Page:The Presidents of the United States, 1789-1914, v. II.djvu/353

 ABRAHAM LINCOLN 285 late, in the hope that some advantage might be reaped from the events of the summer. The con vention came together on August 29 in Chicago. Mr. Vallandigham, who had returned from his banishment, and whom the government had saga ciously declined to rearrest, led the extreme peace party in the convention. Prominent politicians of New York were present in the interest of Gen. Mc- Clellan. Both sections of the convention gained their point. Gen. McClellan was nominated for the presidency, and Mr. Vallandigham succeeded in imposing upon his party a platform declaring that the war had been a failure, and demanding a cessa tion of hostilities. The capture of Atlanta on the day the convention adjourned seemed to the Unionists a providential answer to the opposition. Republicans, who had been somewhat disheartened by the slow progress of military events and by the open and energetic agitation that the peace party had continued through the summer at the north, now took heart again, and the canvass proceeded with the greatest spirit to the close. Sheridan s victory over Early in the Shenandoah valley gave an added impulse to the general enthusiasm, and in the October elections it was shown that the name of Mr. Lincoln was more popular, and his influence more powerful, than any one had anticipated. In the election that took place on November 8, 1864, he received 2,216,000 votes, and Gen. McClellan,