Does anyone want to add to the election period of TTL? Also, now that we've gotten started on causes, I'm curious about effects -- if McClellan and the Peace Democrats come to power, what are the Union's prospects?
If McClellan wins, it's very likely that a cease-fire will go into effect. You hear lots of people say that since McClellan was a War Democrat who repudiated the peace plank of the Democratic platform, he would have gone on with the war. But this ignores many salient facts. First of all, McClellan only repudiated the peace plank AFTER Atlanta had fallen. Before that, he had kept his options open. Meanwhile, he was telling several of his high-placed Democratic friends that he would implement an armistice if he came into the White House.
It's also worth noting that McClellan's first overt political act had been the endorsement of George Woodward, a pro-peace Copperhead, for governor of Pennsylvania in 1863.
As Albert Castel in his monumental history of the Atlanta Campaign, Republicans might have quit the war effort in large numbers in the event of a McClellan electoral victory. Since he would have no longer been committed to the abolition of slavery as a condition of peace, even IF he had continued the war, many Republicans would no longer have seen the war as worth fighting. What use would be the restoration of the Union if slavery were to be allowed to continue?
I don't think I exaggerate when I assert that the 1864 election has more AH potential than any other American presidential election, with the possible exception of 1912.