Comte de Paris, History of the Civil War in America. Vol. 3.
Henry Coppee , LL.D., Ed.

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[444] measures, which they denounced as tyrannical, and by seeking to conciliate those even whom they pretended to be able to conquer on the battlefield by means of concessions regarding constitutional questions. But the arbitrary acts, the unjust favors, the most necessary measures for defence even, the suspension of the habeas corpus, the increasing rates of taxation, added daily to the number of discontents who joined the ranks of this opposition.

The elections that took place during the autumn of 1862 in ten of the States, either for the office of governor or for Representatives in Congress, soon revealed the strength of this opposition. Mr. Horatio Seymour, who had distinguished himself by the vehemence of his attacks upon the administration, was elected governor of New York. Out of one hundred and twenty-four Representatives elected, the opposition succeeded in obtaining sixty-seven, thus gaining thirty seats over the delegation elected two years before—an advantage which reduced, but did not destroy, the preponderance of the Republican party, which could always count upon the suffrages of the New England States. The returns of these local elections gave to the Democrats a small majority of 35,000 votes out of 2,422,000 voters, whilst in the same States Mr. Lincoln had received in 1860 a majority of more than two hundred thousand votes over his competitors. Public opinion was therefore shaken: the most zealous partisans. of the President's policy acknowledged that a general vote on the question of emancipation, and even on the war, might not perhaps be in his favor. It is true that a close analysis of this ballot would have enabled a judicious observer to foresee how short lived was likely to be the reaction which had produced it. The vote of soldiers under arms—a fatal and dangerous institution in itself, which ended in being generally practised by the volunteers—was at this time a privilege only exercised in a few States: this portion of the suffrages gave an enormous majority to the government. So that, far from being discouraged, the men who fought the war insisted upon its continuation, and, enlightened by experience, they judged the slavery question with far more sagacity than their fellow-citizens who remained at home. For however short a period the struggle might be prolonged, they were destined to