isting that
the war was a failure, and demanding peace at any price. On the other
hand was a large faction of the Republican party, finding fault with Mr.
Lincoln because he was not severe enough, because he had done things
they thought the Constitution did not permit him to do, and because he
had fixed the conditions on which people in the so-called seceding
states might send representatives and senators to Congress. Between
these two was a party made up of Republicans and of war Democrats, who
insisted that the Union must be preserved at all costs. These men held a
convention, and dropping the name "Republicans" for the time being, took
that of "National Union party," and renominated Lincoln. For Vice
President they selected Andrew Johnson, a Union man and war Democrat
from Tennessee.

The dissatisfied or Radical Republicans held a convention and nominated
John C. Fremont and General John Cochrane. They demanded one term for a
President; the confiscation of the land of rebels; the reconstruction of
rebellious states by Congress, not by the President; vigorous war
measures; and the destruction of slavery forever.

The Democrats nominated General George B. McClellan and George H.
Pendleton. The platform demanded "a cessation of hostilities with a view
to a convention of the states," and described the sacrifice of lives and
treasure in behalf of Union as "four years of failure to restore the
Union by the experiment of war." McClellan, in his letter of acceptance,
repudiated both of these sentiments. The platform called for peace
first, and then union if possible. McClellan said union first, and then
peace. "No peace can be permanent without union." The platform said the
war was a failure. McClellan said, "I could not look in the faces of my
gallant comrades of the army and navy ... and tell them that their
labors and the sacrifice of so many of our slain and wounded brethren
had been in vain."

The result was never in doubt. By September Fremont and Cochrane both
withdrew, and in November Lincoln and Johnson were elected, and on March
4, 1865, were sworn into office.

%478. The Murder of Lincoln%.--By that time the Confederacy was
doomed. Sherman had made his march to the sea; Savannah and Charleston
were in Union hands, and Lee hard pressed at Richmond. April 9 he
surrendered, and on April 14, 1865, the fourth anniversary of the
evacuation of Fort Sumter, Anderson, now a major general, visited the
fort which he had