during the rebellion added not a little to the strain.  But we cannot have a free Government without elections; and if the rebellion could force us to forego or postpone a national election it might fairly claim to have already conquered and ruined us.  But the election along with its incidental and undesirable strife has done good too.  It has demonstrated that a people’s Government can sustain a national election in the midst of a great civil war.  Until now it has not been known to the world that this was a possibility.  But the rebellion continues, and now that the election is over may not all have a common interest to reunite in a common effort to save our common country?  For my own part I have striven and shall strive to avoid placing any obstacle in the way.  So long as I have been here I have not willingly planted a thorn in any man’s bosom.  While I am duly sensible to the high compliment of a re-election, and duly grateful as I trust to Almighty God for having directed my countrymen to a right conclusion, as I think, for their good, it adds nothing to my satisfaction that any man may be disappointed by the result.  May I ask those who have not differed from me to join with me in this same spirit towards those who have?  And now let me close by asking three hearty cheers for our brave soldiers and seamen, and their gallant and skilful commanders.”

In the Cabinet he brought out the paper that he had sealed up in the dark days of August; he reminded his ministers of how they had endorsed it unread, and he read it them.  Its contents ran thus:  “This morning, as for some days past, it seems exceedingly probable that this Administration will not be re-elected.  Then it will be my duty to so co-operate with the President-elect as to save the Union between the election and the inauguration, as he will have secured his election on such ground that he cannot possibly save it afterwards.”  Lincoln explained what he had intended to do if McClellan had won.  He would have gone to him and said, “General, this election shows that you are stronger, have more influence with the people of this country than I”; and he would have invited him to co-operate in saving the Union now, by using that great influence to secure from the people the willing enlistment of enough recruits.  “And the general,” said Seward, “would have said, ‘Yes, yes’; and again the next day, when you spoke to him about it, ‘Yes, yes’; and so on indefinitely, and he would have done nothing.”

“Seldom in history,” wrote Emerson in a letter after the election, “was so much staked upon a popular vote.  I suppose never in history.”