text: At its convention, the Republicans selected Johnson as his running mate.To broaden his coalition to include War Democrats as well as Republicans, Lincoln ran under the label of the new Union Party.Grant's bloody stalemates damaged Lincoln's re-election prospects, and many Republicans feared defeat.Lincoln confidentially pledged in writing that if he should lose the election, he would still defeat the Confederacy before turning over the White House; Lincoln did not show the pledge to his cabinet, but asked them to sign the sealed envelope.The pledge read as follows: The Democratic platform followed the "Peace wing" of the party and called the war a "failure"; but their candidate, McClellan, supported the war and repudiated the platform.Meanwhile, Lincoln emboldened Grant with more troops and Republican party support.Sherman's capture of Atlanta in September and David Farragut's capture of Mobile ended defeatism.The Democratic Party was deeply split, with some leaders and most soldiers openly for Lincoln.The National Union Party was united by Lincoln's support for emancipation.State Republican parties stressed the perfidy of the Copperheads.On November 8, Lincoln carried all but three states, including 78 percent of Union soldiers.On March 4, 1865, Lincoln delivered his second inaugural address.In it, he deemed the war casualties to be God's will.Historian Mark Noll places the speech "among the small handful of semi-sacred texts by which Americans conceive their place in the world;" it is inscribed in the Lincoln Memorial.Lincoln said: Reconstruction Reconstruction preceded the war's end, as Lincoln and his associates considered the reintegration of the nation, and the fates of Confederate leaders and freed slaves.When a general asked Lincoln how the defeated Confederates were to be treated, Lincoln replied, "Let 'em up easy.