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of this our country, the efforts of any such power to obtain new footholds for monarchical governments, sustained by a foreign military force in near proximity to the United States.
On proceeding to vote for a Presidential candidate,
Abraham Lincoln was named by the delegates from each State and Territory permitted to vote, save
Missouri, which named
Gen. Grant.
Mr. Lincoln was then unanimously nominated.
The Convention proceeded to vote for
Vice-President, with the following result:
Several delegations thereupon changed to
Johnson; who was nominated without further balloting by 494 votes to 26 for others.
These nominations were formally tendered and heartily accepted.
Mr. Johnson's letter of acceptance, in its allusion to Slavery, tersely expressed what had ere this become the generally accepted faith of War Democrats — as follows:
It is in vain to attempt to reconstruct the Union with the distracting element of Slavery in it. Experience has demonstrated its incompatibility with free and republican governments and it would be unwise and unjust longer to continue it as one of the institutions of the country.
While it remained subordinate to the Constitution and laws of the United States, I yielded to it my support; but when it became rebellious, and attempted to rise above the Government, and control its action, I threw my humble influence against it.
The resolves of the
Union, like those of the
Radical Convention, were, as we have seen, pitched in a very high key. The delegates had been chosen, had assembled, and deliberated, in the prevalent conviction that
Grant's advance from the
Rapidan and
Sherman's from the
Tennessee had each been a series of unbroken and not costly successes — that the
Rebellion was already reeling under their heavy blows — that
Richmond and
Atlanta were on the point of falling — and that their fall involved that of the
Confederacy.
No doubt, no apprehension, disturbed the serenity of the
Baltimore platform-builders.
Their language was that of a monarch who had subdued an insurrection, and was intent on dispensing rewards to his lieutenants and pronouncing the doom of the defeated insurgents.
In this spirit, the
Convention met, acted, and dissolved; assured that the year 1864 would witness alike the reelection of
President Lincoln and the downfall of the
Rebellion.
Events soon transpired which materially changed the aspect of affairs.
Gen. Grant's determined attack at Cold Harbor was found to have been not merely unsuccessful — that had been frankly and promptly admitted — but an exceedingly expensive and damaging failure-damaging not merely in the magnitude of our loss, but in its effect on the morale and efficiency of our chief army.
It had extinguished the last hope of culling
Lee north of the
James, and of interposing that army between him and the
Confederate capital.
The failure to seize
Petersburg when it would easily have fallen, and the repeated and costly failures to carry its defenses by assault, or even to flank them on the south — the luckless conclusion of
Wilson's and
Kautz's raid to
Staunton river-
Sheridan's failure to unite with
Hunter in
Lee's rear-Sturgis's disastrous defeat by
Forrest near
Guntown —
Hunter's failure to carry
Lynchburg, and eccentric line of retreat-Sherman's bloody repulse at
Kenesaw, and
