In 1864, President Lincoln was in the fourth year of a long and costly war. His commanding generals had told him that taking the war to a conclusion would be a long and bloody battle. His popularity had fallen so far that many in his party were convinced that he could not be re-elected. Many of the actions that he had taken as wartime emergency measures had generated significant opposition from those who feared that they had unduly infringed civil liberties. To oppose him, the Democrats nominated a retired general, George McClellan, who castigated his handling of the war and told the American people that he could manage it better. The Democrats had committed themselves to a platform of negotiating a speedy conclusion to the war that was ravaging the nation, even at the price of allowing the Southern states to leave the Union permanently.
By August 1864, Lincoln had resigned himself to the prospect of losing the upcoming election. He asked the members of his Cabinet to commit themselves to cooperating with the President-elect and to do their best to save the Union before he took office, as that would be an impossibility thereafter.
That fall, Atlanta fell to Sherman, and during the Presidential campaign the Republicans (under the ad hoc name of the National Union party) castigated the Democrats as "traitors". Against all expectations, Lincoln won re-election in a landslide, with 55% of the popular vote and an overwhelming 212 of 233 electoral votes.
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