In the Chicago mayoral election of 1863, Democrat Francis Cornwall Sherman won reelection, defeating National Union (Republican) nominee

Thomas Barbour Bryan Thomas Barbour Bryan (December 22, 1828 – January 26, 1906) was an American businessman, lawyer, and politician. Born in Virginia, a member of the prestigious Barbour family on his mother's side, Bryan largely made a name for himself in Chi ...

by an extremely narrow quarter percent margin.

Background

In 1862, Sherman had appointed a committee which recommended that Chicago pass a new city charter which would annex

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and Holstein, lengthen the terms for mayor,

treasurer A treasurer is the person responsible for running the treasury of an organization. The significant core functions of a corporate treasurer include cash and liquidity management, risk management, and corporate finance. Government The treasury o ...

, collector, city attorney, and clerk of police each from one to two years. Ultimately, such a charter and measures came to pass before the 1863 mayoral election. This made 1863 the first mayoral election held to a two-year term. Since his 1862 mayoral victory, Sherman had, in October 1862, lost a congressional election to

Isaac N. Arnold Isaac Newton Arnold (November 30, 1815 – April 24, 1884) was an American attorney, politician, and biographer who made his career in Chicago. He served two terms in the United States House of Representatives (1860–1864) and in 1864 introduce ...

.Rogues, Rebels, And Rubber Stamps: The Politics Of The Chicago City Council, 1863 To The Present by Dick Simpson, Routledge, Mar 8, 2018 (page 30)
/ref> The election was held on April 21. It was the third of four Chicago mayoral elections which took place during the course of the

American Civil War The American Civil War (April 12, 1861 – May 26, 1865; also known by other names) was a civil war in the United States. It was fought between the Union ("the North") and the Confederacy ("the South"), the latter formed by states th ...

. Tensions between the two parties were strong in the spring of 1863. Alderman Charles C. P. Holden (Sherman's 1862 mayoral opponent) had introduced several resolutions which Sherman vetoed for being too partisan. Republicans sought to see Democrats provide greater support for war measures, while Democrats were critical of

President Lincoln Abraham Lincoln ( ; February 12, 1809 – April 15, 1865) was an American lawyer, politician, and statesman who served as the 16th president of the United States from 1861 until his assassination in 1865. Lincoln led the nation throu ...

's handling of the war. At the time the Common Council's swing vote was Alderman Shimp, a Democrat voted with the Republicans.

Campaigning

The Republican (National Union) party nominated

. He had previously been an unsuccessful candidate in the 1861 mayoral election. The Democratic Party renominated Mayor Sherman. Bryan had been a reluctant candidate, as was the case when he ran in 1861. Sherman's candidacy benefited immensely from the support of Irish and German voters from the newly annexed neighborhoods of the city. The ''

Chicago Tribune The ''Chicago Tribune'' is a daily newspaper based in Chicago, Illinois, United States, owned by Tribune Publishing. Founded in 1847, and formerly self-styled as the "World's Greatest Newspaper" (a slogan for which WGN radio and television ar ...

'' characterized Sherman as being sound in his position on the war, but criticized his affiliation with the ''

Chicago Times The ''Chicago Times'' was a newspaper in Chicago from 1854 to 1895, when it merged with the ''Chicago Herald'', to become the ''Chicago Times-Herald''. The ''Times-Herald'' effectively disappeared in 1901 when it merged with the ''Chicago Record' ...

'' and copperheads. The

ward of Chicago was nicknamed the "Egypt of Chicago". Democrats believed the ward alone would secure Sherman's victory, a prediction which ultimately proved true.

Results

With the exception of the nullified March 1844 mayoral election, Sherman's margin of victory was the narrowest in Chicago mayoral election history. By winning this election, Sherman became the first individual to be elected to three terms as mayor of Chicago. In the Common Council elections held simultaneously, nineteen Democrats and twelve Republicans were elected, with an additional seat being vacant. Nearly the entire Democratic ticket was elected by majorities between 250 and 300 votes.

Controversy

With a narrow vote, Republicans claimed that the Democrats had won through

electoral fraud Electoral fraud, sometimes referred to as election manipulation, voter fraud or vote rigging, involves illegal interference with the process of an election, either by increasing the vote share of a favored candidate, depressing the vote share of ...

. They appointed a committee to investigate, and Bryan notified Sherman that he would contest the result. Ultimately, Bryan did not contest. While he believed that he had received a majority of the legal votes, and was pressured by friends to contest the election he was not greatly enough concerned about the result of the election to pursue the process of contesting it.

References

{{Reconstruction Era Mayoral elections in Chicago

Chicago (''City in a Garden''); I Will , image_map = , map_caption = Interactive Map of Chicago , coordinates = , coordinates_footnotes = , subdivision_type = Country , subdivision_name ...

1860s in Chicago