In 1864, at the height of the Civil War, Abraham Lincoln he was facing presidential re-election. In addition to the particularity of the situation, he had to face other problems:divisions within the Republican party, a long war between brothers that was bleeding the country dry, and the issue of abolishing slavery.
A faction of Radical Republicans, unhappy with Lincoln's policies, decided to break away and found their own party, the Radical Democracy Party . They elected Union General John C. Fremont as their presidential candidate. . Despite the differences between them, Lincoln made it clear that the division among the Republicans would only favor the Democratic candidate. A month before the election, Fremont withdrew his candidacy. When the waters settled down among Republicans, he addressed other issues that could prevent him from being re-elected.
In 1863 Abraham Lincoln had issued the Emancipation Proclamation by which the slaves of the Confederate States were freed, but the abolition of slavery was something else entirely and for which he was going to need all possible support... even from those who were not part of the Union. On March 2, 1861, Nevada had seceded from Utah Territory and adopted its current name - from the Spanish name for the Sierra Nevada mountain range. that delimits the territory in its extreme west. Lincoln knew that they were supporters of the Union and, above all, of the Republicans. He had to incorporate the state of Nevada into the Union to have more support, but to do so he had to overcome some obstacles:he did not have the necessary inhabitants to become a State and he did not have an approved Constitution. The number of inhabitants was overlooked and the necessary paperwork to approve the Nevada Constitution was accelerated. James Nye , the territory's governor, sent a copy of the newly approved Constitution to Washington by courier, but by October 24 it still had not arrived - elections were to be held on November 8. So, they decided to send the 175 pages by telegraph…
The telegraph operator James H. Guild It took him seven hours to send the Morse code text, but there was another problem:Carson City was not directly connected to Washington. So the message had to go all the way to Salt Lake City, from there to Chicago, then Philadelphia, and finally to Washington. The previous image is the last of the 175 pages in which the number of words is indicated at the bottom left (16,543 ) and the cost (4,303.27 dollars, about 60,000 current ). Nevada became the 36th State of the United States on October 31, 1864, just 8 days before the election… which was won by Abraham Lincoln. On December 18, 1865, the Thirteenth Amendment to the Constitution was passed, officially abolishing slavery.
Sources:Western Union