Lincoln’s Wit/Wisdom 228

The anxiety in Washington about Lincoln's minimal chances for re-election in 1864 ended in September with the fall of Atlanta, the South’s principle city and rail-head. Once that happened everybody suddenly saw the light. Horace Greeley announced that his newspaper The New York Tribune would 'henceforth fly the banner of Abraham Lincoln for President.' Lincoln's enemies within the Republican Party like Salmon Chase the former Treasury Secretary as well as Benjamin Wade and Henry Davis all chose to stump for the President. Similarly Wendell Phillips, who had written, 'I would cut off both hands before doing anything to aid Lincoln's election,' did his about-face in October. Even Thaddeus Stevens waxed eloquent about Lincoln's 'firm grasp of the pilot at the helm.'