would once more renounce his own
prospect of a second term. But since Seymour had failed him, who was
there that could serve his purpose? The popularity of McClellan among
those Democrats who were not Copperheads had grown with his misfortunes.
There had been a wide demand for his restoration after Fredericksburg,
and again after Chancellorsville. Lincoln justified his reputation for
political insight by concluding that McClellan, among the Democrats, was
the coming man. Again Weed was called in. Again he became an ambassador
of renunciation. Apparently he carried a message to the effect that
if McClellan would join forces with the Administration, Lincoln would
support him for president a year later. But McClellan was too inveterate
a partisan. Perhaps he thought that the future was his anyway.(19)

And so Lincoln's persistent attempt to win over the Democrats came to
an end. The final sealing of their antagonism was effected at a great
Democratic rally in New York on the Fourth of July. The day previous,
a manifesto had been circulated through the city beginning, "Freemen,
awake! In everything, and in most stupendous proportion, is this
Administration abominable!"(20) Seymour reaffirmed his position of
out-and-out partisan hostility to the Administration. Vallandigham's
colleague, Pendleton of Ohio, formulated the Democratic doctrine: that
the Constitution was being violated by the President's assumption of
war powers. His cry was, "The Constitution as it is and the Union as
it was." He thundered that "Congress can not, and no one else shall,
interfere with free speech." The question was not whether we were to
have peace or war, but whether or not we were to have free government;
"if it be necessary to violate the Constitution in order to carry on the
war, the war ought instantly to be stopped."(21)

Lincoln's political program had ended apparently in a wreck. But Fortune
had not entirely deserted him. Hooker in a fit of irritation had offered
his resignation. Lincoln had accepted it. Under a new commander, the
army of the Potomac had moved against Lee. The orators at the Fourth of
July meeting had read in the papers that same day Lincoln's announcement
of the victory at Gettysburg.(22) Almost coincident with that
announcement was the surrender of Vicksburg. Difficult as was the
political problem ahead of him, the problem of finding some other
plan for unifying his support without participating in a Vindictive
Coalit