On this day in 1864, Northern voters overwhelmingly endorse the
leadership and policies of President Abraham Lincoln when they
elect him to a second term. With his re-election, any hope for a
negotiated settlement with the Confederacy vanished. In 1864,
Lincoln faced many challenges to his presidency. The war was now
in its fourth year, and many were questioning if the South could
ever be fully conquered militarily. Union General Ulysses S.
Grant mounted a massive campaign in the spring of that year to
finally defeat the Confederate army of General Robert E. Lee,
but after sustaining significant losses at the Wilderness,
Spotsylvania, and Cold Harbor, the Yankees bogged down around
Petersburg, Virginia. As the fall approached, Grant seemed no
closer to defeating Lee than his predecessors. Additionally,
Union General William T. Sherman was planted outside of Atlanta,
but he could not take that city. Some of the Radical Republicans
were unhappy with Lincoln's conciliatory plan for reconstruction
of the South. A