1864 Abraham Lincoln Ballot Featuring the U.S.S. Kearsarge Sinking the C.S.S. Alabama on the face, California, 1864. The verso of this imprint names Lincoln and Johnson in conjunction with various California Presidential Electors and San Francisco’s Congressional candidate, Donald C. McRuer. By the summer of 1864 the Northern public was demoralized by the endless casualties generated by defeats and hollow victories. The Democratic Party under George McClellan advocated peace and was gaining steam as the November showdown with Lincoln and the Republicans loomed. On June 19, however, the U.S. Navy sank the Confederacy’s most feared commerce raider and this gave Northerners a much-needed boost in morale. Placing a lithograph of the sinking on the ballot gave the voters a reminder that prosecuting the war was getting results.