3-011-401 - The Print Collector/Heritage Images

Presidential electioneering in New York - a street scene, 1864. Engraving of a sketch by Mr. C. D. Shanly. '...there was another tremendous demonstration here in favour of M'Clellan and Pendleton for the presidency and vice-presidency of the United States, respectively...There was an endless torchlight procession of the M'Clellanites belonging to the several wards of the city...The sentiment throughout this demonstration was one of disgust with the [US Civil] war; the feeling, that with the election of M'Clellan peace will be restored - somehow'... Sure enough, before the termination of the proceedings on Thursday night, a pistol went off in the outskirts of the crowd, and a young man was shot in the leg by an unknown assailant. With this exception, the meeting passed off with the most perfect peace and harmony. There may have been at one period 35,000 persons present, but I did not see a blow struck nor hear an angry word spoken. There is no mistake into which foreigners are more likely to fall than that which assumes that the normal condition of American popular assemblages is one of riot and confusion'. From "Illustrated London News", 1864.