- 08 Nov 2022 13:10
#15254421
November 8, Tuesday
At Chicago, not finding Thomas Henry Hines at the house where he was staying—and is being hidden by the house’s residents—officers relieve the guard this evening and Hines slips out of the house and Chicago and makes his way to Cincinnati, where he hides with friends. Fearing that an uprising might still occur, commanders request and receive reinforcements from other Army posts in the Midwest. In the coming days, troops and detectives will arrest and interrogate nearly 100 men in the city and downstate Illinois towns; their stories will confirm that the conspiracy aimed to release the POWs in Camp Douglas. During this crisis, Chicagoans go to the polls today—Election Day—to cast their ballots.
The time is at hand for selecting the next President of the United States. In the last days of October there was repeated, throughout the Army of the Potomac and the other farflung armies of the Union, an unprecedented scene: soldiers in the midst of a protracted civil war voting, in an orderly manner, on whether to retain in power their commander in chief. Their ballots were collected and sent to their home states so that the votes can be counted today. The voters have to choose between a popular former army commander who promises peace—George McClellan—and a controversial, much-misunderstood country lawyer, often portrayed as a bumbler, who vows to fight the war to its conclusion. By a large majority, soldiers and civilians alike vote for Abraham Lincoln with Andrew Johnson of Tennessee as Vice-President. Lincoln, the Republican or Union candidate, receives 2,330,552 popular votes to Democrat Major General George B. McClellan’s 1,835,985, giving Lincoln a plurality of 494,567 and over 55 percent of the total vote. In the electoral vote Lincoln and Johnston receive 212, while McClellan and George H. Pendleton of Ohio get 21, carrying only Delaware, Kentucky, and New Jersey. New York is close. In the military vote Lincoln really triumphs, with 116,887 to 33,748 for McClellan, although these ballots don’t change any state result. General Grant sends to Washington a telegram of congratulation, not just for the victory but for the way in which it is achieved: “The election having passed off quietly, no bloodshed or riot throughout the land, is a victory worth more to the country than a battle won.” Hours later, Grant sends another telegram—a portent of what the victory will mean—“All the troops now in the North will be hurried to the field.”
In a day or two McClellan will write that he is resigning from the Army and, as to the election, “For my country’s sake I deplore the result....” He disclaims personal disappointment. Some Confederates say the election simply proves that the Federal policy of subjugation is popular in the North. McClellan may have once been a popular general, but that and discontent with the war wasn’t sufficient to overcome the basic strength of the incumbent, nor the disapproval among many Democrats of their own platform. The Republicans and Unionists have increased their strong majority in the House to over two-thirds and retained a heavy plurality in the Senate.
President Lincoln spends the evening at the War Office getting telegraphic election returns. Early the following morning he responds to a serenade and says that the election result “will be to the lasting advantage, if not to the very salvation, of the country.”
At Chicago, not finding Thomas Henry Hines at the house where he was staying—and is being hidden by the house’s residents—officers relieve the guard this evening and Hines slips out of the house and Chicago and makes his way to Cincinnati, where he hides with friends. Fearing that an uprising might still occur, commanders request and receive reinforcements from other Army posts in the Midwest. In the coming days, troops and detectives will arrest and interrogate nearly 100 men in the city and downstate Illinois towns; their stories will confirm that the conspiracy aimed to release the POWs in Camp Douglas. During this crisis, Chicagoans go to the polls today—Election Day—to cast their ballots.
The time is at hand for selecting the next President of the United States. In the last days of October there was repeated, throughout the Army of the Potomac and the other farflung armies of the Union, an unprecedented scene: soldiers in the midst of a protracted civil war voting, in an orderly manner, on whether to retain in power their commander in chief. Their ballots were collected and sent to their home states so that the votes can be counted today. The voters have to choose between a popular former army commander who promises peace—George McClellan—and a controversial, much-misunderstood country lawyer, often portrayed as a bumbler, who vows to fight the war to its conclusion. By a large majority, soldiers and civilians alike vote for Abraham Lincoln with Andrew Johnson of Tennessee as Vice-President. Lincoln, the Republican or Union candidate, receives 2,330,552 popular votes to Democrat Major General George B. McClellan’s 1,835,985, giving Lincoln a plurality of 494,567 and over 55 percent of the total vote. In the electoral vote Lincoln and Johnston receive 212, while McClellan and George H. Pendleton of Ohio get 21, carrying only Delaware, Kentucky, and New Jersey. New York is close. In the military vote Lincoln really triumphs, with 116,887 to 33,748 for McClellan, although these ballots don’t change any state result. General Grant sends to Washington a telegram of congratulation, not just for the victory but for the way in which it is achieved: “The election having passed off quietly, no bloodshed or riot throughout the land, is a victory worth more to the country than a battle won.” Hours later, Grant sends another telegram—a portent of what the victory will mean—“All the troops now in the North will be hurried to the field.”
In a day or two McClellan will write that he is resigning from the Army and, as to the election, “For my country’s sake I deplore the result....” He disclaims personal disappointment. Some Confederates say the election simply proves that the Federal policy of subjugation is popular in the North. McClellan may have once been a popular general, but that and discontent with the war wasn’t sufficient to overcome the basic strength of the incumbent, nor the disapproval among many Democrats of their own platform. The Republicans and Unionists have increased their strong majority in the House to over two-thirds and retained a heavy plurality in the Senate.
President Lincoln spends the evening at the War Office getting telegraphic election returns. Early the following morning he responds to a serenade and says that the election result “will be to the lasting advantage, if not to the very salvation, of the country.”
Society cannot exist, unless a controlling power upon will and appetite be placed somewhere; and the less of it there is within, the more there must be without.
—Edmund Burke
—Edmund Burke