Page:History of Iowa From the Earliest Times to the Beginning of the Twentieth Century Volume 2.djvu/144

 before. His nomination was won as clearly by an eloquent and adroit speech, as was Bryan’s at Chicago in 1896. Enoch W. Eastman was nominated for Lieutenant-Governor, and John F. Dillon for Supreme Judge. No new issues were represented in the platform he adopted.

The Democratic State Convention met at Des Moines on the 8th of July and put in nomination the following candidates: for Governor, Maturin L. Fisher; Lieutenant-Governor, John F. Duncombe; Supreme Judge, Charles Mason. A lengthy platform of fifteen resolutions was adopted, in which the most notable declarations were these:

“We are opposed to the war for the purpose of carrying out the emancipation proclamation of the President of the United States. That the power which has recently been assumed by the President, wherein, under the guise of military necessity, he has proclaimed martial law over States where war does not exist, and has suspended the writ of habeas corpus, is unwarranted by the Constitution, and its tendency is to subvert our free government. That the establishment of military government over loyal States where war does not exist, to supersede the civil authorities and suppress the freedom of speech and of the press, and to interfere with the elective franchise, is not only subversive of the Constitution and the sovereignty of the States, but the actual inauguration of revolution.”

Mr. Fisher declined the nomination for Governor and General James M. Tuttle was placed at the head of the ticket by the State central committee. The campaign was fought out on the issues made in the above declarations by the Democratic Convention. The Republican candidates were elected by majorities ranging from 30,000 to 32,989.

The feeling of depression and gloom pervading the North after the disasters that had followed the great Army of the Potomac, under its various commanders, up to the close of the year 1862, was not lifted during the first half of 1863. General Rosecrans, after the indecisive battle near Murfreesboro, in Tennessee, in which he lost nearly 20,000 men, without advantage to the Union cause, remained inactive in that vicinity.

The Army of the Potomac, now under General Hooker,