Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln (Republican) was re-elected to his second term on September eighth 1864. He ran for president against General George McClellan (Democrat). George McClellan was once the commander of the Union army until Lincoln fired him. Lincoln almost lost the election because he vetoed against the Wade Davis Bill. The Wade Davis Bill required 50 percent of white voters in a seceded state to be remitted into the Union. This was impossible when the country was split in two and there was so much hatred towards the North. Lincoln was more in favor of his idea of having 10% of  a seceded sate population agree on remission.None of the seceded states would be able to get half their population voting for remission so the Wade Davis Bill failed. Lincoln won the election primarily because of the success on the battlefield and people believed that the war was going to end soon.

Townsend, By Timothy P. "Lincoln, Grant, and the 1864 Election." National Parks Service. National Parks Service, 29 Oct. 2012. Web. 27 Jan. 2013. <http://www.nps.gov/liho/historyculture/lincolngrant.htm>.