Lincoln's leadership qualities were evident in his close supervision of the victorious war effort, especially in his selection of Ulysses S. Grant and other top generals. Historians conclude that he handled the factions of the Republican Party brilliantly by bringing its leaders into his cabinet and forcing them to cooperate. In crisis management, he defused a war scare with the United Kingdom (1861), he outmaneuvered the Confederacy and took control of the border slave states in 1861 – 1862, and he managed his own landslide reelection in the 1864 presidential election.Antiwar "Copperheads" criticized him for refusing to compromise on the slavery issue. In contrast, the Radical Republicans, a strongly Abolitionist faction of the Republican Party, criticized him for moving too slowly in abolishing slavery. Yet despite his detractors, Lincoln successfully rallied public opinion through the powerful rhetoric of his messages and speeches;
