Gateway Pundit points out the similarities of todays situation to the election of 1864. He is quite correct that much of the rhetoric today bears a striking resemblance to things the Democrats of that time said and wrote. The parallel is, of course, not perfect. There is one other thing that should be remembered from that time:
Lincoln wrote a few lines on a piece of paper and asked his cabinet members to sign it without reading it. After the election, he showed them what he had written and they had signed: "It seems exceedingly probable that this administration will not be re-elected. Then it will be my duty to so cooperate with the President-elect as to save to Union between the election and the inauguration, as he will have secured his election on such ground that he cannot possibly save it afterward."
Of course it is not a presidential election year.
