1864—FROM THE REPUBLICAN PARTY TO THE NATIONAL UNION PARTY

 

 

“Presidential Cobblers and Wire-Pullers Measuring and Estimating Lincoln’s Shoes,” in New York Illustrated News, March 5, 1864.

Lincoln’s Lilliputian Republican critics measure his shoes in their hunt for a replacement candidate.  The cartoon illustrates the power of the press—eight of the figures identified are newspaper publishers, along with William H. Seward, Charles Sumner, and the popular antislavery orator, Anna Dickinson.  

 

 

Platforms Illustrated.  Lithograph (N.p., 1864).

Democrats are supported by Confederate sympathizers Clement Vallandingham and Fernando Wood; New York’s anti-war Governor Horatio Seymour, rioting Irishmen, and a copperhead guard.  Supporting the Republicans are political and military heroes counseled by Liberty.

 

 

Democracy. 1832. 1864. Lithograph (Boston: L. Prang, 1864).

1832 — Andrew Jackson subdues secessionist threats from John Calhoun, thundering “this Union must and shall be preserved” — watchwords co-opted by the Republicans. 

1864 — Democratic candidate George McClellan bows before the Confederacy pleading for peace at any price and settling for disunion.

 

 

National Democratic Committee, Adddress of the National Democratic Committee.  The Perils of the Nation.  Usurpations of the Administration in Maryland and Tennessee.  The Remedy to be Used (New York: National Democratic Committee, 1864).

 

 

Workingmen’s United Political Association, Address of the Workingmen’s United Political Association of the City and County of New York To the Workingmen of the United States (New York: Van Evrie, Horton & Co., 1864).

 

 

Alexander Delmar, The Great Paper Bubble; or, the Coming Financial Explosion (New York: Office of the “Metropolitan Record,” 1864).

 

 

Miscegenation Endorsed by the Republican Party (n . p., 1864).

 

 

The Lincoln Catechism Wherein the Eccentricities &
Beauties of Despotism are Fully Set Forth.  A Guide to the Presidential Election of 1864 (New York: J. F. Feeks, 1864).

 

 

THE DEMOCRATIC ATTACK

 

Jewish Union Republican Association, To Our Jewish Brethren (N.p., 1864).

 

 

[Gail Hamilton], A Call to my Countrywomen.  Reprinted from the Atlantic Monthly, of March, 1863 (New York: G. W. Wood, 1863).

 

 

Loyal National League,  Proceedings at the Organization of the Loyal National League at the Cooper Institute, Friday Evening, March 20th, 1863 (New York, 1863).

 

 

Francis Lieber, No Party Now, but All for Our Country (New York: Loyal Publication Society, C. S. Wescott & Co., Printers, 1863).

 

 

Union League of Philadelphia, Address by the Union League of Philadelphia, to the Citizens of Pennsylvania, in Favor of the Re-election of Abraham Lincoln (Philadelphia: King & Baird, Printers, 1864).

 

 

Charles C. Drake, Union and Anti-Slavery Speeches, Delivered During the Rebellion . . . Published for the Benefit of the Ladies Union Aid Society of St. Louis, Mo. (Cincinnati: Applegate & Co., 1864).

 

REPUBLICAN SUPPORT GROUPS 

Old Abe’s Jokes: Fresh from Abraham’s Bosom (New York: T. R. Dawley, Publisher, 1864).

Lincoln was known for his sense of humor and love of jokes.  This  pamphlet compilation of Lincoln’s wit and wisdom helped portray him as the candidate of the common man.          

 

 

THE UNION LABEL

On the March to the Sea.  Engraving by A. H. Ritchie after F. O. C. Darley (Hartford: L. Stebbins, 1868).

General William T. Sherman told Lincoln he would “make Georgia howl.”   He changed the Civil War and modern warfare itself by taking the conflict to civilians.  His “March to the Sea” and his earlier capture of Atlanta secured Lincoln’s reelection, northern victory, and the lasting enmity of white Georgians.

           

 

President Lincoln Taking the Oath at his Second Inauguration,” in Harper’s Weekly, March 18, 1865.

 

 

“President Lincoln Riding Through Richmond, April 4,” in Harper’s Weekly, April 22, 1865.

 

 

The Assassination of President Lincoln at Ford’s Theatre on the Night of April 14, 1865,” in Harper’s Weekly, April 29, 1865.

 

 

1864 – THE NATIONAL UNION CAMPAIGN

 

“While the Cat is away, the Mice will Play” (N.p., 1864).  

Unidentified handbill with cartoon, reverse shown in reproduction.

This scatological and scurrilous handbill was part of the Republican smear campaign ridiculing the Democrats and their candidate.

 

The Votes of the Copperheads in the Congress of the United States (Washington: L. Towers for the Union Congressional Committee, 1864).

 

 

Copperhead Conspiracy in the North-West.  An Esposé of the Treasonable Order of the “Sons of Liberty.”  Vallandingham, Supreme Commander (Washington: Printed by the Union Congressional Committee, 1864).

 

The Chicago Copperhead Convention. The Treasonable and Revolutionary Utterances of the Men Who Composed It . . . (Washington: Congressional Union Committee, 1864).

 In pamphlets such as these the Republicans demonized Democrats as traitors and “copperheads,” disloyal to the Union, ready to make peace and recognize the Confederate States of America as a separate slave labor nation. 

 

 

What our Democratic Generals Say (n. p., 1864).

Democratic charges that the war is a failure are refuted in this pamphlet by the Democratic generals themselves. Union League of Philadelphia, Philadelphia, October 20th, 1864.  Dear Sir (Printed letter).

 

 

Envelope for absentee soldier’s ballot.

The Union League instructed its field workers on how to make sure absent soldiers were eligible to vote.  Republicans won a large majority of the soldier vote, which the Democrats charged was a rigged election.

 

 

Campaign Dial.  Philadelphia, Thursday, September 8, 1864.

A Philadelphia Republican daily newspaper issued during the campaign season.

 

 

R. P. King, “The Time Has Come.” Printed letter, Nov. 8th, 1864.

Republican workers in Philadelphia’s fifth ward urge those who have not yet voted to get to the polls and “attend to it at once.”

 

 

To The Laboring Classes.  (N. p., 1864).

This Republican handbill attempts to defuse white working class racist hostility to black freedom. Democrats had for years attacked abolition and black rights as an attempt by capitalists to degrade white workers.

 

 

Henry Wilson, History of the Antislavery Measures of the Thirty-Seventh and Thirty-Eighth United-States Congresses, 1861-1864 (Boston: walker, Wise, and Company, 1864).

Future vice-president Wilson presents the antislavery record of the Republican Congress, including emancipation in the District of Columbia, repeal of the Fugitive Slave Act and prohibiting slavery in the territories, recognition of Liberia and Haiti, and proposing the 13th Amendment abolishing slavery nationwide.