desired that his Administration, as it had been
approved in the past, might also be successful in the future, and
result in the Restoration of the Union, with Freedom as its
immutable basis. They trusted that, on retiring from his high and
honorable position, the universal verdict might be that he deserved
well of mankind, and that favoring Heaven might 'Crown his days
with loving kindness and tender mercies.']
The same kindly anxiety to soften and dispel the feeling of
bitterness that had been engendered in the malignant bosoms of the
Copperhead-Democracy by their defeat, was apparent when he said with
emphasis and feeling:
"I have said before, and now repeat, that I indulge in no feeling of
triumph over any man who has thought or acted differently from myself.
I have no such feeling toward any living man;" and again, after
complimenting Maryland for doing "more than double her share" in the
elections, in that she had not only carried the Republican ticket, but
also the Free Constitution, he added: "Those who have differed with us
and opposed us will yet see that the result of the Presidential election
is better for their own good than if they had been successful."
The victory of the Union-Republican Party at this election was an
amazing one, and in the words of General Grant's dispatch of
congratulation to the President, the fact of its "having passed off
quietly" was, in itself, "a victory worth more to the Country than a
battle won,"--for the Copperheads had left no stone unturned in their
efforts to create the utmost possible rancor, in the minds of their
partisans, against the Administration and its Party.
Of twenty-five States voting, Lincoln and Johnson had carried the
electoral votes of twenty-two of them, viz.: Maine, New Hampshire,
Massachusetts, Rhode Island, Connecticut, Vermont, New York,
Pennsylvania, Maryland, Ohio, Indiana, Illinois, Missouri, Michigan,
Iowa, Wisconsin, Minnesota, California, Oregon, Kansas, West Virginia,
and Nevada; while McClellan and Pendleton had carried the twenty-one
electoral votes of the remaining three, viz.: New Jersey, Delaware, and
Kentucky--the popular vote reaching the enormous number of 2,216,067 for
Lincoln, to 1,808,725 for McClellan--making Lincoln's popular majority
407,342, and his electoral majority 191!
But if the figures upon the Presidential candidacy were so gratifying
and surprising to all who held the cause of Union a
|