Flashback Friday to August 1864, two months after Abraham Lincoln was renominated by the Republican national convention for reelection, and barely two months before the election:

The party anxiety of certain Republican leaders had at this juncture become unusually sensitive. The Democratic National Convention was about to meet in the city of Chicago, and the nomination of McClellan as its candidate was strongly foreshadowed. In anticipation, Democratic leaders, newspapers, and delegates were specially active and boastful. Their unwonted confidence and bold prophecies created general uneasiness among Republicans, and, in a few instances, produced a downright panic. Under this feeling the National Executive Committee of the Republican party met in New York for consultation, and on the 22d of August, its chairman, Henry J. Raymond, wrote the President the following extraordinary letter.

… prompting Lincoln to write this extraordinary memo.