By August 1863, the casualty lists from Civil War battles included a quarter of a million names. As a result, anti-war and anti-Lincoln sentiments grew in the North.[23] Peace Democrats known as Copperheads were eager to oust Lincoln in the 1864 election in order to end the war through concessions to the Confederacy, and Lincoln’s 1863 drafts were highly unpopular. Hatred for Lincoln’s draft climaxed just ten days after the Battle of Gettysburg with the New York Draft Riots. In September 1863, Governor Curtin warned Lincoln that political sentiments were turning against the war effort[24].:

If the election were to occur now, the result would be extremely doubtful, and although most of our discreet friends are sanguine of the result, my impression is, the chances would be against us. The draft is very odious in the State… the Democratic leaders have succeeded in exciting prejudice and passion, and have infused their poison into the minds of the people to a very large extent, and the changes are against us.

The following year the Presidential election would be held, and Lincoln was quite concerned that the Copperheads might prevail. Well into the summer of 1864, Lincoln remained convinced that the opposition would oust him.[25] In the fall of 1863, one of Lincoln’s principal concerns was to sustain the Union’s spirits toward the war effort. That goal was the chief aim of Lincoln’s Address at Gettysburg.