Their
purpose was by this party division to make Lincoln's nomination an
impossibility. Fremont's withdrawal was the weapon with which they would
fight the President before the regular Republican convention and after.
Senator Winter voiced the feeling of this convention in a speech of
bitter and vindictive eloquence.
"I denounce the administration of Abraham Lincoln," he declared, "as
imbecile and vacillating. We demand not only the crushing of Lee's army,
but a program of vengeance against the rebels, which will mean their
annihilation when conquered. We demand the confiscation of their
property, the overthrow of every trace of local government and the
reduction of their States to conquered provinces under the control of
Congress. The milk and water policy of Lincoln is both a civil and a
military failure, and his renomination would be the greatest calamity
which could befall our Nation!"
A week later the regular party convention met at Baltimore. On the night
before this meeting the President's renomination was not certain.
On every hand his enemies were assailing him with unabated fury. Every
check to the National arms was laid at his door--every mistake of civil
or military management. The ravages of the Confederate cruisers which
were built in England and had swept the seas of our commerce were blamed
on him.
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