War Democrats

War Democrats in American politics of the 1860s were adherents of the Democratic Party who rejected the Copperheads/Peace Democrats who controlled the party. The War Democrats demanded a more aggressive policy toward the Confederacy and supported the policies of Republican Party President Abraham Lincoln when the Civil War broke out a few months after his win in the 1860 presidential election.

Recognizing the importance of the War Democrats, the Republican Party changed its name for the national ticket in the 1864 presidential election, held during the Civil War. The National Union Party nominated the incumbent president and "former" Republican Lincoln for president and "former" War Democrat Andrew Johnson for vice president. As a result many War Democrats could support Lincoln's Civil War policies, while avoiding the "Republican" ticket. While a large number of Republican dissidents had maintained an entity separate from the National Union party leading up to the 1864 election, they withdrew their ticket for fear that splitting the vote would allow the Copperhead Democrats and their "peace at all costs" ticket to possibly win the election. The National Union ticket won 42 of 54 available Senate seats and 149 of 193 available House of Representatives seats.

Following Lincoln's 1865 assassination, National Union Vice President and War Democrat Johnson became President. In the 1868 lead up to the first post-Civil War presidential election, President Johnson stood as a candidate for the Democratic Party presidential nomination, though he never finished higher than a distant second in the 22 ballots cast at the Democratic Convention.

Lincoln appointed other War Democrats to high civil and military offices. Some joined the Republican Party, while others remained Democrats.

Prominent War Democrats included:

• Andrew Johnson, the U.S. senator, then military governor of Tennessee who was elected Vice President in 1864 on a ticket with Lincoln, and became President after Lincoln's assassination
• John Brough, Governor of Ohio
• Benjamin F. Butler, Congressman from Massachusetts; Union general
• John Adams Dix, of New York, Buchanan's Secretary of the Treasury, Union general
• Stephen A. Douglas, Senator from Illinois; Democratic Party's northern candidate in the presidential election of 1860, who died a few weeks into the war
• Ulysses S. Grant, storekeeper in Illinois; Union general
• Joseph Holt, Kentucky; Buchanan's Secretary of War; Lincoln's Judge-Advocate General of the Army
• Francis Kernan, Congressman from New York
• John A. Logan, Congressman from Illinois; Union general
• George B. McClellan, railroad president; Union general; Democratic presidential nominee in 1864
• Joel Parker, Governor of New Jersey
• David Tod, Governor of Ohio
• Edwin M. Stanton, Ohio; Buchanan's Attorney General and Lincoln's Secretary of War
• Michael Crawford Kerr, 32nd Speaker of the United States House of Representatives from December 6, 1875 to August 19, 1876

References

• Silbey, Joel H. A Respectable Minority: The Democratic Party in the Civil War Era, 1860-1868 (1977)