Long-Neglected Lincoln Speech: An 1864 Election Preliminary

A speech Abraham Lincoln delivered in February 1864 to Philadelphia loyalists is virtually unknown to modern researchers. Not published until a year after the assassination, it went largely unnoticed and was not included in any of the several collections of Lincoln's works. It probably deserves a better fate.

When one notes that Lincoln's remarks were addressed to a visiting delegation from the Philadelphia Union League, and that John W. Forney was mainly responsible for the meeting, it is easy to assume that the gathering was connected with politics. The Philadelphia Union League had been founded in 1862 to support the war effort. Its members consistently backed Lincoln and his policies.[1] Forney was the owner of The Press, regarded as "Lincoln's Philadelphia Organ." Forney had risen in the newspaper world by first supporting James Buchanan, then shifting to Stephen A. Douglas in the late fifties, and finally, in 1860, to Lincoln and the Republicans. During the war Forney spent most of his time in Washington, where he obtained the appointment of secretary of the Senate in 1861. In the same year he started a Washington paper, the Sunday Morning Chronicle, and in November 1862 he began publishing a daily edition of the Chronicle, reportedly at Lincoln's suggestion. Forney's control of the two newspapers and his position in the Senate made him an important Lincoln political associate. [2]

As the year 1864 began, it appeared that Lincoln would need all the political assistance he could muster if he were to seek a second term as president. The New York Herald attacked him in a February editorial as "a joke incarnated" whose hopes for renomination and Page  [End Page 23] reelection were "the most laughable jokes of all."[3] Horace Greeley, proprietor of the New York Tribune (like the Herald an influential Northern newspaper), "persisted in his opposition to a second term for Lincoln."[4] The Philadelphia Union League and Editor Forney would help provide the president some assistance in his attempt to overcome such resistance.

The Philadelphia Union League was among the earliest groups in the country to urge the renomination and reelection of Lincoln. The driving force for that action was Morton McMichael, proprietor and editor of the North American and United States Gazette. McMichael, who "had a penchant for politics," had supported Lincoln at the Chicago convention of 1860, and his newspaper remained loyal throughout the war. [5] At McMichael's suggestion, a special meeting of the Philadelphia League had been held on January 11, 1864, at which he introduced the main business on the agenda. He explained to members that he had noticed as early as the state elections of the previous October that the sentiment of Pennsylvanians "was concentrating in favor of Mr. Lincoln's election." His resolution continued: "[A]s in all respects [the president] has shown pre-eminent ability in fulfilling the requirements of his great office, we recognize with pleasure the unmistakable indications of the popular will in all the loyal States, and heartily join with fellow-citizens, without any distinction of party, here and elsewhere, in presenting him as the People's candidate for the Presidency."[6] The resolution also called for copies to be made available to the press and to Lincoln. The resolution passed unanimously.[7]

One week later, the Philadelphia Union League held another special meeting, at which its members issued An Address, a single sheet praising Lincoln's performance as president and urging his reelection. That widely disseminated document referred to Lincoln as "the chosen candidate" of loyal Union men. "The approaching downfall of the rebellion and the restoration of the Union," the Address warned, "will demand in our ruler the practical experience, the sagacity, the honesty of purpose, and the single-heartedness which so pre-eminently distinguish our present President. The exigencies of the time require him, and the country cannot allow him to retire into private Page  [End Page 24]

Abraham Lincoln by Anthony Berger at Mathew Brady's gallery in Washington, D.C., February 9, 1864. Page  [End Page 25]

Forney sent that document to Lincoln, along with a note arranging a meeting with league representatives. Forney informed Lincoln that he had just returned from several days in New York, where what he "heard" and "saw" convinced him that a "determined opposition" existed to the president in "quarters unnecessary to point out to you." Nevertheless, Forney added, the "people" remained loyally at his "back"; as proof he included a clipping from the Evening Bulletin of Philadelphia that not only boasted that Lincoln had become as popular as George Washington and Andrew Jackson but also ended with the prediction that the president would "enjoy a four year term of Peace after a stormy one of war."[9]

Lincoln agreed to the meeting, which was arranged at the White House for the evening of February 16. McMichael made the presentation, "earnestly recommending Mr. Lincoln for reelection." McMichael's "eloquent speech" was "kindly and characteristically replied to by the President." [10] His response is the speech that for so long has been neglected.

Although transcribed by a reporter present at the meeting, the speech was not released during Lincoln's lifetime. Forney eventually published it as part of the campaign by Radical Republicans to defeat a coalition of Democrats and Andrew Johnson Republicans during the 1866 congressional elections. At a rally held in Philadelphia on September 25, 1866, Forney announced that he had found among his own notes Lincoln's speech as taken down "by the reporter," an address stressing the president's willingness to step down from office if that were in the best interest of the nation. To contrast Lincoln's courageous position with that of his hated successor, Forney then read Lincoln's statement, as follows:

Lincoln's doubts about the wisdom of making such remarks public probably explain why Forney had the reporter's written version of Page  [End Page 27] the speech in September of 1866, and why it was never released as part of the 1864 presidential campaign. One suspects that Lincoln, and perhaps such political advisers as Forney, considered publication unwise. Lincoln had expressed his willingness to step aside for some other candidate, if that move were in the best interests of the country. In early 1864, with Lincoln's renomination not at all assured, with the names of several potential candidates being mentioned by Republican leaders, it was perhaps deemed unwise for the president to concede the possibility of a change at the top of the ticket. Under those circumstances, the speech was surely best left unreported. Page  [End Page 28]