Codie Eash, SRMEC Director of Education and Interpretation, will present “‘The Nation Shall Live and Slavery Shall Die’: The Presidential Election of 1864” at the York Civil War Roundtable. The meeting begins at 7:00pm at the York County History Center Museum (121 North Pershing Avenue, York, PA, 17401). For more information from the YCWRT, visit https://www.yorkhistorycenter.org/event/civil-war-roundtable-3/.

As Americans struggled through the Civil War’s fourth autumn, voters cast their ballots in the presidential election of 1864. The campaign pitted incumbent Abraham Lincoln against his former general-in-chief, George McClellan, and its results framed the ultimate effects of the conflict itself. Soldiers and citizens determined whether the nation would quell a rebellion, or open peace negotiations; expand the rights of freed people, or de-emphasize personal liberties; and end slavery, or keep the institution intact. More than any wartime event not decided on a battlefield, the course and consequences of this election are among the most significant in U.S. history.