Video: 'The American Presidential Election of 1864'
(Wednesday, June 8, 1864) — U.S. President Abraham Lincoln of Illinois was nominated for a second term today at the 1864 National Union National Convention meeting at the Front Street Theatre in Baltimore.
The National Union Party, which was a name adopted by the main faction of the Republican Party in a coalition with many, if not most, War Democrats after some Republicans and War Democrats nominated John C. Frémont over Lincoln.
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During the Convention, the party officially called for the end of the ongoing Civil War, the eradication of slavery and the adoption of the Emancipation Proclamation.
On the first ballot, Missouri delegates cast their 22 votes for General Ulysses S. Grant. The Missourians quickly changed their votes to make Lincoln’s renomination unanimous.
Though Vice President Hannibal Hamlin was willing to serve another term, he privately made it known that he was willing to step aside if a candidate who would be a greater electoral asset to Lincoln could be found.
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The party dropped Hamlin from the ticket, seeking to broaden Lincoln’s base of support and look ahead to Southern Reconstruction.
The convention therefore nominated Andrew Johnson, a Southern War Democrat who had proven himself adept as the military governor of occupied Tennessee.
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Johnson was nominated on the revised first ballot, defeating former Senator Daniel Dickinson of New York 492-9 votes.
The Lincoln-Johnson ticket would oppose the Democratic ticket of George B. McClellan-George H. Pendleton (nominated in August 1864) in the 1864 general election.
