Perhaps not entirely, but it certainly was a referendum on the way Lincoln had been managing the war, and the EP was viciously attacked by the Democrats.
and did you cut and paste that section from somewhere else? or do you always use the word negros or are you usually more PC? (negroes is the correct spelling)...
Sorry for the typo, but my comments are my own, and I use the word "negro" because that's what blacks were called in the 1860's.