The President, on the other hand, used his triumph with great tact and moderation. He made no reference, in his message of December 6, 1864, either to his proclamation or to the protest which had been so fiercely hurled against it. He simply informed Congress that important movements had occurred during the year "to the effect of molding society for durability in the Union;" and that "12,000 citizens in each of the States of Arkansas and Louisiana" had "organized loyal State {20} governments, with free constitutions, and" were "earnestly struggling to maintain and administer them." He also spoke of the gratifying situation and movements in Maryland, Kentucky, Missouri and Tennessee. [Sidenote: The threatened schism in the Republican party, and the Presidential election of 1864.] It may be that Mr. Lincoln did not interpret his great victory at the polls in November preceding as a specific approval of his Reconstruction policy. In the spring and early summer of 1864, the Republican party was threatened with schism largely upon the subject of Reconstruction. Eight days before the meeting of the regular nominating convention of the party, that is on the 31st of May, some three hundred and fifty men, representing, or professing to represent, the more radical element of the party, met in convention at Cleveland, Ohio. General John Cochrane of New York was made chairman of the body, and General John C. Frémont and General John Cochrane were nominated by it for the presidency and vice-presidency of the United States. The twelfth section of the platform provided, "that the reconstruction of the rebel States belongs to the people, through their representatives in Congress, and not to the Executive." The regular convention met June 7th at Baltimore, and adopted a platform which took no sides in regard to Reconstruction, but simply sought to rally all Union men around the President for the purpose of saving the Union and putting an end to the rebellion. Many war Democrats took part in it who favored Lincoln's ideas of Reconstruction, and many Republicans who did not. The Democratic convention met at Chicago August 27th and adopted a platform which virtually proclaimed the war a failure, and demanded a cessation of hostilities preparatory to a compromise with the Confederates. Their nominee, General McClellan, with whom was {21} associated on the ticket Mr. George H. Pendleton of Ohio, repudiated the platform but accepted the nomination and made the race.