Sep 30, 2021 - Sale 2580

Sale 2580 - Lot 213

Price Realized: $ 1,062
?Final Price Realized includes Buyer’s Premium added to Hammer Price
Estimate: $ 500 - $ 750
(PRESIDENTS--1864 CAMPAIGN.) Confidential Maine Democratic Party circular, hoping to bar soldiers from getting absentee ballots. Letterpress circular, 7 3/4 x 4 3/4 inches, signed and addressed indecipherably in manuscript, and docketed "McDonald, political" on verso; folds, light offsetting. Portland, ME, August 1864
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In the 1864 presidential election, the eligibility of soldiers to vote was a hotly contested point. As most soldiers were loyal to Lincoln, Republicans fought hard for their right to vote, sponsoring amendments to several state constitutions to allow their absentee ballots. The Democrats predictably were opposed to the absentee ballots, alleging the possibility of fraud.

Maine had a constitutional amendment for absentee soldier voting on the ballot for their September 1864 state elections. This circular letter, headed "Confidential," begins "It is important to prevent the adoption of the proposed amendment to the Constitution, under which absent soldiers are allowed to vote in November." It was issued by the state's Democratic Party leadership in an effort to thwart this amendment. It begins with allegations that "such an arrangement will expose us to great frauds" as "the Republicans will only act in character in resorting to every expedient to defeat us." It then lays out the tactic: a secret effort to draw Democrats to the poorly-attended local elections in September without drawing any public attention: "It would not be wise to discuss it, either in the newspapers or on the stump, but by personal interviews have the leading men . . . urged to see that all opponents of fraud and corruption vote against the proposed amendment."

With the aid of soldiers' votes, Lincoln easily carried Maine in the 1864 voting that November, beating the Democrat McClelland by 59% to 41%, and down-ballot the Republican Governor Samuel Cony also won re-election.