By David J. Kent
Washington, D.C.
Saturday, October 26, 2024
The 2024 presidential election is only a week or so away, and the Lincoln Group has been highlighting the Election of 1864. Ed Epstein and David J. Kent recently discussed the political upheaval and critical soldier vote (watch the video here) and I will present a follow up program on Tuesday, October 29 to discuss the oddities of the final results of that 1864 election (RSVP for that program here). But one big question remains: Why did they replace Hannibal Hamlin with Andrew Johnson as Lincoln's second vice president?
I should make it clear at the outset that Lincoln had nothing to do with picking his first vice president and likely had little to do with picking the second one. Presidents and their running mates back in Lincoln’s day were picked by the party’s nominating convention. Today we have what seems to be an endless campaign and a series of state primaries and caucuses that drag on for months. The public votes for delegates who are supposed to carry that vote to the convention, which is more for show than it is for making any decisions on candidates. By the time the convention shows up, we already know who the nominee is.
Not so in Lincoln’s time. The public had no say in who the party nominated. Nothing was secured in advance. When the date of the convention came around, each candidate would have his representatives in the literal smoke-filled rooms trying to persuade enough of the delegates to swing to them. There were usually several rounds of voting. In 1860, most people expected that New York Senator William Seward would get the nomination, and he led on the first ballot. But Lincoln was surprisingly close behind, closed the gap on the second ballot, and won on the third ballot. Abraham Lincoln was the Republican nominee for president.
Then the convention delegates went on to pick the vice president. Seward’s people, not happy that their man hadn’t won, blocked any choice from nearby states, insisting that the convention choose Senator Hannibal Hamlin of Maine. As a former Democrat, Hamlin was considered a good balance with the former Whig Lincoln ideologically, as well as the geographical balance with the westerner from Illinois. Through all of this deciding, Lincoln was in Springfield waiting in the telegraph office for news. He had nothing to do with picking Hamlin.
In 1864, Lincoln was the sitting president in the midst of the Civil War. By the time of the nominating convention, he had survived an attempted coup of sorts by his Treasury Secretary, Salmon P. Chase. The Republican Party, in an effort to secure all the pro-Union voters for Lincoln, opted to rename itself (for one election only) as the National Union Party. While Hamlin had been loyal to Lincoln, his home state of Maine was securely in the Republican/National Union camp and thus added little to the needed electoral vote.
In addition, convention delegates felt outreach to the War Democrat faction of the opposing party was necessary to assure reelection. Andrew Johnson, at least on paper, seemed a perfect fit. A senator from Tennessee when the war started, he was the only southern senator to remain loyal to the United States when his state seceded. Lincoln would make him the territorial governor of Tennessee during the war, at least that part that had been recaptured by Union forces. Johnson also talked a good game when it came to being hard on the Southern elite he despised (mostly because he had been a poor tailor, and they were rich landowners). He seemed a textbook companion candidate, especially since he likely would not have much of a role for the next four years. That choice would come back to haunt the party and the nation.
Some have inaccurately argued that Lincoln forced Hamlin out and brought Johnson in, but that isn’t true. The delegates of the convention made the choices then, and they did in this case. When old friend Leonard Swett asked Lincoln about one particular candidate, Lincoln responded: “Wish not to interfere about V.P. Can not interfere about platform. Convention must judge for itself.”
All of this set the stage for endless “what ifs” when Lincoln was assassinated, making Andrew Johnson president instead of Hannibal Hamlin. Johnson went on to be impeached by the Republican Congress and lived in infamy as one of the worst presidents in U.S. history (usually just behind James Buchanan, who preceded Lincoln, although the list of worst presidents has recently been reshuffled).
I'll talk more about some of the more questionable 1864 election results on Tuesday, October 29. You can RSVP for here to get the Zoom link: https://www.lincolnian.org/event-details/the-election-of-1864-part-ii-was-the-election-stolen-1
To help make more such programs possible, please join the Lincoln Group by clicking on the blue membership button on the upper right of this page and paying the membership fee.
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