Page:Schurzlincoln00carlrich.djvu/115

Rh party rose with rapidly growing enthusiasm. The song “We are coming, Father Abraham, three hundred thousand strong,” resounded all over the land. Long before the decisive day arrived, the result was beyond doubt, and Lincoln was reëlected President by overwhelming majorities. The election over, even his severest critics found themselves forced to admit that Lincoln was the only possible candidate for the Union party in 1864, and that neither political combinations nor campaign speeches, nor even victories in the field, were needed to insure his success. The plain people had all the while been satisfied with Abraham Lincoln: they confided in him; they loved him; they felt themselves near to him; they saw personified in him the cause of Union and freedom; and they went to the ballot-box for him in their strength.

The hour of triumph called out the characteristic impulses of his nature. The opposition within the Union party had stung