surrounding him. Throughout the middle of 1864, Lincoln’s Union army, under the command of Ulysses S. Grant and William Sherman, launched an extraordinarily aggressive campaign that extended to the deep South. They made progress, but it was slow, and there was great loss of life.

Lincoln was unanimously declared the Republican candidate for president in 1864. Meacham notes that Republicans were interested in the development of the transcontinental railroad and a welcoming immigration policy. According to Meacham, because of the proclamation, “[t]he Lincoln who went before the voters in 1864, therefore, was unambiguously linked with, and in favor of the immediate, uncompensated, and permanent abolition of slavery” (327).

The question of the vice-presidential ticket was a large one for Lincoln. The convention determined that it would be best to nominate a Democrat (for the sake of Lincoln’s general electability) and nominated Andrew Johnson. Johnson was a virulent racist but served as an overture to the general public. In Meacham’s view, this was a disastrous decision. McClellan ran as Lincoln’s Democratic opponent. He was proslavery and pro-Union.

One Confederate army fought very close to the Capitol building at Fort Stevens. Lincoln reportedly witnessed the fighting firsthand. The country was growing very tired of the war. In July of 1864 Lincoln ordered 500,000 more Union troops. As Meacham writes, “There was only one way to end war weariness, and that was to win the war” (331). As late as August 1864 Lincoln expressed strong doubts concerning his re-election. He met with Frederick Douglass in the White House again. He claims that he would stand on his record and his principles and let the voters decide.

In September 1864, Sherman declared that the Union had taken Atlanta, Georgia, a major Southern hub. Sheridan led another important Union victory at Shenandoah Valley in Virginia. John Fremont of the Radical Democracy Party dropped out of the race, so that there were only two candidates in the race: the antislavery incumbent and the proslavery general.

Lincoln spoke in favor of a new (abolitionist) state constitution in Maryland. Lincoln met with Sojourner Truth, the Black abolitionist leader. Meacham reports her conversation with Lincoln in which the president humbly declines the high praise she gives him. Meanwhile the contentious election heated up. Both Republicans and Democrats feared that the opposition party would not yield to the election results or take the proper, Constitutional action in the transfer of power. Lincoln worked to ensure that Union soldiers on the battlefield would have the opportunity to vote. John Bright, the English politician for whom Lincoln held great admiration, expressed his support for Lincoln’s campaign in a letter to the New York Tribune.

In the end Lincoln was re-elected by a wide margin, carrying 55% of the electorate. McClellan only carried three states in the Union. That November, Lincoln philosophizes as to whether government could be big and powerful enough to adequately ensure people’s liberties whilst not becoming too big or powerful, quashing them in the process. There was sentiment after the election that the Union had achieved something previously unheard of: the successful enactment of a democratic election during a civil war. Personally, though, Lincoln was in a dark mood. He experienced an affecting illusion from the reflection of a glass; it made half of his face pale and wan. He and Mary Todd both took it as an omen of impending death.

The chapter ends as Lincoln dedicates himself to the creation and enactment of the 13th Amendment, which would make the Constitution explicitly antislavery.