Abraham Lincoln "Gets Out The Vote"
Coincidentally, it was on November 6, 1860 (152 years or 38 elections ago) that Abraham Lincoln was first elected President of the United States. Lincoln only won 39.8 percent of the popular vote in his first presidential victory, the smallest percentage ever recorded for the winning candidate.
Candidates who received less than 50 percent of the popular vote have won 18 presidential elections and in fact four winning candidates have finished second in the popular vote: John Quincy Adams, Rutherford Hayes, Benjamin Harrison and George W. Bush. Lincoln is unique in winning the presidency with such a small percentage of the popular vote.
Lincoln had no help from his running mate. He only met his vice president Hannibal Hamlin on Election Day. Once again that wasn't unusual for the times. In 1876 when Rutherford Hayes was nominated as the candidate for the Republican party, and was told that his running mate would be William Wheeler, he sent a telegraph back asking "who's Wheeler?"
Lincoln won his election by splitting the remaining 60.2 percent among three other candidates: Stephen A. Douglas (29 percent), John C. Breckenridge (18 percent), and John Bell (13 percent).
Four years later, in 1864, with the Civil War going badly, Lincoln made preparations to go home, fully expecting General George McClellan to be his successor. He had even prepared a letter to be opened in the event of his defeat. Historian James McPherson notes, "If the election had been held in August 1864 instead of November, Lincoln would have lost." McPherson adds, "In the middle of an unexpectedly long war that had, in Walt Whitman's memorable words, turned the nation into 'one vast central hospital,' the president needed all the help he could get in his faltering reelection bid. His primary support came from soldiers and those who continued to believe in the war."
McPherson notes that "Honest Abe" wasn't above using political manipulation to secure an electoral victory. He points out
"Of the twenty-five states of the Union, only fourteen permitted soldiers to vote in the state they happened to be in while fighting. Soldiers from the remaining eleven states would be out of luck because they were not home. One of the critical states was Indiana. The state's Republican governor went to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and told him that without the support of Indiana's fifteen thousand soldiers, Lincoln would lose. How about giving the soldiers 'sick leave' so they could come home to vote? A letter immediately went out, signed by the president, to General William Tecumseh Sherman: 'Indiana is the only important State victory in October, whose soldiers cannot vote in the field. Anything you can do to let her soldiers, or any part of them, go home to vote at the State election will be greatly in point.' Never in the history of warfare had soldiers been permitted to go home to vote, thought Sherman when he read the letter, but then, this was different. 'Our armies vanish before our eyes and it is useless to complain,' he wrote his wife, 'because the election is more important than the war.' (He also knew if Lincoln lost, he would be out of a job. The Democrats were furious when they heard what Lincoln had done, but there was nothing they could do, lest it impugn the patriotism of their fighting men. They became even more frustrated when they saw what happened on Election Day. From every direction, thousands of soldiers got off the train to vote and sweep Lincoln to victory. Exactly who these thousands of troops were, nobody could be sure. It was, in the words of one contemporary historian, 'the day that Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Ohio voted in Indiana.'"
Here's wishing that whatever the outcome of today's election, that it is truly reflective of wishes of the electorate.
Candidates who received less than 50 percent of the popular vote have won 18 presidential elections and in fact four winning candidates have finished second in the popular vote: John Quincy Adams, Rutherford Hayes, Benjamin Harrison and George W. Bush. Lincoln is unique in winning the presidency with such a small percentage of the popular vote.
Lincoln had no help from his running mate. He only met his vice president Hannibal Hamlin on Election Day. Once again that wasn't unusual for the times. In 1876 when Rutherford Hayes was nominated as the candidate for the Republican party, and was told that his running mate would be William Wheeler, he sent a telegraph back asking "who's Wheeler?"
Lincoln won his election by splitting the remaining 60.2 percent among three other candidates: Stephen A. Douglas (29 percent), John C. Breckenridge (18 percent), and John Bell (13 percent).
Four years later, in 1864, with the Civil War going badly, Lincoln made preparations to go home, fully expecting General George McClellan to be his successor. He had even prepared a letter to be opened in the event of his defeat. Historian James McPherson notes, "If the election had been held in August 1864 instead of November, Lincoln would have lost." McPherson adds, "In the middle of an unexpectedly long war that had, in Walt Whitman's memorable words, turned the nation into 'one vast central hospital,' the president needed all the help he could get in his faltering reelection bid. His primary support came from soldiers and those who continued to believe in the war."
McPherson notes that "Honest Abe" wasn't above using political manipulation to secure an electoral victory. He points out
"Of the twenty-five states of the Union, only fourteen permitted soldiers to vote in the state they happened to be in while fighting. Soldiers from the remaining eleven states would be out of luck because they were not home. One of the critical states was Indiana. The state's Republican governor went to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton and told him that without the support of Indiana's fifteen thousand soldiers, Lincoln would lose. How about giving the soldiers 'sick leave' so they could come home to vote? A letter immediately went out, signed by the president, to General William Tecumseh Sherman: 'Indiana is the only important State victory in October, whose soldiers cannot vote in the field. Anything you can do to let her soldiers, or any part of them, go home to vote at the State election will be greatly in point.' Never in the history of warfare had soldiers been permitted to go home to vote, thought Sherman when he read the letter, but then, this was different. 'Our armies vanish before our eyes and it is useless to complain,' he wrote his wife, 'because the election is more important than the war.' (He also knew if Lincoln lost, he would be out of a job. The Democrats were furious when they heard what Lincoln had done, but there was nothing they could do, lest it impugn the patriotism of their fighting men. They became even more frustrated when they saw what happened on Election Day. From every direction, thousands of soldiers got off the train to vote and sweep Lincoln to victory. Exactly who these thousands of troops were, nobody could be sure. It was, in the words of one contemporary historian, 'the day that Michigan, Illinois, Pennsylvania, and Ohio voted in Indiana.'"
Here's wishing that whatever the outcome of today's election, that it is truly reflective of wishes of the electorate.