1864 Presidential Election
National Union Party
Abraham Lincoln of Illinois and Joseph Holt of Kentucky
National Union Party
Abraham Lincoln of Illinois and Joseph Holt of Kentucky
The National Union Party's platform calls for pursuit of the war until the Confederacy surrendered unconditionally; a constitutional amendment for the abolition of slavery; aid to disabled Union veterans; continued European neutrality; encouragement of immigration; and construction of a transcontinental railroad. It also praised the use of black troops and Lincoln’s management of the war.
It also incorporates more specific proposals from the Potomac Memorandum on the Terms of Surrender for the Confederacy:
1. Necessary amnesty for enlisted men and commissioned officers of the rank of captain and below;
2. Internment of field grade officers and of C.S. national and state government officials pending preferment of appropriate charges;
3. Charges to be heard by military tribunal;
4. Lifetime disenfranchisement of all field grade and general officers, also C.S. elected officials and general office holders – neither a right to vote nor the ability to hold public office;
5. Confiscation of all real property of convicted traitors - and other convicted rebels and criminals;
6. Guarantees of the rights of southern veterans of the Union army – southerners and negros;
7. An increased regular army to sufficiently occupy the south during any period of Reconstruction.
The Democratic Party
Horatio Seymour of New York and Lazarus W. Powell of Kentucky
Horatio Seymour of New York and Lazarus W. Powell of Kentucky
Moderates within the Democratic Party have triumphed. The platform calls for the ongoing support of the war against the Confederacy, but are open to a negotiated peace if it would secure the Union. They recognize that the South can no longer win the war, but would propose a negotiated peace that would secure Union victory, because an armistice could finish the war without devastating the South.
The Democratic Party is willing to reconsider the position of former slaves as part of those negotiations. They also wish to see a rapid reduction in the army to pre-war levels as soon as the war ends, and wish relations between the states to be normalized as quickly as possible after the peace...
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