Last York election of the Civil War goes to the Democrats
The March 1865 local elections in York, Pennsylvania, demonstrated that, despite the imminent Union triumph and President Lincoln’s strong support in much of the Keystone State, here the Democratic Party had grown in strength and influence since the 1860 election, when Vice President John C. Breckinridge won the presidential vote in the county over Lincoln.
In 1864, the margin for Democrat Maj. Gen. George B. McClellan was even higher. By the end of the war, as can be seen from the above article, the Republicans were losing even more ground in York (and York County).
Victorious incumbent Mayor David Small handily won yet another term in the 1865 election, despite a vocal minority who charged that he had shamefully surrendered York to the Confederate Army of Northern Virginia back in 1863 when Jubal Early’s division approached from Gettysburg.
Taken from the Philadelphia Age, March 20, 1865. Courtesy of newsinhistory.com
