Civil War (3): Ten Days in August, 1864 – Lincoln at a Crossroads

Between August 16 and August 25, 1864, President Abraham Lincoln had to face down his fears – his fear that he would not be reelected, his fear that the war would be lost, and his fear that slavery would not be abolished.  He chose to remain steadfast.

The war was not going well for the Union armies during the summer of 1864.  After fighting a series of bloody battles including the disastrous "Battle of the Crater" on July 30 Grant and the Army of the Potomac were stalled before Petersburg.  Sherman, likewise, was locked before the gates of Atlanta, which was protected by Hood's Army of Tennessee.   Sheridan was unable to take control of the Shenandoah Valley, and seemed just as powerless against Jubal Early as earlier Union generals had been against Stonewall Jackson.  Earlier that summer the Red River campaign in Louisiana under the incompetent General Banks had ended in disaster.  Northern newspapers were pleading for peace, the "War Democrats" and moderate Republicans were wavering, and Lincoln's prospects for reelection – and African-Americans' prospects for freedom – seemed bleak.

On August 16, Charles Robinson, editor of the Green Bay Advocate, wrote to Lincoln asking him to drop his insistance upon emancipation of the slaves as a condition to peace, and to enter into negotiations with the Confederacy on the ground that slavery would be preserved and the union restored as it had been.

On August 17 and 18 Lincoln drafted a response to Robinson in which he said,

If Jefferson Davis wishes … to know what I would do if he were to offer peace and re-union, saying nothing about slavery, let him try me."

Lincoln did not send the letter, but instead asked Frederick Douglass, the former slave whom Lincoln considered "one of the most meritorious men in America" to review the draft of the letter with him.  Douglass met with Lincoln on the afternoon of the 19th.  Douglass told him:

It would be taken as a complete surrender of your antislavery policy, and do you serious damage.

Lincoln then proposed to Douglass an audicious plan – that the government should organize a band of scouts that would go south and lead as many slaves to freedom as they could.  This was a desperate measure being suggested by a President who doubted that the Union would prevail, and who believed that slavery might not be ended by force of arms.

That evening Lincoln met with Alexander W. Randall and Joseph T. Mills, both from Wisconsin, the first a former governor of that state and the second a judge.  In response to Robinson's letter, Lincoln told them:

�There have been men who have proposed to me to return to slavery the black warriors of Port Hudson & Olustee to their masters to conciliate the South. I should be damned in time & in eternity for so doing. The world shall know that I will keep my faith to friends & enemies, come what will.  My enemies say I am now carrying on this war for the sole purpose of abolition. It is & will be carried on so long as I am President for the sole purpose of restoring the Union. But no human power can subdue this rebellion without using the Emancipation lever as I have done. Freedom has given us the control of 200 000 able bodied men, born & raised on southern soil. It will give us more yet. Just so much it has sub[t]racted from the strength of our enemies, & instead of alienating the south from us, there are evidences of a fraternal feeling growing up between our own & rebel soldiers. My enemies condemn my emancipation policy. Let them prove by the history of this war, that we can restore the Union without it.�

Lincoln decided not to send the letter he had drafted to Robinson.

On August 22, Lincoln spoke to the 166th Ohio Regiment, passing through Washington on their way home.  He said:

I suppose you are going home to see your families and friends. For the service you have done in this great struggle in which we are engaged I present you sincere thanks for myself and the country. I almost always feel inclined, when I happen to say anything to soldiers, to impress upon them in a few brief remarks the importance of success in this contest. It is not merely for to-day, but for all time to come that we should perpetuate for our children's children this great and free government, which we have enjoyed all our lives. I beg you to remember this, not merely for my sake, but for yours. I happen temporarily to occupy this big White House. I am a living witness that any one of your children may look to come here as my father's child has. It is in order that each of you may have through this free government which we have enjoyed, an open field and a fair chance for your industry, enterprise and intelligence; that you may all have equal privileges in the race of life, with all its desirable human aspirations. It is for this the struggle should be maintained, that we may not lose our birthright—not only for one, but for two or three years. The nation is worth fighting for, to secure such an inestimable jewel.

Lincoln was well aware that he occupied the White House only "temporarily."  Ten days earlier Thurlow Weed, the New York political leader, had told Lincoln:

that his re-election was an impossibility. … The People are wild for Peace. They are told that the President will only listen to terms of Peace on condition Slavery be `abandoned.'

On August 22 Henry J. Raymond, editor of the New York Times and Chairman of the Republican Party, wrote a letter to the President stating flatly that he and other party leaders believed that as things stood Lincoln could not be reeelected.  Raymond wrote that if the election were held that day Lincoln would lose Illinois, Pennsylvania, Indiana and New York.  He recommended that Lincoln must perform a "bold act" – that he should send a commissioner to Jefferson Davis

to make distinct proffers of peace .. on the sole condition of acknowledging the supremacy of the Constitution – all other questions to be settled in a convention of the people.

In other words, like Robinson (and Horace Greeley before him) Raymond and the Republican leaders were advising Lincoln to give up on emancipation and sue for peace.

Lincoln did not ignore what his political allies were saying.  But neither did he give in to their fear.  Instead, at the cabinet meeting the following day, August 23, Lincoln presented his ministers with a piece of paper folded so that only a signature line showed, and asked the cabinet members to sign it without reading it.  They did.  The message stated:

This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this Administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to so co-operate with the President elect, as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration; as he will have secured his election on such ground that he can not possibly save it afterwards.

Lincoln expected that McClellan would be elected President, and that the war must be won – if at all – before the end of his term in March of 1865. 

In response to Raymond, on August 24 Lincoln drafted a letter agreeing with him and accepting his advice.  Lincoln authorized Raymond to proceed to Richmond to tell the Confederate leaders that

upon the restoration of the Union and the national authority, the war shall cease at once, all remaining questions to be left for adjustment by peaceful modes.

But, as he had with the letter he had drafted to Robinson, Lincoln put the letter to Raymond away and did not send it.  Instead on August 25 Lincoln invited Raymond to the White House to meet with him and three members of the cabinet – Secretary of State William Seward, Secretary of War Edwin Stanton, and Secretary of the Treasury William Fessenden.  Lincoln and his subordinates convinced Raymond that to send such a commission to Richmond would do no good – that it would in fact amount to "surrender."  Raymond emerged from the meeting with his confidence renewed.  Two days later the Times reported that every member of the Republican National Committee "is deeply impressed with the belief that Mr. Lincoln will be reelected."

Events moved quickly after that.  On August 29 the New York Times reported that Fort Morgan, the principal Confederate stronghold in Mobile Bay, had fallen to Admiral Farragut.  On August 31 Sherman attacked the last railroad connection into Atlanta and cut the defenders' supply lines, leading to Hood's evacuation of Atlanta on September 1 and the capture of the city by the Union army on September 2.  On September 19 Sheridan's forces engaged Early's Army of the Valley and defeated them, sending them "whirling through Winchester."   Lincoln had weathered the storm and was handily reelected.

On December 13, 1860, after his election to the Presidency but before he took office, Lincoln had written to Elihu Washburne, one of his strongest supporters in Congress, that the Republican Party must not compromise on the question of the extension of slavery to new states or territories – that they must not buckle in to threats of seccession.  He stated:

On that point hold firm, as with a chain of steel.

Four years later Lincoln displayed the same fortitude in resisting calls to in effect withdraw the Emancipation Proclamation and sacrifice the black race in return for peace. 

I consulted the following sources in the preparation of this essay:  Abraham Lincoln, Collected Works (Basler, ed. 1953) at http://quod.lib.umich.edu/l/lincoln/; William Lee Miller, President Lincoln 380-390 (2008) (which includes repeated reference to the "chain of steel" theme); David Herbert Donald, Lincoln 525-530 (1995); Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals 645-653 (2005); Stephen B. Oates, With Malice Toward None 429-430 (1977).

Professor Huhn has taught Constitutional Law at the University of Akron for over a quarter century. You may access his websites on Constitutional Law and Health Care Financing Reform for additional materials and information about those subjects. Drafts of his scholarly work are available from his author page at ssrn: http://ssrn.com/author=83790

Tagged as: Abraham Lincoln, august 1864, charles robinson, civil war, emancipation, frederick douglass, henry raymond, Lincoln, mills, raymond, robinson, slavery, thurlow weed