of France, he would be left unmolested to carry out his own schemes in Mexico.  He had induced an honest-minded but not very clearheaded Prince, Maximilian, the brother of the Emperor of Austria, to accept a throne in Mexico to be established by French bayonets, and which, as the result showed, could sustain itself only while those bayonets were available.  The presence of French troops on American soil brought fresh anxieties to the administration; but it was recognised that nothing could be done for the moment, and Lincoln and his advisers were hopeful that the Mexicans, before their capital had been taken possession of by the invader, would be able to maintain some national government until, with the successful close of its own War, the United States could come to the defence of the sister republic.

The extreme anti-slavery group of the Republican party had, as indicated, never been fully satisfied with the thoroughness of the anti-slavery policy of the administration and Mr. Chase retained until the action of the convention in June the hope that he might through the influence of this group secure the Presidency.  Lincoln remarks in connection with this candidacy:  “If Chase becomes President, all right.  I hope we may never have a worse man.”  From the more conservative wing of the Republican party came suggestions as to the nomination of Grant and this plan brought from Lincoln the remark:  “If Grant takes Richmond, by all means let him have the nomination.”  When the delegates came together, however, in Baltimore, it was evident that, representing as they did the sober and well-thought-out convictions of the people, no candidacy but that of Lincoln could secure consideration and his nomination was practically unanimous.

The election in November gave evidence that, even in the midst of civil war, a people’s government can sustain the responsibility of a national election.  The large popular majorities in nearly all of the voting States constituted not only a cordial recognition of the service that was being rendered by Lincoln and by Lincoln’s administration, but a substantial assurance that the cause of nationality was to be sustained with all the resources of the nation.  The Presidential election of this year gave the final blow to the hopes of the Confederacy.

I had myself a part in a very small division of this election, a division which could have no effect in the final gathering of the votes, but which was in a way typical of the spirit of the army.  On the 6th of November, 1864, I was in Libby Prison, having been captured at the battle of Cedar Creek in October.  It was decided to hold a Presidential election in the prison, although some of us were rather doubtful as to the policy and anxious in regard to the result.  The exchange of prisoners had been blocked for nearly a year on the ground of the refusal on the part of the South to exchange the coloured troops or white officers who held commissions in coloured regiments.