>> the first type, the one you just referenced about being away from home and on the high seas, that's applies to the css shenandoah and others of her ilk. it was the hope that no matter what happens, we will do our part, is the sense i get from the shenandoah and her officers. the true con fed rates. the europeans that sign on are mostly for a pay check and to share in the profits of whatever prizes that they taken a whatever money they can collect from those prizes. but the officers say we will do our best to strike a blow at the yankees. however when they find out the war is over, morale plumets and actually, a neat leadership trick for him to get the shenandoah back from the pacific to the liverpool and keep it from surrendering.

the vast number of confederate sailors, most of those guys that crew those three iron clads are from virginia and are based in and around richmond on the rivers. so they are actually not that cut poch one of the best things that helped sailor morale is right up until the end the navy eats better than the normally does. the amy has a far better ration system than the army does. but the -- one of the things too that sustains the sailors particularly the ones on the ironclads and particularly the ones, you know, on the rivers, is that they are defending home. they are making a visible contribution and these ironclads still remain a psychological advantage for the con fed rates. we're in an ironclad. in a new ship. the yanks will have trouble with us no matter what, and we will cause trouble for them. that helped sustain morale more

than anything. >> before wre wrap up, chris is the author of books. something that is usually overlooked in light of the flashier gediesburg and vicksburg kind of things. he is one of several areceivsevo is upstairs signing books. we will take a five-minute break and be back with meg thompson. >> thank you very much. >> next, author jonathan white discusses the role of the union army in abraham lincoln's 1864 reelection. he explains how many troops had to be coerced into supporting the president as he challenged the pro slavery candidate. ultimately president lincoln earned 80% of the soldiers' votes. the new york historical society and bryant par corporation hosted this hour-long event. >> thank you so much, paul. good evening, everybody.

it is really wonderful to see everybody out here on this beautiful summer evening. it is a pleasure to introduce tonight's speaker and to partner with the bryant park corporation in what is our fifth year working with them on this summer series. it is always wonderful to come out and see our members and sometimes we have members from the museum as well as members of our chairman's council coming out to support us. so we do appreciate everyone's support. jonathan w. white is an assist upt professor of american studies and fellow for american studies at christopher newport university where he is also adviser. he most recently authored. the final voyage of the uss monitor during the civil war and midnight in america history of sleep and dreams during the civil war. please join me in welcoming jonathan w. white.

>> thank you so much for having me. can you all me hear me okay in the bleacher seats back there? okay. i love having the opportunity to come to new york city. this is actually only my third trip here. i spent two weeks here though, about eight years ago. i had a fellowship and i spent two weeks at new york historical society. i love going there to do research and in fact i stopped by there this afternoon with my daughter. she's 14 months old. and we had to get a picture of her next to lincoln statue out front. my poor daughter has been to more civil war sights than i think most people see in a lifetime. if you will pardon me on this. when she was born, we didn't have a name for her. so i announced her to all of my friends on facebook at mafr mary todd lincoln white. the worst part is that about half of my friends believed it. i'm here to talk about the election of 1864. this is the 150th anniversary of that election. i think the election of 1864 is

really the most important election in american history. it sealed the doom of the confederacy and set the stage for the construction of slavery. prior to that election, many americans doubted that election would be held at all. you will see a lot of new yorkers in this talk since i'm up here in new york. francis leeber, professor at columbia university, wrote in august 1864, he said this, if we come triumphantly out of this war with the presidential election in the midst of it, i shall call it the greatest miracle in all the historic course of events. the greatest miracle. well that miracle did take place on november 8, 1864 americans both civilians and soldiers voted throughout the nation for president. it was an unbelievable feat. first time in our history that there had been a popular election like that. two days later, president lincoln addressed a gathering of well-wishers at the white house.

he said to them, we cannot have free government without elections. and if the rebellion could force us to postpone a national election, it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us. well, lincoln had reason to feel confident. he had just won two days earlier by a landslide. he carried the electoral college 212-21. he won 55% of the popular vote in that election and most amazingly he won 80% of the soldier vote. a huge number. and so many in the north were celebrating this victory. they knew that it meant the war would soon be over. he would fight to win. and in fact there was a grand celebration held at the cooper union not too far from here. and the organizers of the celebration sent a letter to william cullen bryant. i figured since his statute is right around the corner from here, i had to bring bryant into this. and bryant was too busy to

attend. he wrote back and said, i'm sorry, i already have a prior commitment. but he said to the organizer of this event, i shall be present with you in spirit. and will take part in the rejoicings inspired bit glorious result of the late election which should be chronicled among the signal favors shown by providence to our republic. and he concluded the short note by claiming that lincoln's reelection will quote do more to hasten the close of the war than 20 battles. now from these perspectives, from leeber's perspective and william culver bryant's perspective, the 1864 appears like a prove den shl miracle. and in a lot of wayes it was. it was a remarkable event, to be held in the midst after civil war. and yet i think it's important when we look back at it, 150 years later, that we not lose a sense of contingency. for much of the campaign,

lincoln's reelection was far from certain. in fact by late august, lincoln had become convinced that he would lose. lincoln on august 23rd, he penned this little note, little memorandum to himself known as the blind memorandum. he said for some days past it has become clear to me that i will lose this election and the candidate who beats me, the democrat who beats me, he doesn't name names, democrats hadn't picked their candidate. but the person who beats me will have secured his election on the basis by which he will not be able to restore the union. and so, i'm paraphrasing here, but lincoln essentially said, i've got do what i can between election day and inauguration next march to restore the union. i'll work with the president-elect. and he took this little memorandum and folded it up and sealed it and brought it to a cabinet meeting. he had all of his cabinet members sign it. they don't know what they were signing but lincoln was forcing

them to sign on to winning the war and restoring the union with the president-elect. well, lincoln ended up winning and later at a cabinet meeting he opened up this thing and showed the cabinet officers who they signed on to and they had a little bit after lauof a laugh . but it gives you a sense that election was unsure. i want to capture a sense of what election looked like for mer keehns and in particular for new yorkers in the months leading up teet location. today is july 30, 2014. i almost said 1864. i want to look back at what workers were thinking about on july 30, 18664. so last week i had this idea. i went to my library and i got out the newspapers or mike film. i looked at the newspaperes from this day 150 years ago to see what new yorkers were reading about in the papers. and i will give you a sense of what new yorkers would have come across. now if you opened up a new york newspaper 150 years ago today,

you would have read a smatd smattering of war news. you would have read about a rebel raid into maryland. would you have read about troop movements around peterburg, virginia, which is very close to where i live now. reports seem positive. u.s. grant seemed to be moving forward. would you have read about guerrilla welfare in northwest kentucky and read about the northwest conspiracy. i don't know how many of you are familiar with this but authorities had just uncovered, or so they claimed, this massive plot in the old northwest. today we know as the old northwest as the midwest. back then it was the norm west. there were supposed secret societies all over the place p. run by democratic leaders. and secret societies were organizing with confederate agents in canada and they were getting money and getting guns and the plan that these secret

societies had was, we're going to take all these guns and go to union pow camps in the north and we're going to break in and we're going to give these guns to confederate pows. well arm them then overthrow the government and uniones from within. this is breaking news on july 3, 1864. i0 1864. i i will give you a few specifics, if you would have opened the "new york times" would you have found a recipe for blackberry brandy for soldiers. i wanted to try to make it before i came so i could tell you how it was, but i didn't have time. could you have read about a baseball match between the athletics and brooklyn resolute. i'm a fill dell feeian.

if any of you know, i would never see a score like that from my hometown boys. could you have read excerpts from college speeches. if you turned to the police blotter you would have read about the arrest of an irish immigrant named tom keen tp his poe offense was having two wives. if you turn to the harold, could you have gone to a concert at 4:30 at central park weather mer permitting, it said. you could have seen a list of musicals and plays going on on broadway. if music and theater isn't your thing, you could have gone to barnham's museum. which is promoting two giants and two dwarfs for your viewing pleasure. if you wanted to see the police log in the harold you would have read about a massive jewelry heist that took place not too far from here. if you turn to the classified of

the most important northern newspaper, who aris greeley's new york tribune, women could have purchasesed for 50 cents a self addressed stamped envelope a secret that every woman should know. divorce is legally procured in another state without publicity or change of residents. i gave this talk as a to my wife a couple nights ago. she was listening, but her ears perked up and she said, hats the secret? and i said, i don't know, but i would have charged a lot more than a cents for it. new yorkers did not know yet what took place on july 30,

1864. confederates went to the city of chambersburg and demanded money from the residents and residents turned over the money. then the confederates demanded more. they said pay us or we will burn down your town. residents turned over more. the confederates kept demanding money until there was none left. than they burned down the city. there was the battle of the crater that some of you might be familiar with. for weeks leading up to july 30th, there were pennsylvania coal miners in ulysses s. grant's army. we can dig under the confederate lines around petersburg. we can pack the tunnel full of don't might. we can explode it and confederates will never see it coming. they did this and at 4:00 a.m. on july 30th, 1864, they lit the

fuse. so some guy goes into this tunnel, lights the fuse, comes out and they wait. nothing happens. and some pour guy had to crawl back in there and see what the matter was. saw that fused gone out, realize it comes back out, there is a massive explosion, it creates a huge crater and the crater is still there today. can you still go see it and union troops should have gone around the crater when they attacked. but instead they went into it and went whe they got to the other end they found that they couldn't scale the wall so they were stuck there. and the con fed rates were shocked at first and many were killed but by the time the cop fed rate gained their bearing they realized they could fire right into this pit and kill union soldiers. if any of you have seen the movie "cold mountain" this is one of the opening scenes in that film and i think the film captures is very well. even further south, union

general sherman was stuckout side of atlanta unable to capture the confederate strong hold. so july 30, 1864 was actually a pretty awful day for the union. in following days new yorkers would open up their newspapers and read about theter ebl news. there is a famous new york lawyer named george templeton strong. he recorded in his diary on july 31st he said, it is the hottest day of this burning summer. according to my sensations, if not the thermometer, i've stayed indoors until tonight steaming with perspiration. and at 2:00 in that afternoon, strong got the afternoon edition of a new york newspaper. it reported debt back el that had taken place at petersburg. strong described what had taken place and concluded his diary with this glum note. we have no right to expect speedy victory in this war.

or to ask that rebellion be suppressed until we have suffered more than we yet have done. well, the juice of july 30th captured how people felt in the north. it was a long, hot, awful summer p. in may and june 18664 u lessis s. grant pummelled each other outside of richmond, virginia. grant lost 6 0,000 men in that period. in the midst of all that carnage, abraham lincoln was renominated during the republican party for president. and he was put on a platform pledging a constitutional amendment to abolish slavery. if you have seen the spielburg movie "lincoln" you know how that turns out.

even though it was unanimous, he wasn't necessarily well liked by everyone in his party. in fact the radical wing of his party was doing everything it could could get rid of him. lincoln secretary of treasury sam and chase was using his position as treasury department secretary. to use patronage, putting people into useful positions who might be able to help get rid of lincoln as republican nominee. and after lincoln was nominated, john charles fremont refused to drop out of race until september. and so fremont had actually been the first republican candidate for president in 1856. and fremont was threatening to divide the party if lincoln wouldn't drop out of the race. well, the democrats had been planning to hold their convention on july 4th. what better day, what bet arter british day to hold a convention

and democrats saw how bad the warn wag s going. they thought, maybe we should way and see how it goes before we write our nominee and to our platform. so they waited until the last three days of august when they convened on on august 29 in chicago, they nominated george mcclelon. he was a popular officer in the first two years of the war. loved by his soldiers. democrats hoped that they could win over some of the soldiers votes if they nom named mcclelon. mcclelon was a fairly moderate candidate. pro union and pro war but he was also pro slavery. now the vice presidential nominee was the more controversial one. george h. pendleton, if you want it see one of the copper heads who opposes the 13th amendment,

pendleton was one of them. he with was a congressman from ohio. pendleton was pro slavely and anti-war. what democrats hope they could do is balance their ticket. we're going to have a pro war candidate for president and have an anti-war known as copper head candidate for vice president and that way we can have a broad appeal to a lot of different democratic voters. the democrats then wrote their platform. and they made one huge miscalculation in their platform. if you head the democratic platform, a huge indictment of the lincoln administration and in the fourth plank they called the war a failure. now keep in mind again, the summer is going very badly. lincoln thinks he had lose so they call the war a failure. well, the timing could not have been worse for the democrats. the very day after they adjourned, william sherman

captured atlanta and this capture of atlanta sent a thrill through the north. from that point forward, it was pretty clear to most observers that lincoln was going to win. now that is a general overview of the election. and what i want to do now is tell you a little bit about the research in my book and this is research that no one has really done before. my research focuses on lincoln and's mass pags and his re-elect in 1864. 19 norther states actually passed legislation authorizing soldiers to vote away from home. and this legislation took different forms in some states soldiers were allowed to vote in the field and they actually set up polls and people vote along their company streets. other states did it between absentee balloting. the governor of new york vetoed a law in 1863 authorizing soldiers to vote because he said our state constitution requires people to vote in new york. and so the new york legislature

thought well okay, he is going to veto it if we pass it again. we need a different plan. how about this, we let soldiers fill out their ballots in the field and they mail them home and someone at home will cast the ballot for the soldier and that way the ballot is cast in new york. and that is how new york soldiers voted in 1864. i actually began this research when ways an undergrad and so there are parts of my book that i wrote when i was around 21 years old. if any of you buy it afterward, i hope you don't notice which parts i wrote when i was younger. i was studying under a professor mark kneelly. he is one of the most important historians of the american civil r war today. he is a historian. there is the fall of 2000, during the bush versus gore election fiasco.

and so one day i went to mark and i said, i would like to do an independent study. he said great, what do you want to write about. i gave him an idea. he said, that is not a very good idea. come back in a couple days and we will talk about good ideas. he didn't put it quite like that. so i went back and he gave me a few topics that i could do as an undergrad in the middle of know no where in pennsylvania. one of them was the soldier vote. i had never heard of soldiers voting. never heard of contested elections. bush versus gore. there were a lot of contested elections, especially during the civil war. this seemed leak an interesting topic to me. i didn't know at the time that mark had been planning to write about the soldier vote on a book he was writing then. he graciously gave me the topic. i wrote three articles out of it and out in book.

i was thrilled to dedicate the book to mark kneelly. sorry for the little tangent. 80% of soldiers who voted, voted for lincoln. historians have generally looked at this statistic and they say, well it is pretty obvious. the soldier supported emancipation and soldiers supported lincoln. that's why 80% of them voted for him. in my book i argue that i think historians have been getting it wrong for the last 150 years. can i only briefly summarize my findings tonight but the main thrust of my book is to show how democrats in the army were intimidated and coerced into silence throughout much of the war when they opposed emancipation. and that lincoln administration used coercive measures as a way it try to teach soldiers that they needed to fight in a war for emancipation. keep in mind when the war begins, lincoln's argument, and

his argument throughout the war, is that this is a war for union and soldiers who enlist in 1861 and 62 say i'm enlisting for the union. so lincoln has to teach them, i argue, that they need to fight for emancipation. and in this period of the election of 1864, there is a lot of soldiers posing emancipation speaking out against it and so the war department used a lot of envelope to try to force them to not oppose emancipation. so what i will do now is just give you a couple examples of things that i found. the assistant secretary of war is a man named charles dana. he is a new york newspaper editor before the war. he recalled in his memoirs after the year, all of the power and influence of the war department was employed to secure the reelection of mr. lincoln. well, dana's recollection is from the war of 1864 itself. the secretary of war is a man

named edward stanton. stanton used power to bring vote neers line. to be sure they either vote ford lincoln or didn't speak too badly about the president. stanton dismissed dozens of officers during summer and fall of 1864 when they spoke out against lincoln. in one occasion, stanton dismissed almost two dozen at one time. one of the senators, one of the u.s. senators from new york was a man named edwin morgan. morgan went to stanton and said, you know, there's quarter master clerks who are out there harahhing for mcclelon. when stanton heard this, he outright fired them. he said, when a man receives pay from an administration and then denounces its terms he cannot be

surprised if the administration prefers a friend on the job. now stanton made very little effort to hide this sort of partisanship. he learned about one officer who was wagering bets against the republican governor of indiana. which was illegal. still is, i think. and this guy, the soldiers betting against the republican and when stanton learned he boasted to a republican gathering at the wlohite house said i reduced him to a captain and ordered him to himself the other day. i found that quote two weeks ago. this is the thing, being an author is a wonderful thing. i love my job but one of the hardest things is you find great things after the book is out. so but there it is. now democrats noticed what was going on. and they came to believe that stanton was taking this sort of indictive actiones so he could control the officers in a way that would not only influence

their votes but influence votes of the enlisted men serving under them and democrats learned that they needed to keep quiet if they oppose lincoln in the field. i found a letter from a colonel from ohio daved durbin ward. in 1864 he said, i'm driven to be cautious because publicly speaking my political opinions might cost me my commission. i found an are a till rift who wrote to his parents, i might be called a copper head, which a republican epithet for democrats, and po perhaps a poor cuss like me might get shot. i found in a newspaper article about something that happened

around west point. democrats wanted to go to a democrat kpaen rally. you do that in election season. you want to hear a rousing speech. they went out to hear a pro mcclelon rally and the superintendent found poupt incidentally, the previous superintendent was dismissed in july 1864 because stanton found out he was democrat. so the new superintendent found out they went to listen to a democratic meet pg. they were put into a guard house then the next morning had to dig a drainage ditch for the soup tendant's water closet. those going to west poent face node such intimidation. court-martial records are records that have not yet been mined well enough by historians. there are 75,000 court-martial record at national archives.

i found a number who were court-martialed for speaking ill will of lincoln during the election season. i have cleared this with c-span. some of the language is colorful. i want to give you an example of some of the things that people were court m-martialed for. edward b. austin was court-martialed and dismissed for saying he would quote stamp lincoln finer than hell and if by giving my vote for abe loinkon i could save the government i would be damned if i would give it. i found the missouri are a tillerist named henry who was court-martialed for saying lincoln is a damned son of a bitch and those who voted for him were sons of bitches also. my favorite quote and there is a lot of these in the book but my favorite comes from an illinois captain named john gibson. he was the captain of the 114th illinois. and he was court-martialed and

dismissed from the army for saying, he would rather sink to hell than free the negros and that old abe lincoln is a god damned old [ bleep ]. i thought that would have been a great title for my book. i probably would have sold a lot more copies. i probably should have done that. these guys and many like them were court-martialed. some of them went beyond even the excerpts i've given you. but court-martialed because the lincoln administration i argue wanted to teach the soldiers to not criticize emancipation, to not criticize the war, official military policy of the government. and it was effective. it taught people to keep their opinions to themselves. now some of the most egregious were furloughs. not all voted in the field.

some states didn't permit soldiers to vote in the field and so republican governors from those states wrote letters to secretary of war stanton and these letters are still at library of congress saying, will you please furlough republican soldiers to come home to vote. we're going to lose the election in our state if you don't do that. and stanton was perfectly happy to oblige. indiana didn't allow doctors to vote. he wrote a letter about one wounded soldier from indiana and said this -- he said, you should give tlem a furlough to go home to vote. because his vote will be as much or more value in the presidential election in the state than his service might otherwise render the government. you in other words, his bullet hes will be more important than his ballots. officers throughout the union armies granted furloughs to republican soldiers. they were allowed to go home to vote.

while democrats were kept in the field. i want to you think about this for a moment. some of these soldiers had not been home for many months, if not several years. getting a furlough to go home to vote was a huge thing because it meant you got see your parents or your siblings or wife or children, people you had n't sen for a long time. now some people, and so democrats will rightly complain about this p. i found a pennsylvania commissioner who reported that democrats were threatened to be sent to the front if they voted. in illinois soldier noted that his regiment was polled to see how many would vote for lincoln if they got a chance to go home. well a lot of democrats will take this chance. i found one soldier from new hampshire and he was a sharp shooter. he wrote a letter to his brother and said, i shall be as black as the darky to get a furlough home to vote.

what he is referring to there is an epithet that democrats referred to as the republican party. democrat called them the black republican party. he didn't write out the word. he wrote d and a long hyphen saying, i'm willing to vote the black republican ticket if it means i get to come home. but not all soldiers were willing to sackry fois their principles. i found a new jersey soldier who wrote angrily thousands father. i suppose i might have gotten home if i would have said i should have voted for old abe. but never. i would sooner stay here for another year than come home and vote for him. well, for those soldiers who did vote in the field they found that it was not necessarily easy to vote the democratic ticket. many democrats complained that they couldn't find ballots in the field. others complained they weren't atloud read democratic newspapers or campaign literature.

you know how important it is to read both sides, right? i found one private from the 75th ohio. rufus miller. when he found out there were no democratic ballots in his camp, he angrily explained, i would rather jet for jeff davis than lincoln. you got love the way they talk back then. he was court mar recalled for saying that. another new york soldier groused quote such mean favoritism or partisanship shown for lincoln and armt army that hundreds of soldiers have been prescribed from voting by mcclelon and their officers and have found mcclelon ballots from other sources. now again, historians often point out that lincoln won 87% of the soldier vote but i don't think they offered a satisfactory explanation of what

that means. certainly many union soldiers supported lincoln and supported emancipation and voted for them. there's no doubt about that. but i don't think their support of lincoln was as universal as most would have it. clearly i think i have shown and i show in the book that many democratic soldiers were intimidated or coerced into voting for lincoln. and i think of even greater importance is looking at the soldiers who didn't vote. i believe that many democratic soldiers chose not to vote in 1864. because they saw lincoln as an abolitionist on the one hand and they saw their own party as disloyal on the other. again, august 1864, the democratic national convention in their platform calls the war a failure. if you are a soldier who las been fighting for two or three years, are you going to vote for a party that says what you're doing in the field as a failure in many would choose not to.

now voter turnout is something that no historian ever considered before when they looked at election. i think it can reveal a lot about what was going on. i found a wonderful letter from a corporal named george buck. george buck served with the 20th michigan volunteers and two days after the election he sent a letter to george b. mcclelon, democratic candidate who just lost and here th is what he had to tell mcclelon. he claimed that the power of the military was used without stint to keep soldiers from voting democratic. he said some soldiers quote were offered kp offered promotion if they voted lincoln. reduced to ranks or a place at the front at every engagement if they dloez vote for you. we've seen that testimony elsewhere. buck said he knew of hundreds of soldiers who voted for lincoln under protest and hundreds more

of your mostardon ardent admire that didn't vote al t at all. he said 300 were eligible to vote but 188 were cast. those are the elements that buck could show that people were feeling pressure to not vote for mcclelon. left you say he was democrat. of course he will say that. i found republicanes who admitted as much. i found one soldier who supported lincoln in the election. but he was upset at the way stanton was acting. secretary of war stanton. he noted the petty tier any and is you board nation. any soldier that don't agree must be got rid of no matter how honorably that soldier had served. in that letter he gave examples.

saying he would scarcely credit the number of cases such as this. petty spite. fitting a bad tempered child than a dignified cabinet member, referring to stanton. it was easy for republican soldiers to vote. i found an account by a confederate. this is a confederate from maryland. and he and his men captured some union soldiers just prior to the election. and they forced the union soldiers to take off their blue uniforms and confederates put on the blue uniforms. then they got lincoln ballots and they march need a union camp, went right up to the polls and voted for lincoln. now they didn't support lincoln but tle wanted to prove a point and the one wrote after having done this, he said, for of course no one could object us to after voting for lincoln. now, all this sort of evidence suggests i think that there was a great amount of pressure and

even coercion to tow the republican party line. i found one democratic are a tillerist who wrote before the election, if i was a civilian, i would say what i thought about it -- about the election. but at present i think i better keep silent. so what does this all mean? first i have to say, i love abraham lincoln. i think he is our greatest president. i have written several books about him and i have several more that i plan it write. i wouldn't devote all of this time to lincoln if i didn't think he was worthy of the study. and certainly i think his election, reelection was the best thing that could have happened. it led to the death of the confederacy and ultimate extinction of slavery. it was mostly a free election but not entirely a free vote.

and i think that having this broader understanding helps us better understand how politics works -- worked during the civil war and also questions issues related to civil liberties and war time. whenever scholars and tv pundits talk about war time they talk about the effect that war has on civilians. but i think we can also learn a lot by the affect the war has on soldiers. lincoln would have been re-elected even if stanton hn' hadn't gone through this during preelections. i didn't get into this in my talk, i have two chapters on it in my book, but what i found in my research that in the period after lincoln issued emans lags proclamation, war department and state department were taking the same kind of measures. and i think that this is really

important because it shows us just how earnest lincoln was about emancipation. lincoln knew there were a lot of soldiers who opposed emancipation. he was going to go to great lengths to try to teach them that emancipation was a cause worth fighting for. now, left i appear to be coming down too critically on the lincoln administration during summer and fallsft i appear to g down too critically on the lincoln administration during summer and fat i appear to be c down too critically on the lincoln administration during summer and fall of 1864, let me just close with two positives about the soldier vote of 1864. the first is there -- permitting soldiers to vote was an incredible innovation. we take absentee balloting for granted today. in fact, there's one state, oregon, requires all voters to vote by absentee ballot. and if any of you aren't around in november when have you your congressional elections, can you request a ballot and go vote and no one will think anything of it. rs that's just how we do things.

well, absentee balloting is -- was not common in the 19th century. i found one example where during the american revolution, new york soldiers, were allowed to work absentee in 1777 but that never became an official policy. during war of 1812 two states, pennsylvania and new jersey passed. new jersey repealed its law in 1815. so when the civil war began, pennsylvania was the only state with a law on the books permitting soldiers to vote. well, soldiers voted in pennsylvania in 1861 and there was a tremendous amount of fraud. one regiment from philadelphia that cast more than 900 ballots even though there weren't even the 900 men in the regiment from philadelphia and the state supreme court struck that down. what republican politicians began to realize in 1861, 62 and

63 was we've got hundreds of thousands of men making the ultimate sacrifice on the battlefield for their nation. they, of all people, deserve the right to vote. anyone who makes that sacrifice. and so beginning in 1861 and all the way up through the election of 1864, states throughout the north began passing legislation enabling soldiers to vote. this was a remarkable expansion of democracy in america and it again sets the precedent for our absentee balloting today. and finally, i'll just close with this, i think that the republican policy for permitting soldiers to vote during the civil war had wide ranging implications. if voting is base owned one's service to one's country and you have african-american men serving in the army during the civil war then surely tle too

deserve the right to vote. i think there is a direct connection between these 19 northern states passing laws allowing soldiers to vote and the 14th and 15th amendment being ratified into the constitution in 1868 and 1870. the republican policy of granting soldiers the franchise is tremendously important for the coming of black suffrage. so where w that, i'm happy to entertain questions. thanks for cupping out to night on this beautiful evening. i think there will be a microphone. will it be in the mid tlel? if you would go to the mic. >> thank you. an excellent book. union high command was, i guess, very politically diverse. hancock and meade were democrats. oliver howard was an abolitionist. butler was a war democrat.

apt e anti-slavery. this question of emancipation, how did that effect the union high command. >> good question. stanton got a letter, i want to say? september, he got word that there were several democrats in the highest echelon of union officers who were going to use their influence to try to effect the election and the letter asked stanton to use his remedy to deal with them. essentially dismissing them. i've only found one brigadier general who was dismiss ford opposing emancipation. a guy named james spears. at first he tried to get someone to write an op ed, he was cleared of that, then he wrote one himself. lincoln hand wrote on his file at the national archives now,

dismissed. but other than that wab, lincoln was very fair-minded. lincoln wanted a fair vote. he said as much. we have his wortds to that effect. so as far as i know, he didn't get rid of any of those democrats, like when hancock. let me say one thing about butler. butler was a war democrat who moves into the radical republican camp by the end of the war. he was from massachusetts. and butler actually got about 5,000 soldiers who he brought to manhattan. he was worried there would be upheaval here. he figured out he couldn't put them in the cite because people wouldn't go for that. there is no war going on here. but they are in boats around the coast of manhattan. ready to come into the city should there be any upheaval on election day. butler was an ardant guy and he was going great lengths. he kept them on the numg side of

the water because they sent in their absentee ballots and the law stipulated that if they came to new york their ballot would be void. sew was very strategic in that. yes? >> i have two questions. number one, steven pendleton, the democratic candidate for vice president -- >> george pendleton. >> george pendleton, thank you. george pendleton, he, as everyone else, must have been aware of the pressure -- of the pressure that was exerted on democrats in the army. did this have any influence on any motivation, influence him, when he became senator, in the 1880s and him -- >> with civil service reform? >> yes. with civil service reform. and my second question, you mentioned william leeber -- >> francis leeber.

>> francis leeber -- >> that's okay. >> at the very beginning of the talk. he is the same francis leeber who wrote the whole code -- >> general order number 100. yes. so the first question, and i down the -- the first question is about george h. pendleton. i didn't mention this. i meant to. he is the father of civil service reform. he was the prime mover behind that. i don't know, actually, if the shenanigans of the election of 1864 influenced him. politicians were certainly aware of some of these things that were going on because soldiers would write to politicians after they had been dismissed and say, look at what just happened to me. and one of his closest allies was an ohio congressman named samuel cox who was kicked out of union camps for trying to peddle democratic tickets. then francis leeber is probably

most fame fours having written wloo is general orders number 100. the very same guy. this is basically a code of war. a code of law that would guide union war policy. so yeah, same man. >> thank you. >> sure. >> of course the question that comes up is lincoln wanted a fair election. but as far as commanders in chief goes, he was probably the strongest we've ever had, most intimately involved in the conduct of the war. he knows stanton quite well and what stanton is doing. with all of the court-martials going on wp what does lincoln know. and to paraphrase the late senator, what did the president know, when did he know it and following that, you do you have any evidence of what lincoln thought about all of these court-martials? >> a great question.

i don't know. lincoln didn't keep a diary unfortunately. so i don't know his most intermate thoughts on this issue. what you can tell, he ended up having to approve a lot of these. any time a soldier was sentenced to be executed, lincoln would have to approve it before the execution is carried out. i saw one soldier who deserved who was sentenced to be executed and lincoln appears to have allowed the execution to go forward although i haven't -- the soldier is not listed in the list of men executed during war. lincoln approved a lost dismi dismiss dismissals. there is a famous case, took place in 1862, john j. key serve on hallock's staff in maryland. key was overheard to have said, you know, we don't really want to hurt the south that badly. we just want to bring them to a point where they are surrender and come back and we can protect

slavery. when lincoln heard about this, he called key into the white house office, into his office, and he talked to him about this. and key said, yeah, i said that and i stand by it. key thought that was okay. but lincoln said, you know, you seem like a competent officer but i can't allow you to be talking like that because it is going to demoralize the men and make them think that war is not worth fighting for. so lincoln not only dismissed key from the army, he had his private secretary john hey anonymously write a newspaper editorial talking about how this was the right thing do. that was published throughout the nation. i think that lincoln understood public sentiment. he understand you had to get the people ton your side, on to what you are doing and he knew how to use the newspapers to get his point across. i think in a lot of cases, many of the ones i found, lincoln upheld the punishments because

he thought it was essential. now lincoln was not vindictive the way i think stanton was. and lincoln, some of these dismissals were not done by court-martial. so they may never have come across lincoln's desk. he was managing so many things that he may. have known about them. i just don't know. thank you. >> thank you for an excellent lecture. what, if any significance, do you attach with respect to lincoln's presidency, the fact that he was a practicing lawyer for many years. and how do you reconcile that or view that in light of the position taken with respect to the position of habeas corpus. >> just have to thank four that question. i have a book coming out if

april called "lincoln's advice for lawyers." a gift i highly recommend for all of your lawyer friend. only 12.99. lincoln was a brilliant lawyer. and he began practicing law around 1836, 1837. and one of lincoln's major approaches to the law was trying to bring peace to neighborhoods. lincoln believed it was important, if at all possible, to settle out of court. he thought litigation was a bad thing if it could be eye voided that was the best way to go. i found one letter that i include in the book -- and

wanting to resolve issues. ultimately trying to resolve issues between two big neighbors. union and confederacy. the specific question is about the suspension of the writ of habeas corpus and whether his practice influenced that decision. -- [ inaudible ] >> right. [ inaudible ] >> sure. i don't know if lincoln's practice as a lawyer prepared him necessarily for that specific issue. and i'll briefly summarize. at the very beginning of the civil war, us is session was on the move. seven states had succeeded

before lincoln became president. in april 1861, the upper south us is seeded aseeded and lincoln looked at the situation an thought, i can't allow them to siesd. lincoln sent a letter to went field scott authorizing scott to suspend the writ of habeas corpus along the military line between philadelphia and washington, d.c. he eventually expanded it up to new york and then even beyond. and what this meant was that the military could arrest civilians and detain them indefinitely without charges as long as public safety required it. now lincoln based this decision on article 1 section 9 of the constitution which says the privilege of the writ of haebus corpus shall not be suspend unless cases the rebellion the

public safety shall require it. lincoln looked at the situation and said, yewell, i have a rebellion on my hands. i think it is required. most theorists looked that and said clearly that is a legislative power because it is in article 1 of the constitution and that's the clause of the constitution that has do with congress. but lincoln looked at the situation and said the constitution is silent. it doesn't say who can suspend it, just that it can be suspended. congress was out of session in april 1861 and the wasn't supposed to come back until december. lincoln thought do i just wait until you know they come back in december. by then, the rebellion might be over with the confederacy being its own nation and so lincoln claimed that constitutional authority to be able to act as an executive with great authority. i don't -- no, i wanted to get background for those that might not be familiar with the case. i don't know if lincoln's

practices as a lawyer -- he just never would have dealt with a case quite like that. but i do agree with you that he -- i think he was a very deep constitutional thinker. you read lincoln's speeches from his 1838 address, 1857 dreadscott speech. lincoln is thinking about the meaning of the words of the constitution and i think he gave them a plausible read flg that instance. a lot of people disagree and think he got it wrong. but he was in a tough spot and i think he managed it very well. >> hi, i have a what if question. >> okay. >> what if atlanta had not fallen on september 1st? what if johnston had stayed in, in office, and not been removed by davis? and atlantis stays and up until the election. do you think that that would have resulted in lincoln losing the election, number one. and if lincoln does lose the

election, what would that have resulted in? would mcclelon administration resulted in a loss for the north? >> great question. the what ifs are always the hardest. because we just don't know. but i'll give my best shot. let's assume atlanta doesn't fall and lincoln doesn't win reelection p. there are other victory fles that period that also buoyed him. sheridan rode through the shenandoah valley and those also bow buoyed the north. let's assume mcclelon wins. mcclelon was pledged to winning the war and restoring the union. generations thought that he was not pledged to that. there was a famous article in the 190s based on bad research that said mcclelon wavered and wasn't as strong on the yun as we thought.3s based on bad rese that said mcclelon wavered and

wasn't as strong on the yun as we thought.0s based on bad rese that said mcclelon wavered and wasn't as strong on the yun as we thought. but that myth has bp debunked. mcclelon would not have probably kept the emancipation proclamation in place. mcclelon would have been fine trying to win the war and let the south keep slavery and the other difficulty is that mcclelon would have had a lot of peace democrats that would have voted for him, who would have said, wait a second ppt platform said this war is a failure. the platform said that we want to have a convention of the state and negotiate with the south. you owe that to us. now how mcclelon would have handled that is impossible to know but i can tell you i have read several letters by democrats. and these are soldiers who say i want to vote for mcclelon but what if he wins and then dies. and there were people who thought mcclelon might get knocked off and then a peace democrat would come in and say to the south, you know what, we

wronged you. you should go in peace and keep your slaves. so my answer is all over the place. but that is a what if. so i hope that helps. >> actually my question has been answered as a i stood in line. the question is there, what abe lincoln eattitude for the coalition of mcclelon and other members of the administration for coercing soldiers and demoting them and court-martialing them. however, the answer seems to be, he was -- he didn't exactly reject this practice. but he didn't condone it either. old benevolent beloved abe really was a politician. he knew how to handle any controversial situation. however, i'm satisfied with the

fact that he never condoned it and did not reject it. and by wait, speaking of you, professor, i us a thought that i was new york's premier civil war historian. now i see that i'm number two. >> oh, thank you so much. [ applause ]