Lincoln
let it be clearly understood that if the Union could be restored by
consent he was prepared to advocate the compensation of Southern owners
for the loss of their slaves. The blame for the failure to take
advantage of this moment must rest mainly on Davis. It was he who
refused to listen to any terms save the recognition of Southern
independence; and this attitude doomed the tentative negotiations
entered into at Hampton Roads to failure.

Meanwhile, in the North, Lincoln was chosen President for a second term.
At one time his chances had looked gloomy enough. The Democratic Party
had astutely chosen General McClellan as its candidate. His personal
popularity with the troops, and the suggestion that he was an honest
soldier ill-used by civilian politicians, might well gain him much
support in the armies, for whose voting special provision had been made,
while among the civil population he might expect the support of all who,
for one reason or another, were discontented with the Government. At the
same time the extreme Anti-Slavery wing of the Republican Party,
alienated by the diplomacy of the President in dealing with the Border
States, and by the moderation of his views concerning the Negro and his
future, put forward another displaced general, Fremont. But in the end
circumstances and the confidence which his statesmanship had created
combined to give Lincoln something like a walk-over. The Democratic
Party got into the hands of the "Copperheads" at the very moment when
facts were giving the lie to the "Copperhead" thesis. Its platform
described the course of the war as "four years of failure," and its
issue as hopeless, while before the voting began even a layman could see
that the Confederacy was, from the military point of view, on its last
legs. The War Democrats joined hands with the Republicans, and the
alliance was sealed by the selection of Andrew Johnson, a Jacksonian
Democrat from Tennessee, as candidate for the Vice-Presidency. The
Radical Republicans began to discover how strong a hold Lincoln had
gained on the public mind in the North, and to see that by pressing
their candidate they would only expose the weakness of their faction.
Fremont was withdrawn and McClellan easily defeated. A curious error has
been constantly repeated in print in this country to the effect that
Lincoln was saved only by the votes of the army. There is no shadow of
foundation for this statement. The proportion of his supp