ngress asked for the appointment of a day of
fasting and penance, and Lincoln set the first Thursday in August as a
"day of national humiliation and prayer." So portentous was the outlook
that before the middle of August most of the eminent men in the Union
party had lost all heart. Greeley wrote, "Lincoln is already beaten." A
committee waited on the President to ask his formal withdrawal from the
canvass.

Late in August, when the Unionist hopes were at their lowest, the
Democrats met in Chicago. Governor Seymour, of New York, Representatives
Pendleton, of Ohio, Voorhees, of Indiana, and the unpopular Clement L.
Vallandigham were in charge of the proceedings. Southern leaders
came over from Canada and even representatives of the Sons of
Liberty, a group of Northwesterners who were resisting the National
Administration, were participants in the convention. Vallandigham, a
"peace-at-any-price" man, secured the passage of a resolution which
declared the war a failure, but the War Democrats dictated the
nomination and made George B. McClellan the candidate of the party. The
general, who had fought some of the great battles of the war, repudiated
the Vallandigham resolution, but accepted the proffered leadership. On
the day the convention adjourned it seemed clear to the thoughtful men
of the country that the Democrats would win the election, and that they
would in that event bring the war to a close by acknowledging Southern
independence.

But before the delegates had reached their homes, the telegraph
announced the fall of Atlanta. Commodore Farragut had just taken Mobile
after a long and heroic struggle. President Lincoln, a masterful
manipulator of popular opinion, now called upon the country to assemble
in their churches and give thanks to God for the splendid victories of
Sherman and Farragut. Early in September General Phil Sheridan invaded
the Shenandoah Valley, made famous by Jackson in the beginning of the
war, and won a decisive victory at Winchester. Before the end of the
month he had burned thousands of barns, slaughtered many thousands of
cattle, and destroyed the newly harvested grain in all that rich region.
His terse remark that a crow could not cross the Valley without taking
with him his provisions received widespread applause, and showed what a
desperate character the war had taken. Sherman, too, took up his march
through the rich black belt of Georgia, destroying everything that came
within his reach