How the Civil War changed how we vote

Summary

Throughline – "How the Civil War Changed How We Vote"

NPR, February 24, 2026
Hosts: Ramtin Arablouei & Rund Abdelfatah
Featured Guest: Richard Carwardine (Rhodes Professor Emeritus of American History, Oxford University)

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Episode Overview

In this episode of Throughline, hosts Ramtin Arablouei and Rund Abdelfatah explore how the American Civil War, particularly the critical election of 1864, irrevocably transformed voting in the United States. The story investigates how wartime pressures led to innovative forms of voting, such as absentee ballots for soldiers, and how this contest tested the very core of American democracy. Featuring analysis by historian Richard Carwardine and voices from primary sources, the episode traces the interplay of power, principle, and political machination that marked this pivotal chapter in voting history.

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Key Discussion Points & Insights

The Civil War and Democracy Under Threat

• Setting the Stage (00:18–02:18)

  • Rund and Ramtin introduce the stakes: the Civil War isn't just about survival of the Union or abolition of slavery, but about whether a democracy can survive civil conflict.
  • Abraham Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation is highlighted as a turning point, tying peace to the end of slavery.

• Political Ramifications (01:28)

  • Lincoln's Proclamation was politically risky; opponents accused him of prolonging the war for abolition rather than reunion.
  • “He's giving political ammunition to the Democrats... you could get peace if only you were prepared to think about reuniting the country on the Constitution as it once was, not on what you want it to be.” — Richard Carwardine (01:50)

The Stakes of the 1864 Election

• Election Amid War (02:21–04:00)

  • The episode calls the 1864 election “the most significant for democracy in American history.”
  • Lincoln faces not only a divided country but also a Republican Party worried about losing key states.

• Battlefield Losses and Political Uncertainty (06:17–07:03)

  • Confederates and many in the North believed war-weariness would hand the election to Democratic challenger General George McClellan.
  • “You’re going to lose Illinois, you're going to lose Indiana, you're going to lose Pennsylvania...” — Lincoln’s party chairman relays dire forecasts (06:37)

Ideological Divides: Abolition vs. Reunion

• The Candidates and Their Visions (07:14–07:28)

  • McClellan ran on ending the war and reuniting the nation, with or without abolition.
  • Lincoln’s platform: reunion and emancipation, promising “a richer democracy.”

• Soldier Sentiment and the Meaning of the Vote (07:38–09:15)

  • Heated political debate raged among both civilians and soldiers.
  • Immigrants and Black soldiers (about 10% of the Union Army) saw the conflict as a fight for freedom and the “last best hope of earth.”
  • “McClellan... ever the chief instruments in giving aid... the ardent lover of human slavery.” — Letter from Black Union soldier, 5th Massachusetts Cavalry (09:15)

Voting During Wartime: Legal Innovations and Controversy

• The Problem of Disenfranchisement (09:38–11:16)

  • Most soldiers could not vote—only one state allowed absentee voting at war’s start.
  • Over one million soldiers, a significant pool of potential voters, were disenfranchised unless changes were made.

• Republican Push for Soldier Voting (10:19–10:32)

  • Republicans, aware of soldiers’ loyalty, advocated expanding the vote.
  • Lincoln personally encouraged generals to allow furloughs for voting (10:41).

• State-by-State Solutions (11:02–11:54)

  • States begin to pass laws allowing soldiers to vote from the field—pioneering absentee voting and proxy voting.
  • Risks: vote fraud, impersonation, coercion by officers, and tampering with ballots (11:54–12:17).

Allegations of Fraud & the Legitimacy of Results

• Partisan Accusations (12:17–13:45)

  • Accusations from both sides: Democrats claim Republican manipulation and ballot alteration; Republicans cite Democratic attempts at ballot fraud.
  • Notable quote from a soldier frustrated at being denied leave because of political preferences:
    “I suppose I might have gotten home if I would have said I would vote for A. But never. I would sooner stay here for another year than to come home and vote for him.” — Union soldier (12:59)

• Affirming the Vote’s Meaning

  • “I cast the first vote I have ever cast for the election of Lincoln. In doing so, I felt that I was doing my country as much service as I have ever done on the field of battle.” — Union soldier (13:45)

Election Day & the Aftermath

• A Tense, Historic Day (14:02–14:28)

  • Election Day, November 8, 1864: passed peacefully but tense; high turnout, with soldiers’ votes overwhelmingly favoring Lincoln.
  • Lincoln receives three times as many soldier votes as McClellan.

• Assessment of Integrity (14:40)

  • Despite fraud and manipulation, historian Richard Carwardine asserts the outcome was “not a distortion” and that the process ultimately worked.

Legacy: What the 1864 Election Changed

• Lincoln’s Reflections (15:11–16:06)

  • Lincoln’s address underscores the triumph of holding a free election “in the midst of a great civil war.”
    • “The election... has done good, too. It has demonstrated that a people's government can sustain a national election in the midst of a great civil war. Until now, it has not been known to the world that this was a possibility.” — Lincoln (15:37)

• Long-term Impact (16:06–16:48)

  • The successful use of absentee ballots during the Civil War laid the groundwork for broader, continuing voting rights and methods.
  • Democracy’s core value—the right to vote—endured and expanded under fire.

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Notable Quotes & Memorable Moments

• “The election of 1864 is... the most significant for democracy in American history.” — Richard Carwardine (02:21)
• “You are ending what Lincoln called the last best hope of earth. But it's what they understand to be the last best hope of earth too.” — Richard Carwardine (08:14)
• “There’s only one State in 1861 when the war starts, that has actually granted soldiers the right of voting, of absentee voting.” — Richard Carwardine (09:49)
• “I felt that I was doing my country as much service as I have ever done on the field of battle.” — Union soldier (13:45)
• “Democracy managed to preserve its most fundamental pillar. Voting.” — Ramtin Arablouei (16:06)
• “It has not been known to the world that this was a possibility.” — Abraham Lincoln (15:37)

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Key Timestamps

• 00:18 – Introduction to the main theme
• 01:13 – Emancipation Proclamation excerpt
• 02:21 – Stakes of the 1864 election
• 06:17 – Lincoln’s electoral challenge
• 07:38 – Political debate among soldiers
• 09:49 – Soldiers’ disenfranchisement
• 11:16 – Legal innovations in soldier voting
• 12:27 – Allegations of voting fraud
• 13:45 – The meaning of a soldier’s vote
• 14:02 – Election Day events
• 15:11 – Lincoln’s post-election address
• 16:06 – Long-term impact and legacy

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Conclusion

Through narrative, archival voices, and expert analysis, this Throughline episode vividly illustrates how the Civil War—and especially the 1864 presidential election—became a crucible in which new practices for American voting rights were forged. The episode makes clear that democracy’s endurance, especially under the strain of war, relied on innovation, inclusion, and the determination to maintain the right of the people to be heard—even against great odds.

Transcript

[Capella University Announcer]

This message comes from Capella University. That spark you feel, that's your drive.

[Richard Carwardine]

For more.

[Capella University Announcer]

Capella University's flexpath learning format lets you earn your degree at your pace without putting life on pause. Learn [e-mail].

[Ramtin Arablouei]

this is America in Pursuit, a limited run series from Throughline and npr. I'm Ramtin Arablouei. Each week we bring you stories about life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness in the US that began 250 years ago. This year, today, we're going back to one of the most significant moments in US History, the Civil War, one of the bloodiest wars fought on American soil. At the heart of the war was the question of slavery and whether to abolish it. The Confederate south broke off from the Union because it wanted to keep slavery and the freedom to govern themselves. The Union in the north, led by President Abraham Lincoln, wanted to make slavery illegal and keep the United States together. A little Less than two years into the bloody conflict on January 1, 1863, President Lincoln made a bold all persons

[Abraham Lincoln (quoted)]

held as slaves within any state or designated part of a state, the people whereof shall then be in rebellion against the United States shall be then, thenceforward, and forever free.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

The Emancipation Proclamation was a major flex in federal power. Lincoln spells out new terms of peace. The fighting would only end when slavery ended. This was a risky move because the Union was gearing up for a presidential election, and not everyone in the Union agreed with Lincoln's hardline views on abolition and how to fight the war.

[Richard Carwardine]

He's aware that by insisting on making emancipation a condition of peace negotiations with the Confederacy, he's giving political ammunition to the Democrats. The Democrats, the opposition, are saying you're deliberately protracting the war to secure abolition. You could get peace if only you were prepared to think about reuniting the country on the Constitution as it once was, not on what you want it to be.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

So there was a lot at stake here.

[Richard Carwardine]

The election of 1864 is, in my view, the most significant election in American history, the most significant for democracy in American history.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

The election would take place in the middle of the war. It would test the young republic's ability to hold an election in times of duress, shape the outcome of the war. Today on the show Rund and I bring you the story of how the 1864 election changed how we vote and who we are as a country. That's coming up after a quick break.

[Capella University Announcer]

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[Richard Carwardine]

The war begins. I mean, secession is met by Lincoln's determination to hold the Union together, to resolve the question of whether, as he put it, a constitutional republic, democracy, a government of the people, can or cannot maintain its integrity against its own internal foes. I'm Richard Carwardine. I taught for a number of years in Oxford University. I'm the Rhodes Professor Emeritus of American history.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

After issuing the Emancipation Proclamation, Lincoln briefly considers walking it back.

[Richard Carwardine]

He thinks of abandoning emancipation as a basis for peace, but but he decides it would be an ignominious surrender. He can't possibly yield on that, he said, and I quote, it would be worse than losing the presidential contest.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Lincoln doubles down on his ideals as he gears up for the 1864 presidential election, an election where there are deep

[Richard Carwardine]

ideological and cultural divides. On the one side, you've got the Democratic opposition, considering Lincoln and the administration and the federal army to be a tyrannical force willing to crush individual freedom in pursuit of reunion and an unnatural emancipationist racial order. On the other hand, you've got Lincoln and the National Union party pledging themselves to seeing the war right through to its conclusion. They're offering a vision of a reunified nation no longer stained by slavery. The country would be, I suppose, true to the egalitarian principles of the Declaration of Independence, it would emerge from the war with a richer democracy.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Initially, things looked good for Lincoln and his party, the Republicans. They were winning on the battlefield, and the days of the Confederacy seemed numbered. They seemed to have the election in the bag. But as winter turned to spring, the Confederates began to push back hard, and the Federal army faced some big losses.

[Richard Carwardine]

Things are looking so bleak. In fact, Lincoln's party Chairman comes to Lincoln, he says, you know, you going to lose Illinois, you're going to lose Indiana, you're going to lose Pennsylvania. These are key states and if you lose those three states, then inevitably you're going to lose the election. Overall, Confederates looking at this were quite sure that the weariness of the war in the north would lead to the election of a new president who would be willing to sue for peace.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

And they hoped that the new president would be Democratic nominee, General George B.

[Richard Carwardine]

McClellan, who was of course a very well loved professional soldier.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

McClellan had served under Lincoln, but as a candidate, his main position was that the war needed to end asap and the Confederate states needed to be reunited with the union, emancipation be damned. In other words, there would be a

[Richard Carwardine]

dishonorable peace that would not see the end of slavery.

[Rund Abdel Fatah]

Meanwhile, heated political deb happening in town squares on the home front and among soldiers on the war front. For many soldiers, abolition was the key issue in this election, whether they were for it or against it.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Most soldiers in the Union or federal army leaned republican, which, remember, was Lincoln's anti slavery party. And that was partly a reflection of where these soldiers came from. Many were from places where having a voice wasn't a given. And they came to the US Hoping that right was guaranteed.

[Richard Carwardine]

When you look at the makeup of the federal armies, you'll see that there are significant numbers of immigrant troops, of troops that have been recruited indeed from Europe, certainly Irish and German troops, who understand that they have come to a country that offers something different. And if you allow the confederacy to succeed, you are ending what Lincoln called the last best hope of earth. But it's what they understand to be the last best hope of earth too.

[Rund Abdel Fatah]

The last best hope of earth. That promise of freedom, of representation for all, which might chart a new path for the world.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

It's also important to note that nearly 10% of the federal army were black soldiers.

[Richard Carwardine]

I could quote you a letter from a black soldier serving in the 5th Massachusetts Cavalry. He describes McClellan and the Democrats, and I quote, as ever, the chief instruments in giving aid and assistance to the

[Union Soldier (quoted)]

common enemy of the country, inaugurators of this bloody conflict on the rightful domains of freedom. Is this the people's candidate, McClellan, the secret advocate of dissension, disloyalty, treason, and the ardent lover of human slavery.

[Rund Abdel Fatah]

But here's the thing. Regardless of where soldiers fell politically, most of them shared one important thing in common. They couldn't vote.

[Richard Carwardine]

There's only one State in 1861 when the war starts, that has actually granted soldiers the right of voting, of absentee voting. When you've got a million men in arms in the union army, by the high point of the war, this is a huge proportion of the voting public that you're disfranchising Unless you make special arrangements for them.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

As the war went on, Pressure was building to give soldiers the right to vote.

[Richard Carwardine]

Those pressures come overwhelmingly from the republicans.

[Rund Abdel Fatah]

Why them?

[Richard Carwardine]

Lincoln and the republicans become aware of just what kind of loyalty they have within the federal forces, which meant if

[Ramtin Arablouei]

they gave soldiers the vote, it would likely help them win the election. So lincoln tried to make some special arrangements.

[Richard Carwardine]

He wrote to his general Saying, it would please me if you would allow the soldiers to return for the fall elections.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

But the reality was, Most soldiers Weren't going to be able to get furloughs to go home and vote. After all, it was the middle of a war, and there was only so much the federal government could do.

[Rund Abdel Fatah]

So, as always, it fell to the states to decide if and how those soldiers would vote.

[Richard Carwardine]

I mean, what had to happen was, of course, Legal change, statutory change.

[Rund Abdel Fatah]

States began passing laws to give soldiers the vote. Some instituted absentee voting, which is still around today.

[Richard Carwardine]

You allow the soldiers in the camps to submit a ballot into ballot boxes that were taken to the camps by state election commissioners. And then on polling day, the soldiers deposit their tickets under the supervision of the commanding officer and the commissioners.

[Rund Abdel Fatah]

Other states instituted something called proxy voting,

[Richard Carwardine]

where you allow someone that you designate to cast your vote for you in your home precinct.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

But it's easy to see how that might not go according to plan. An imposter could pretend to be the proxy. A commanding officer might intimidate soldiers into voting for a certain person or keep them from mailing their ballots. And the envelope marks soldiers vote could

[Richard Carwardine]

easily be opened and a different ballot be submitted inside.

[Rund Abdel Fatah]

Thing is, even in states where soldiers could vote, Questions hung over these new ways of voting and raised concerns about the legitimacy of the election.

[Richard Carwardine]

Both sides claim malpractice and fraud. You have democrats claiming that the war department Is delaying the delivery of soldiers votes. Back home, where they're known to be mcclellan votes, they are held up by the war department, Even claims that the ballots Are being extensively altered. By removing mcclellan's votes from the envelopes and substituting lincoln ballots, Weighting the scales very powerfully in favor of the republicans and the administration.

[Union Soldier (quoted)]

The men who would vote the mcclellan ticket Were kept here, and only a's men were sent to their states to vote. All of the mcclellan men were kept here. I suppose I might have gotten home if I would have said I would vote for a. But never. I would sooner stay here for another year than to come home and vote for him.

[Richard Carwardine]

But the republicans too could point legitimately to the arrest of several democrats in washington and Baltimore for forging mcclellan ballots designed to swing the vote in new york state. So, you know, so both parties are at it. But it's the republicans who are able to present themselves most powerfully and most convincingly to the army that they are the friends of the democratic rights of the soldiers.

[Union Soldier (quoted)]

I cast the first vote I have ever cast for the election of lincoln. In doing so, I felt that I was doing my country as much service as I have ever done on the field of battle.

[Rund Abdel Fatah]

November 8, 1864. Election Day.

[Richard Carwardine]

The day itself passed off peacefully enough, but there is this strong sense of tension, a sense of high excitement, determination to be heard on the day, to stand up for your rights as voters, regardless of what your commanding officers might want or regardless of what the other parties campaigners might want.

[Rund Abdel Fatah]

The votes were counted among the soldiers. Lincoln got three votes for every one mcclellan got. Before long, it was clear that lincoln had won the election.

[Richard Carwardine]

Yes, there's fraud, yes, there's manipulation, yes, there's partisanship, there's malpractice. But I think ultimately there was enough of authenticity and good practice in the absentee balloting in the war, the result itself not to been a distortion.

[Rund Abdel Fatah]

A few days later, Lincoln addressed the nation.

[Abraham Lincoln (quoted)]

The present rebellion brought our republic to a severe test. And a presidential election occurring in regular course during the rebellion added not a little to the strain.

[Richard Carwardine]

I mean, he knew that the electoral process in wartime had its shortcomings, but what it showed was just how deeply embedded the idea of representative government had become in the United states over the

[Abraham Lincoln (quoted)]

years since the revolution, the election, along with its incidental and undesirable strife, has done good, too. It has demonstrated that a people's government can sustain a national election in the midst of a great civil war. Until now, it has not been known to the world that this was a possibility.

[Ramtin Arablouei]

Amidst the bloody war, with all the messiness and drama that came with the election, democracy managed to preserve its most fundamental pillar. Voting. Thousands of soldiers had voted for the first time. The 1864 election laid the groundwork for expanding voting rights. That's it for this week's episode of america in pursuit. If you want to hear the full length throughline episode, check out how evo and be sure to join us next Tuesday when we talk about what came after the Civil War and emancipation, what

[Union Soldier (quoted)]

is going to happen to nearly 4 million African Americans who had been enslaved in the South? Are they going to have basic rights? Are they not going to have basic rights?

[Ramtin Arablouei]

We'll bring you the story of the 14th Amendment and the debate over who is an American and what rights come with that. That's next time. This episode was produced by Kiana Moradda and edited by Christina Kim, with help from the Thuline production team. Music as always, by me, Ramtin Arablouei and my band Drop Electric. Special thanks to Julie Kane Irinaguchi, Beth Donovan, Casey minor and Lindsay McKenna. We're your hosts, Ramtin Arablouei and Rund Abdel Fatah.

[Rund Abdel Fatah]

Thank you for listening.

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