The battles that made Abraham Lincoln : how Lincoln mastered his enemies to win the Civil War, free the slaves, and preserve the Union

596 Pages·2012·7.14 MB·English

© 2012 by Larry Tagg All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be
reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any
means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the
prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of
America.
First edition, first printing Tagg, Larry.
The Battles That Made Abraham Lincoln: How Lincoln Mastered his Enemies
to Win the Civil War, Free the Slaves, and Preserve the Union / Larry Tagg. — 1st
ed.
p. cm.
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-61121-126-9
ePUB ISBN: 9781611211276
1. Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865. 2. Lincoln, Abraham, 1809-1865—Public
opinion. 3. United States—Politics and government—1861-1865. 4. Public opinion
—United States. 5. Presidents—United States—Biography. I. Title.
E457.15.T15 2012
973.7092—dc23
2012039015
Previously published in hardcover as The Unpopular Mr. Lincoln: The Story of
America’s Most Reviled President, by Larry Tagg (ISBN: 978-1-932714-61-6 / 2009)
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To my dear wife Lori Jablonski
for her constant love and encouragement.
“To say that he is ugly is nothing, to add that his figure is grotesque
is to convey no adequate impression.”
— Edward Dicey, 1862
Contents
Introduction and Acknowledgments
Part One: Lincoln’s Entrance
Chapter 1: Lincoln Comes to Washington
Chapter 2: The Presidency
Chapter 3: The Rise of Party Politics
Chapter 4: The Spoils System
Chapter 5: The Slavery Debate
Chapter 6: Lincoln’s Nomination
Chapter 7: The 1860 Presidential Campaign
Chapter 8: Lincoln’s Election
Chapter 9: Lincoln in the Secession Winter
Chapter 10: The Flight Toward Compromise
Chapter 11: The Journey to Washington
Chapter 12: Lincoln and the Merchants
Part Two: Lincoln’s First Eighteen Months
Chapter 13: Lincoln’s First Impression
Chapter 14: The First Inaugural
Chapter 15: The Struggle with Seward, Then Sumter
Chapter 16: The Capital Surrounded
Chapter 17: The Hundred Days to Bull Run
Chapter 18: The Rise of the Radical Republicans
Chapter 19: The Phony War of 1861
Chapter 20: Democrats Disappear
Chapter 21: A Military House Divided
Part Three: Lincoln’s Proclamation
Chapter 22: Lincoln, Race, and the North
Chapter 23: Lincoln Awaits a Victory
Chapter 24: Emancipation Promised
Chapter 25: Emancipation Rebuked
Chapter 26: Emancipation Proclaimed
Chapter 27: The Rise of the Copperheads
Chapter 28: Lincoln Addresses the Nation
Part Four: Lincoln’s Reelection
Chapter 29: The 1864 Republican Nomination
Chapter 30: The Fall and the Temptation
Chapter 31: The 1864 Election
Chapter 32: The War at the End of the War
Epilogue: The Sudden Saint
Sources and Notes
Bibliography
Index
Introduction to New Edition
I
t is the widely-held conviction of every election year that modern political
campaigning is a creeping poison, more negative than ever. “Politics was never so
mean!” is the common cry. The corrective for this view is a study of the
campaigns against Abraham Lincoln.
From the moment of his election, Lincoln had to contend with the people’s
distrust of any authority. The Presidency, especially, was held in contempt by a
public disgusted over the ravages of the Spoils System and rampant political
corruption. The Founding Fathers—Washington, Adams, Jefferson, Madison, and
Monroe—had given way to mediocrities—Taylor, Fillmore, Pierce, and Buchanan.
For many, this recent string of watery presidents seemed to have its bitter
culmination in “The Railsplitter,” the anonymous man from the prairie who had
never administrated anything larger than a two-person law office.
When he arrived in Washington, as a result of his awkward manners and his
complete inattention to social convention and outward appearance, Lincoln had
to battle the common prejudice concerning how a great man should look, act,
and talk. Particularly among the elite, there was a shaking of heads after meeting
Lincoln for the first time. The high-bred fastidious men of the East were aghast:
How could anyone so ungentlemanly possibly be a statesman?
Even before he took office, president-elect Lincoln was at odds with those
who regarded the states as sovereign powers, men who believed that every state
had the right to dissolve the Union when the result of a national canvass did not
serve its interests. Lincoln refused to concede this right, and maintained his
conviction that the seceded states were not a separate nation but remained a part
of the United States. And the war came.
From the war’s outset, Lincoln became the foe of almost every member of
Congress. That institution had enjoyed preeminence in government since the first
days of the American democratic experiment, and Lincoln toppled it from its