Abstract
ABSTRACT: This article examines the elections and tenure of Governor Andrew Curtin of Pennsylvania, who secured election in 1860 and reelection in 1863 at the head of a centrist political coalition that first dubbed itself the People’s Party and later became the Union Party. Although Republicans constituted the largest proportion of Curtin’s supporters, his overall success hinged on Democrat and Whig converts who refused to back a straight Republican ticket. The governor appealed to these voters by embodying a nonpartisan patriotism in rhetoric and policy. His campaigns appealed across party lines to loyal Democrats, and in his governance he regularly clashed with Washington over a host of unpopular wartime policies. Curtin’s record suggests the fl uidity of Republicanism and provides powerful evidence for the underappreciated prevalence and signifi cance of political centrism in wartime northern politics.