[LINCOLN (Abraham).]

Think before you Vote! November 8, 1864.

UNION OR DISUNION!

Letterpress broadside measuring 310 by 220mm. Old folds, a little toned but very good. [Michigan, Republican Party,], 1864.

£4,500.00

Addressed to voters in Michigan, this broadside emphasises the importance of the 8 November 1864 collection. By this time, the war had been essentially won by the Union Army - hostilities officially ended four months to the day - the Emancipation Proclamation was nearly two years’ old, and many politicians were already turning towards Reconstruction and the preservation of the Union. But you wouldn’t know that from this broadside, which hits nearly every note in war-time Unionist rhetoric.

Citing the armed treason of the Confederacy, this broadside argues that the South, “will have no terms of peace except the acknowledgement of the ‘Southern Confederacy’ as an independent power and the OVERTHROW of the government founded by Washington!” To which this adds “Abraham Lincoln means to crush the rebellion and maintain the Union at all hazards! No one ever doubted his integrity to the Union.”

By contrast, Lincoln’s opponent, General George B. McClellan “is supported by all the men notoriously in sympathy with the rebellion. He is nominated and supported on a ‘peace’-surrender platform … [His running mate] PENDLETON is an open and avowed secessionist and peace on any-terms man … He voted EVERY TIME in Congress against men and money to fight the rebellion … You can’t vote for McClellan without voting for PENDLETON, who is a traitor and a disunionist.”

Written is a tone of near hysteria, it reaches back to the Revolutionary War for the example of Benedict Arnold: “His posterity was disgraced by his treason. History will record COPPERHEADS of to-day as worse than ARNOLD, and point the finger of SCORN AT THEIR POSTERITY!”

As it was, Lincoln won the election in a landslide 212-21 electoral college over McClellan. He also won comfortably in Michigan with 53.6% of the vote.

Very rare: we find a single copy at LoC.

Stock No.
255899