<P> War Democrats who rejected the Copperhead position within their party, found themselves in a quandary . While throughout the war they had continued to espouse the racist positions of their party and their disdain of the concerns of slaves, they did see the Proclamation as a viable military tool against the South, and worried that opposing it might demoralize troops in the Union army . The question would continue to trouble them and eventually lead to a split within their party as the war progressed . </P> <P> Lincoln further alienated many in the Union two days after issuing the preliminary copy of the Emancipation Proclamation by suspending habeas corpus . His opponents linked these two actions in their claims that he was becoming a despot . In light of this and a lack of military success for the Union armies, many War Democrat voters who had previously supported Lincoln turned against him and joined the Copperheads in the off - year elections held in October and November . </P> <P> In the 1862 elections, the Democrats gained 28 seats in the House as well as the governorship of New York . Lincoln's friend Orville Hickman Browning told the president that the Proclamation and the suspension of habeas corpus had been "disastrous" for his party by handing the Democrats so many weapons . Lincoln made no response . Copperhead William Javis of Connecticut pronounced the election the "beginning of the end of the utter downfall of Abolitionism in the United States". </P> <P> Historians James M. McPherson and Allan Nevins state that though the results looked very troubling, they could be seen favorably by Lincoln; his opponents did well only in their historic strongholds and "at the national level their gains in the House were the smallest of any minority party's in an off - year election in nearly a generation . Michigan, California, and Iowa all went Republican...Moreover, the Republicans picked up five seats in the Senate ." McPherson states "If the election was in any sense a referendum on emancipation and on Lincoln's conduct of the war, a majority of Northern voters endorsed these policies ." </P>

Which of the following did the emancipation proclamation accomplish