‘Long live the Republic!’ Syracuse and the Election of 1864

On November 7, 1864, Syracuse’s Republican mayor, Archibald Campbell Powell, issued two connected and rather telling proclamations to his fellow citizens.
First, he reminded them that, however much it might assuage their tension and anxiety related to the impending Presidential election, state law forbade the sale of alcohol within a quarter mile of any polling place.
Violators, he stated, would be “duly arrested and brought to trial.”
Second, and more importantly, Powell declared that in the name of bipartisanship and “in view of keeping the public peace of our city at the election to take place tomorrow,” he, “thought proper to commission policemen of both political parties…in the preservation of order.”
The mayor forewarned his officers that should “any member of the force so appointed conduct himself in a noisy, illegal, or oppressive manner,” they would be out of a job.
As evidenced by Mayor Powell’s edicts, Syracuse, like the nation, was barreling towards what most contemporary observers viewed as the most consequential election in the history of the Republic.
Nearly four years into a bloody civil war that already claimed hundreds of thousands of lives, the fact that the election was taking place at all was a miracle; this had never been attempted before by any nation on Earth.
According to a correspondent in the Syracuse Daily Journal, the city’s Republican organ, the stakes were nothing less than the “destiny of the great American Republic…the weal or woe of many millions of men.”
“Upon this decision,” he continued, “is suspended the success or failure of popular government in the whole world and during a boundless future.”
For months in the leadup to election day, November 8, the pages of Syracuse’s daily newspapers traded insults and fiery rhetoric alongside updates from the front.
This intoxicating combination of bloodletting and blood lust created an environment, both in print and reality, of an apocalyptic showdown between Lincoln and his opponent, Gen. George B. McClellan.
McClellan was the former Commanding General of the U.S. Army, whom Lincoln relived of command in March 1862. Many observers believed McClellan was the perfect standard bearer for the Democratic ticket because despite his dismissal two years earlier, he was thought to be held in high regard amongst Union soldiers and much of the public.
On one side stood Lincoln and the Republicans, whose platform in the wake of the Emancipation Proclamation and the proposed 13th Amendment was now uncompromising on the issue of abolition.
“That as slavery was the cause, and now constitutes the strength of this Rebellion… we are in favor, furthermore, of such an amendment to the Constitution…as shall terminate and forever prohibit the existence of Slavery within the limits of the jurisdiction of the United States.”
As for the war, the President said repeatedly that he would prosecute it until its stated ends, putting down the rebellion and, after 1863 the abolition of slavery, were completed.
This stood in stark contrast to the Democratic Party platform, which promised to end the war soon as possible and bring the Union back together with slavery intact. McClellan initially repudiated the infamous “peace plank” of the platform but was ultimately convinced by the “Copperheads” (a derisive name given to northern Democrats by the Republicans) to recant.
Throughout the summer and fall here in Syracuse, the Democratic Party paper, the Daily Courier and Union, conveyed the message that come November, a war weary American electorate would finally vote “the usurper and tyrant” Lincoln out of office.
Citing his inability to end the war and, in their opinion, his wholly unconstitutional emancipation proclamation as the chief grievances.
Ultimately, as many historians point out, Lincoln’s re-election was most likely ensured when General William T. Sherman and his armies, which included over 1,000 men from Syracuse in the NY 149th, finally took Atlanta on September 2, 1864, after a siege of nearly three months.
In part, this victory seemed to shore up Lincoln’s support amongst the Union soldiers, who were, along with their Confederate counterparts, were taking part in a noble democratic experiment begun during the war, the use of absentee (mail-in) ballots.
For many it seemed, the fall of Atlanta made the prospects of the war’s end as real as it had been since it began.
Even the Daily Courier and Union took a break from its usual attacks to praise Sherman and his men for a victory they had said for months was never going to happen.
In fact, just days before reporting Sherman’s victory, the paper had declared that the selection of McClellan as their party’s nominee meant that “Abraham Lincoln’s days are numbered.”
In a macabre coincidence, just a few columns down from this editorial pronouncement, was an advertisement for the famous British actress, Laura Keene, whose travelling theatre company was bringing their version of the popular comedy, “Our American Cousin,” to Syracuse’s Wieting Hall on September 3; the play Lincoln was watching at Ford’s Theatre when he was assassinated eight months later.
With the stakes so high, both sides began to ramp up talk of voter fraud and election interference by partisans and by foreigners as well.
On November 5, just a few days before the election, the Daily Courier and Union ran a column under the emboldened headline “LOOK OUR FOR ILLEGAL VOTES AND COLONIZED VOTERS.”
The piece warned Democratic partisans that “suspicious looking strangers in various cities…. are Canadian raiders who come to burn and destroy.”
“Such strangers,” it continued, “are important to vote the Republican ticket.”
Similar stories accusing “Copperheads” and “confederate sympathizers” appeared in the Daily Journal in increasing numbers in the last week before the election.
Against all odds, the election went ahead with only minor incident and millions of Americans cast their ballots.
On November 9, the Daily Journal informed its readers of the good news. “THE REPUBLIC SAVED! THE COPPERHEADS CRUSHED! RE-ELECTION OF LINCOLN.”
President Lincoln received 2.2 million votes to 1.8 million for McClellan, crushing him in the Electoral College, 212 to 21.
Lincoln carried Onondaga County and New York State.
In Syracuse, he won 3,235 to 3,049; an incredibly close race in a city of approximately 30,000.
According to the Daily Journal, the election was,” the quietest and most orderly ever held in this city. All parties seemed to have resolved in advance, that it should be so.”
Like millions of his countrymen, Mayor Powell must have breathed an enormous sigh of relief.
Mark Twain famously said that history doesn’t repeat, but it often rhymes. We shall see.
Robert Searing’s weekly articles are supported by the William G. Pomeroy Public History Media Series. To learn more about the William G. Pomeroy Foundation’s work to promote public history, visit wgpfoundation.org.