AUGUST 29, 1864:
The
Democratic National Convention meets in Chicago, Illinois. Originally scheduled
for the Fourth of July weekend, the Convention was delayed until August “in
deference to the desire of a very large number of the leading members of the
Conservative Union Democratic party throughout the country.” In fact, the
Convention was so badly split between War Democrats (who wanted the war to
continue until Union victory was achieved), Peace Democrats (who wanted a
negotiated end to the war), and Copperheads (who wanted an immediate end to the
war, recognition of the Confederacy, and the restoration of slavery) that the
Convention had to be delayed in order
to find some common ground for all the factions.
On the first day of the Convention, the Democratic Party
adopted a Platform, the planks of which read:
Resolved, That in the
future, as in the past, we will adhere with unswerving fidelity to the Union
under the Constitution as the only solid foundation of our strength, security,
and happiness as a people, and as a framework of government equally conducive
to the welfare and prosperity of all the States, both Northern and Southern.
Resolved, That this
convention does explicitly declare, as the sense of the American people, that
after four years of failure to restore the Union by the experiment of war,
during which, under the pretense of a military necessity of war-power higher
than the Constitution, the Constitution itself has been disregarded in every
part, and public liberty and private right alike trodden down, and the material
prosperity of the country essentially impaired, justice, humanity, liberty, and
the public welfare demand that immediate efforts be made for a cessation of
hostilities, with a view of an ultimate convention of the States, or other
peaceable means, to the end that, at the earliest practicable moment, peace may
be restored on the basis of the Federal Union of the States.
Resolved, That the
direct interference of the military authorities of the United States in the
recent elections held in Kentucky, Maryland, Missouri, and Delaware was a
shameful violation of the Constitution, and a repetition of such acts in the
approaching election will be held as revolutionary, and resisted with all the
means and power under our control.
Resolved, That the
aim and object of the Democratic party is to preserve the Federal Union and the
rights of the States unimpaired, and they hereby declare that they consider
that the administrative usurpation of extraordinary and dangerous powers not
granted by the Constitution; the subversion of the civil by military law in
States not in insurrection; the arbitrary military arrest, imprisonment, trial,
and sentence of American citizens in States where civil law exists in full
force; the suppression of freedom of speech and of the press; the denial of the
right of asylum; the open and avowed disregard of State rights; the employment
of unusual test-oaths; and the interference with and denial of the right of the
people to bear arms in their defense is calculated to prevent a restoration of
the Union and the perpetuation of a Government deriving its just powers from
the consent of the governed.
Resolved, That the
shameful disregard of the Administration to its duty in respect to our
fellow-citizens who now are and long have been prisoners of war and in a
suffering condition, deserves the severest reprobation on the score alike of
public policy and common humanity.
Resolved, That the
sympathy of the Democratic party is heartily and earnestly extended to the
soldiery of our army and sailors of our navy, who are and have been in the
field and on the sea under the flag of our country, and, in the events of its
attaining power, they will receive all the care, protection, and regard that
the brave soldiers and sailors of the republic have so nobly earned.
The Platform reflected all the weaknesses of the Democratic
Party in 1864:
Most of the planks of the Platform were indictments of the
Lincoln Administration, and relatively easily agreed upon.
Slavery and Emancipation, however, were pressing issues
throughout the country that the Democrats could not reconcile among themselves,
and so they simply ignored these issues despite the fact that any end to the
war would bring them to the front and center of the national
consciousness.
The second plank was written solely by the Copperhead
Clement Vallandigham who had previously been exiled to the South and who was
the head of the Knights of The Golden Circle. Many Americans of all political
stripes considered him a traitor. Thus, his prominence in writing a plank was
divisive in and of itself.
As a result of Vallandigham’s prominent contribution, the
War Democrats demanded the right to draft a plank. The sixth plank contradicted
the second in spirit, and was challenged by Copperheads and Peace Democrats as
being “coded” to continue the war.
On August 31st, the War Democrat and former
Commanding General of the Union, General George B. McClellan, still a military
officer, was chosen as the Democrats’ Presidential candidate after some
intraparty wrangling. George Pendleton of Ohio, a Copperhead and a protégé of
Vallandigham’s, was named as Vice-Presidential candidate in order to balance
the ticket. McClellan was 37, Pendleton 39. Together, they made up (and remain)
the youngest Presidential ticket in American history.
McClellan was (as was traditional for the time) not present
in Chicago and not openly campaigning for himself. He all but doomed the
Democratic cause by acting wholly in character. When telegraphed that he had
won the nomination McClellan did what McClellan apparently always did best ---
he prevaricated. It was not until September 8th that he wired back
his acceptance of the nomination, along with his outright rejection of
Vallandigham’s plank:
. . . [T]he Union
must be preserved at all hazards.
I could not look in
the face of my gallant comrades of the army and navy, who have survived so many
bloody battles, and tell them that their labors and the sacrifice of so many of
our slain and wounded brethren had been in vain; that we had abandoned that
Union for which we had so often periled our lives.
A vast majority of
our people, whether in the army and navy or at home, would, as I would, hail
with unbounded joy the permanent restoration of peace, on the basis of the
Union under the Constitution without the effusion of another drop of
blood. But no peace can be permanent
without union.
As to the other
subjects presented in the resolutions of the Convention, I need only say that I
should seek, in the Constitution of the United States, and the laws framed in
accordance therewith, the rule of my duty, and the limitations of Executive
power; endeavor to restore economy in public expenditure, re-establish the
supremacy of law, and by the operation of a more rigorous nationality, resume
our commanding position among the nations of the earth . . .
Betrayed, the Copperheads and the Peace Democrats refused to
actively support McClellan’s candidacy. Pendleton even spoke against him in
Party circles. This, plus the unforeseen Autumn upswing in the Union’s fortunes
of war, sank McClellan’s candidacy.
