But even after his renomination the opposition to Lincoln within the ranks of the Union party did not subside.  A convention, called by the dissatisfied radicals in Missouri, and favored by men of a similar way of thinking in other States, had been held already in May, and had nominated as its candidate for the Presidency General Fremont.  He, indeed, did not attract a strong following, but opposition movements from different quarters appeared more formidable.  Henry Winter Davis and Benjamin Wade assailed Lincoln in a flaming manifesto.  Other Union men, of undoubted patriotism and high standing, persuaded themselves, and sought to persuade the people, that Lincoln’s renomination was ill advised and dangerous to the Union cause.  As the Democrats had put off their convention until the 29th of August, the Union party had, during the larger part of the summer, no opposing candidate and platform to attack, and the political campaign languished.  Neither were the tidings from the theatre of war of a cheering character.  The terrible losses suffered by Grant’s army in the battles of the Wilderness spread general gloom.  Sherman seemed for a while to be in a precarious position before Atlanta.  The opposition to Lincoln within the Union party grew louder in its complaints and discouraging predictions.  Earnest demands were heard that his candidacy should be withdrawn.  Lincoln himself, not knowing how strongly the masses were attached to him, was haunted by dark forebodings of defeat.  Then the scene suddenly changed as if by magic.

The Democrats, in their national convention, declared the war a failure, demanded, substantially, peace at any price, and nominated on such a platform General McClellan as their candidate.  Their convention had hardly adjourned when the capture of Atlanta gave a new aspect to the military situation.  It was like a sun-ray bursting through a dark cloud.  The rank and file of the Union 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 re-elected 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.