War Democrats in American politics of the 1860s were adherents of the Democratic Party who opposed the majority of that party to support the military policies of President Abraham Lincoln in the American Civil War. In the 1864 presidential election, War Democrats and the Republicans jointly nominated Lincoln, a Republican, for president and nominated Andrew Johnson, a Democrat, for vice president in what was called the "Union Party" ticket.

To court Democrats, Lincoln appointed many to high civil and military offices to win over some Democratic votes. Some joined the Republican Party, while others remained Democrats. Their opponents in the Democratic party included Peace Democrats, widely called Copperheads, Democrats who remained loyal to the concept of Union but either advocated negotiated settlement with the Confederacy or openly supported the "state's rights" underpinnings of the Confederate policy.

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 President after Lincoln's assassination
• John Brough, Governor of Ohio
• Benjamin F. Butler, Congressman from Massachusetts; general
• John Adams Dix, of New York, Buchanan's Secretary of the Treasury, 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; 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; general
• George B. McClellan, railroad president; 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

References

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

Notes