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[486] accept an offer of mediation if it appeared to be the only means of putting a stop to hostilities. They would desire that the offer should come from the great powers of Europe conjointly, and in particular that as little prominence as possible should be given to Great Britain.


The State elections of 1863 opened in New Hampshire;1 where the Republican party barely escaped defeat; losing one of the three Representatives in Congress for the first time in some years, and saving their Governor through his election by the Legislature; lie not having even a plurality of the popular vote.2 The regular Democratic poll was larger than at any former election.

The next State to hold her Election was Rhode Island;3 where the Republicans triumphed, election g both Representatives in Congress as well as their State ticket; but by a majority4 considerably reduced from that exhibited on any clear trial of party strength for some years.

Connecticut had, by common consent, been chosen as the arena of a determined trial of strength, at her State Election this Spring,5 between the supporters and opponents respectively of the War for the Union. The nomination for Governor by the Republicans of William A. Buckingham, the incumbent, who had, both officially and personally, been a strenuous and prominent champion of “coercion,” was fairly countered by the presentation, as his competitor, of Col. Thomas II. Seymour, an ex-Governor of decided personal popularity, but an early, consistent, out-spoken contemner of the War — or rather, of the National side of it. His nomination was made by a very large Convention, and with a degree of unanimity and genuine enthusiasm rarely manifested; while the canvass that ensued thereon was one of the most animated and energetic ever witnessed even in that closely balanced State: its result being the triumph of the Republicans by a much reduced but still decisive majority.6 It is quite probable that a candidate less decidedly and conspicuously hostile to the War than Col. Seymour might, while polling fewer votes, have come much nearer an election; since Seymour's nomination was a challenge to the War party which incited it to the most vehement exertions.

No other general Election was held in any of the loyal States during the earlier half of 1863; yet the result in these three--though maintaining the Republican ascendency in each — left no room for reasonable doubt that, apart from the soldiers in the field, a majority of the voters in the loyal States were still — as had been indicated by the results of the elections during the later months of 18627--opposed to a further prosecution of the War, and certainly opposed to its prosecution on the anti-Slavery basis established by the action of Congress and by the President's two Proclamations of Sept. 22, 1862, and Jan. 1, 1.863. If called to vote directly on the question of making peace on the basis of a recognition of the Southern Confederacy, some of those who voted the Opposition

1 March 10.

2 Eastman, Dem., 32,833; Gilmore, Rep., 29,035; Harriman, Union or War Dem., 4,372: Eastman lacks of a majority, 574.

3 April 1.

4 For Governor: Smith, Rep., 10,828; Cozzens, Dem., 7,537.

5 April 6.

6 Buckingham, 41,032; Seymour, 38,395.

7 See page 254.

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