9781422278956

Politics of the North and South

ABOVE: Band of the 107th U.S. Colored Infantry at Fort Corcoran, Arlington, Virginia. OPPOSITE : General McClellan and his wife. OVERLEAF: The Cavalry Charge of

presidential election in 1864. The continuation of politics as usual was vital to the stability of the United States, in that democracy was seen to be still working. Some Democrats in the North were seen as guilty by association with the secessionists. Many of them harbored hopes that the war would prove so ruinous for the North that an armistice would take place and a separate Confederacy would coexist alongside what remained of the

Union. For some time they believed that all the Confederacy had to do was endure the war; it would be the North that would capitulate, seeking to end the conflict it was not winning. To this end, every expenditure connected with the war was challenged by the Democrats, in the hope of wearing the Republicans down. They also challenged arrests of those considered to be disloyal to the Union, the Emancipation Proclamation, and the recruitment

Lt. Henry B. Hidden, 1862 Victor Nehlig (1830–1909). Oil on canvas.

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