History from the Indiana University of pennsylvania. His pennsylvania certification as secondary education is also from Indiana University of pennsylvania. Holds a masters degree in Library Science from the university of pittsburgh and he is currently the director of the albert e. Lee library at Waynesburg University where he is an adjunct professor. He is the author the Gettysburg Campaign guide, a study guide two volume. His he is say a point of no return is part of the turning points election, it is on the 1864 president ial election and the doom of the confederacy. A walking tour and brief introduction to civil war medicine is what hes currently working on and is forthcoming later this year in 2018. In 2016 he received permission from the Pennsylvania Historical Museum commission to create a memorial marker for lettermans childhood home. This marker was dedicated on november 11th of 2017. Since 1993 he has reenacted in the American Civil War as a federal infantry man, medical service captain and most importantly as president Abraham Lincoln. With that please welcome rea andrew redd as the next speaker. [ applause ] id like to start by saying thank you for the donors that stepped forth this time last year when i made a small announcement about the Jonathan Letterman marker from Pennsylvania Historical Museum commission. We dedicated it in canonsburg, pennsylvania, in Washington County on his birth his boyhood home which is now the borough building. I might tell you again that were working on another one, the letterman hospital in gettysburg looks like its going to be purchased and used for retail purposes and im working with the Gettysburg Battlefield Preservation Association to try to find a few acres where we can put up a marker like this for Jonathan Lettermans hospital. Thank you very much for the donations that came in from the go fund me page from several different states outside of pennsylvania. Today were going to look at no, point it over there. Or not. Backwards. There it is. Upside down and backwards. Okay. The point of no return. Abraham lincoln and the election of 1864. We are going to look at this as if this is 2018 and were going to look back on it and see some stereotypes that have come forth in the past several decades. Were going to look back on it and say, well, of course he was going to get reelected. Thats the impression that most people have. If you read any textbook or most popular treatments its like lincoln is elected in 64, who is going to doubt that . Were going to see there is plenty of doubters to his reelection of 1864. Now, how does that relate to the doom of the confederacy . Did the confederates say, we give up. He is in the white house. Its over. March 4th, 1865, its done. No, they are not doing that. Are any other of the individuals who didnt vote for him giving up and saying, well, just forget about it, hes there . No, thats not going to happen, either. Okay. So were going to look at some of the things we know. Was lincolns second election to the presidency is turning point in the civil war is this we debated that back and forth, what is a turning point, and also is it the doom of the confederacy like many people would think reading the story that is indeed the doom of the confederacy. Could we have had a president mcclellan . If he had won this election would the confederacy be saved . Were they all hoping for mcclellan to be president of the United States . Was there any promise of that . Did he say, well, i will save the confederacy or im going to make my policy such that were not going to have a war with the confederacy anymore . So theres choices that are going to be very, very clear in this election and i will tell you right now neither lincoln or mcclellan are going to change minds in this campaign. The whole goal of the 64 election is like get the polls filled up with your voters. Sort of like 2018 coming up, its not no one is changing minds here, its like whoever shows up at the polls are going to make the next election possible. Looking back on it, you look at the electoral college, 212 electoral votes for lincoln. Is that a surprise . Probably not. In our day and age at the look at lincoln, the second inaugural, the assassination, the monuments and say of course he should have been president a second time. Mcclellan what chance did he have, 21 electoral votes, not much at all. Mcclellan won new jersey, won delaware, kentucky and that was it. A note, lincoln at the beginning of the war said if i lose kentucky we will lose the war. Well, Abraham Lincoln lost kentucky twice. He lost it in 1860 and 1864 both. Lincoln when we look at the numbers 55 of the popular vote, wow, thats incredible. For a guy who has been in the office on the job four years and he won to get the job only 39 of the vote came off in the north. So when you look at that number its like Everybody Loves lincoln. This is going to be the first time that soldiers are allowed to vote. Soldiers on active duty in the United States never voted in the United States before for any president ial election. Lincoln and other people say, you know, for good reasons weve got to make sure the soldiers come home or we set up the ballot box on campaign or in the camps and these soldiers have to vote. We are going to find out and this will be one of those things where like, yes, of course thats got to happen. This is the way its going to be. We know whats been done. Three out of four soldiers in the union army voted for Abraham Lincoln. One out of four voted for mcclellan. So we think, well, was well, army of the potomac ever mcclellans army that they would not vote for him for the presidency. Also at that figure it looks like a lot of Democratic PartyUnion Soldiers voted for lincoln. If he hits three out of four he didnt know this in advance, he was rolling the dice. If we have voters in the army there will be republican voters, democratic voters, voters who did not vote for mow in 1860. Theres also going some districts in louisiana, theyre democratic in 1860 and in kentucky which he lost in 1860, theyre going to produce votes now in the general election and are they going to not vote for lincoln because theyre democrats . So should be no surprise that this is the electoral map of 1864. Two new states joined their union in 1864 that did not vote in 1860, we have the state of nevada, brandnew during the middle of the civil war, they bring nevada in, cast now has a state constitution thats organized and lincoln is going to win both of them. So we can see here that while 212 votes for Lincoln Electoral College of course hes going to be reelected. So theres some assumptions here that we have to look at and examine. We have to look at the Republican Partys previous losses in the campaign of 1862. They didnt win much, they just about broke even in 1862. New issue in 1864 is the reconstruction and as we pointed out several times today you have two plans, youve got the abolitionist plan where its five out of ten registered voters in 1860 in the south has to swear a loyalty oath. Lincoln says good luck with that. You are going to find one out of ten voters in the south saying ive always been loyal to the union. They are going to be struggling over the reconstruction vote. Were going to look at the confederates vote, how they looked and treated at Jefferson Davis, how they thought about the politics of the time and whether they thought they had hope after the second inaugural of lincoln. We will look at lincolns enemies who despised him. We know that mcclellan called him the original gorilla and the baboon, did more soldiers like that have that opinion . Can we actually say that this was a turning point and as one of the things weve sort of wrestled with today so far, your turning point might not be that persons turning point. The importance that we set on things are a sort of perspective the way we see the world. So were going to look at how lincoln was looking at the world on august 23rd, 1863. He writes a memo out on a piece of paper looks like this, he writes it on the inside, folds it twice. Takes it to the next cabinet meeting. He lays it out, says, okay, sign this. Hes at a cabinet meeting, he says you cant read whats in here, but i want you to sign the back. This document was found in his desk after the assassination and it went to the library of congress. So inside here are 60 words and on the back are the seven signatures of the cabinet on august 23rd, 1864. Ive got to read you their names. You might see them a little bit front and back, but who is there . The first person that gets this piece of paper to sign is william seward, secretary of state. He signs t passes it on to the department of treasury who has also been on the joint committee on the war that we talked about this morning. He passes it on to edward stanton, secretary of war that we learned is in the hands of the radicals, that he is a lap dog for ben wade on the committee on the investigation of the war. Gideon wells gets it next, signs his name, ed gates gets it, givers it to usher, usher gives it back to lincoln. Is lincoln going to say youve got your names here, sort of like a contract and i have to tell you what youve signed on for. He doesnt do that. Goes into the coat pocket, holds on to it and he starts his meeting. This is called the blind memorandum because who is blind . The cabinet people signed a blank piece of paper, what they thought the messages inside, but he didnt tell us what it was. It starts like this, this morning as for some days past it seems probable that this administration will not be reelected. They never saw that. They never saw what they signed on for. Fill in the blank at the end of that. Will not be reelected so i am withdrawing my name from the republican ballot. Theres three people, four actually that say i will take that job and we are going to talk about those nice who are all republicans saying, yeah, you need to leave and i need to get in there and make us win this war. And make us win the election. Also if he wants to fix the situation he might say will not be reelected then i am willing to withdraw the emancipation proclamation which is causing so many problems for so many voters. We know from a previous speaker that he said, look, the emancipation proclamation imagine hell, imagine the lowest part of hell and if i pull back on the emancipation proclamation and the abolition of slavery look under hell for me because thats where ill go. Now, did lincoln actually give up his reelection on august 23rd, 1864 . A blind memorandum, hes got all the cabinet members signed on, whats ever in the paper they have to do. This is whats in the paper that they didnt get to read. Then it will be my duty, the cabinet members, to cooperate with the president elect, george b. Mcclellan as to save the union. Between this election in we will say november 64 at this point and the inauguration march 4th, 1865. As he will have secured his elections on such grounds that he cannot save it afterwards. So were going to look at and say what happens if mcclellan had won the presidency, what would he be thinking when he put his left hand on the bible and raised his right hand on march 4th, 1865 . What was his policies going to be . Lincoln says if he wins it and it looks like he is, its over. Hes not going to be able to save the union. Well, will he save the confedera confederacy . Is that possible at this point if you elect mcclellan as president . So lets look back at october and november 1864. Lincoln accepted or said you can put my name for candidacy in 1864, he said that in january 1864 the convention is going to be in baltimore in june of 1864, we will get nominated and this is the plank he doesnt attend the convention, doesnt make any speeches there, this is the plank that they are going to be writing for him that he has to run on. First of all, were going to finish the war, were going to continue the war until we have a military victory on all fronts, there also no armistice, there will be an end to slavery. Thats what hes standing on. The Democratic Party which meets in august, maybe it was july 1864 in chicago flip side of that. They are committed to an armistice on march 5th, 1865 when mcclellan becomes president. He will declare a ceasefire. All the guns will be silent the day after he becomes president of the United States and they are going to invite russia, theyre going to invite england, they are going to invite france, probably meet in paris and those three powers are going to sort things out for the confederacy and for the union and say, okay, were going to put this all in place, you guys stop shooting each other, were going to work this out and you will all be happy when we get done. Try to imagine them doing that and knowing what we know about world war i and the palace of versaill versailles. And the democratic platform says any decisions about slavery, go back to the states. Not going to have the Supreme Court do any Court Sessions on it, no decisions, no legislation, whatever we have to say about slavery the states will decide it for themselves. So weve got some foregone conclusions with the renomination of lincoln. Now, what he knows what we dont think about much, there has been no sitting president since 1840 thats received a renomination. Washington, jefferson, madison, monroe all twoterm people, jackson was the last one in 1832 and since then americans have rejected the very motion that a president could secede himself. Lincoln was only the second republican candidate for the presidency. Republican party was born 1856 in pittsburgh, pennsylvania, and they had around one candidate so far who lost, the second one lincoln won the presidency but only had 39 of the vote in the north, no vote he wasnt on the ballot in the south at all. So weve got bj tubhahnemann and company, brandees, wines, gins and cigars. I dont think we do politics that way these days, but at this point they rented hotels and had the brandy, gin, wine, cigars and hashed it out saying who is most likely to win. Lincoln is saying i dont think i can win this, his friends are coming up to him and saying i dont think so, abraham. Its not happening for you. Here is the challenges and the challengers, we have to remember there is no primary season, you know, with our own politics it starts, what, almost a year in advance and january, february, march, grinds on throughout the primary. There is none. They have the nomination in june, they have the vote in the fall. And also i want to remind you there is no National Election day the first tuesday after the first week in november. Some states that control the way the people ballot they started the last week of september. So on august 23rd, 1864 when lincoln says i dont think im going to be reelected, the election starts in 30 days. He is a he not reading in the future 60 or 75 days in advance, he says in four weeks the ballot he is going to start in may and New Hampshire work down to the point theres going to be ballots cast in october and then in november and then we will know in november but the balloting for the presidency starts in the last week of september. Who is available if he wants to if the republicans want to split and there is a talk at the time that the Republican Party there was going to be two, there was going to be link be and there is going to be the challenger to lincoln and then there is going to be the democrat. Ohio senator secretary of treasury salmon chase, great friend to the committee on the conduct of the war hes treasury secretary most of the time but he works with lincoln and one leaked that he was running on a third party. Lincoln doesnt fire him, he doesnt use the treasury at all after mid summer 1864. He has put him aside and he is sort of looking at chase like you know who is sick . Roger b. Tanny, Supreme Court justice. If you, want the president , you go for it, but if i do win, you could be chief justice of the Supreme Court. So what are you going to do . Salmon chase says nothing for 90 days about i want to be president of the United States by july when roger tanny starts to get sick on his death bed he zips it and says you know, he is that type of guy, im looking at the future and id rather be chief justice of the Supreme Court than live in the white house and if lincoln gets reelected he will probably like me enough to make me chief justice, which lincoln did. John c. Fremont, weve talked about him a little bit, he was the candidate in 1856, lincoln put him on the back waters of the military, didnt have any outstanding qualifications other than he was an avid, avid abolitionist. He worked with the committee on the conduct of the war. They were very enthusiastic about him. Lincoln had to chastise him back in 1862 when fremont tried to free some slaves and lincoln said, cant do that. I can only do that and im not doing that yet. Forest greenly newspaper editor, new york tribune, one of the premiere newspaper men at the time he says i could do that job and i can do it better. Im a bright, articulate young man, everyone loves me and he has the type of appearance with big whiskers and a tall hat and people liked to read his work. They are all saying were going to get the voter that Abraham Lincoln cant get, the democrats. Those individuals who are saying no lincoln. I cant stand the guy. We are going to pick up those vote voters, we are going to make them republicans for one vote and we are going to get the presidency. And lincoln knew that right away, we will look at that a little bit. So june 7th, 1864, they are in baltimore, remember this is the city that had a conspiracy to assasinate lincoln in 1861. They rebrand the Republican P