Presidential election of 1864 - TheUSAPresidents.com

We have pages on every election!

Twentieth American presidential election of 1864

Date

Candidates

Final tickets

An image showing Abraham Lincoln for president and Andrew Johnson for vice president.

An image showing George McClellan for president and George Pendleton for vice president.

Campaining & major issues

This was the only election that took place while America was, well, fighting itself. As Mr. Beat would say, "Who cares if people are dying in a bloody Civil War? Let's have an election!" Anyway, it was a bit of a sticky situation. Abe Lincoln had been stressed by the war and during the first three years, it didn't look so well for the Union. He had begun to fret over this election because many people who thought the Union would have immediately destroyed the Confederates in 1861 thought Lincoln was dragging on the war. Everyone started to think, "who cares anymore?" However, just as the situation was getting dire, the war began to turn around in the Union's favor, and by November 1864, the Union was beginning to absolutely destroy the Confederates. So who was this George McClellan guy? Well, he was a Union general that Lincoln fired in 1862. Interesting, isn't it? Well, McClellan said he'd continue the war and preserve the Union. However, since most wanted the war to just end, he lost a lot of steam. Many began to think that Lincoln was the better choice because the war was beginning to end under his watch.

Electoral college & turn-out

Because of the southern secession, the electoral college decreased to 234 electors; 118 needed to win. 4,031,887 people voted in this election.

Results

Other attributions (listed from top to bottom)

Information on this site should not be plagiarized. This site is intended for hobby purposes, not commercial. Visit here for more information.