The Dispute over Slavery, Secession, and the Civil War 151before any government could be formed. It demanded the abolition of
slavery and stipulated that no one could vote who had held a state or
Confederate office or who had borne arms against the United States.
Lincoln, who had already recognized Louisiana and Arkansas as
restored to the Union under his ten-percent plan, pocket-vetoed the
Wade-Davis bill. He said he was not committed to any single plan of
reconstruction. He also denied that Congress had the authority to
abolish slavery in the states. That would require a constitutional
amendment.
Radicals shot back with the Wade- Davis Manifesto, in which they
asserted the absolute authority of Congress to deal with the rebellious
states and instructed the President to execute the laws of the country,
not legislate them. As commander in chief, Lincoln’s job was to put
down the rebellion, the document declared, and leave the political
reorganization of the seceded states to Congress.
Despite their differences the Radicals supported Lincoln’s renomi-
nation for President at the Republican convention in Baltimore on June
7 , 1864 , and were delighted with the choice of Andrew Johnson, the
loyalist military governor of Tennessee, as Vice President because
Johnson had been a particularly vociferous critic of secessionists when
he served as a member of the Joint Committee on the Conduct of the
War. The purpose behind nominating Johnson was obvious: the for-
mation of a National Union ticket that might attract Democratic voters
and symbolize the restoration of the Union.
The Democrats met in Chicago in late August and nominated Gen-
eral McClellan and George H. Pendleton of Ohio. Under Copperhead
control, the convention adopted a platform that called for the immedi-
ate cessation of hostilities and the establishment of peace on the basis
of a federated union of states, a platform that McClellan repudiated.
The National Union ticket was strengthened by Sherman’s capture
of Atlanta and his continuing march toward the sea. That victory may
well have made the difference as to which party would win. Lincoln
was overwhelmingly reelected in November, with an electoral vote of
212 to 21 and a pop ular vote of 2 , 206 , 938 to McClellan’s 1 , 803 , 787.
When Congress reconvened, the President asked that an amend-
ment ending slavery throughout the United States be adopted and
sent to the states for ratification. The Senate had already passed it the