One hundred and fifty-six years ago, the prospects for re-election to a second term in the White House seemed pretty bleak for the incumbent. The nation was at war and as late as August, 1864, the war was not going particularly well for the home team. Defeat was almost, but not quite, a foregone conclusion. The fat lady had not yet sung but she was off-stage, gargling and getting ready to make her entrance.
The situation was so dire that the incumbent, President Abraham Lincoln, wrote what history refers to as the "Blind Memorandum". In his own hand, on August 23, 1864, President Lincoln wrote:
This morning, as for some days past; it seems exceedingly probable
that this Administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty
to so co-operate with the President elect, as to save the Union
between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his
election on such ground that he cannot possibly save it afterwards.
-A. Lincoln
At that day's Cabinet meeting, having folded the memorandum in such a way that its contents could not be read, he passed it among his Cabinet members for each to sign the outside of the memo, sight unseen. Each did. By that act, President Lincoln and his Cabinet pledged to accept the anticipated unfavorable verdict of the voters in November and to do all that they could to to preserve the Union.
Should anyone reading this wonder "Why did I learn nothing about the Presidency of George McClellan in high school?", the answer is quite simple. A week or so after President Lincoln authored - and his Cabinet members signed - the "Blind Memorandum", the pendulum of the War Between the States swung decidedly in the Union's favor. General Sherman captured Atlanta on September 2nd. Slightly more than seven months later, Lee surrendered to Grant at Appomattox Court House, Virginia.
Abraham Lincoln won re-election in November, 1864. On November 10, 1864, in response to people who came to the White House to serenade Mr. Lincoln in celebration of his re-election, he offered the following remarks:
It has long been a grave question whether any government,
not too
strong for the liberties of its people,
can be strong enough to maintain its
own existence,
in great emergencies.
On this point the present rebellion brought our republic to a
severe test;
and a presidential election occurring in regular course
during the
rebellion added not a little to the strain.
If the loyal people, united,
were
put to the utmost of their strength by the rebellion,
must they not fail when
divided, and partially paralyzed,
by a political war among themselves?
But the election was a necessity.
We cannot have free government without elections;
and if the
rebellion could force us to forego,
or postpone a national election,
it might
fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us.
The strife of the
election is but human-nature
practically applied to the facts of the case.
What
has occurred in this case,
must ever recur in similar cases.
Human-nature will
not change.
In any future great national trial,
compared with the men of this,
we shall have as weak, and as strong;
as silly and as wise;
as bad and good.
Let us, therefore, study the incidents of this,
as philosophy to learn wisdom
from,
and none of them as wrongs to be revenged.
But the election, along
with its incidental, and undesirable strife,
has done good too.
It has
demonstrated that a people’s government can sustain a national election,
in the
midst of a great civil war.
Until now it has not been known to the world that
this was a possibility.
It shows also how sound, and how strong we
still are.
It shows that, even among candidates of the same party,
he who is
most devoted to the Union, and most opposed to treason,
can receive most of the
people’s votes.
It shows also, to the extent yet known,
that we have more men
now,
than we had when the war began.
Gold is good in its place;
but living,
brave, patriotic men, are better than gold.
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