Abraham Lincoln and Men of War-Times : Some Personal Recollections of War and Politics During the Lincoln Administration

by McClure, A. K.

• ISBN13: 9780803282285
• ISBN10: 0803282281
• Edition: 4th
• Format: Paperback
• Copyright: 1996-11-01
• Publisher: Univ of Nebraska Pr

Summary

An associate of Abraham Lincoln offers an intimate view of the president's relations with military men and top politicians, placing particular emphasis on the election campaigns of 1860 and 1864. A. K. McClure, a Republican powerbroker and later editor of the Philadelphia Times, reveals how Lincoln replaced Vice President Hannibal Hamlin with the southern Democrat Andrew Johnson on the 1864 ticket. According to McClure, Lincoln kept his hand hidden in order not to offend Hamlin and his New England supporters. In 1892, the publication of Abraham Lincoln and Men of War-Times caused an angry exchange of letters (included in this edition) between McClure and the late president's secretary, John G. Nicolay. For all his nobility, Lincoln was a shrewd and cautious politician, running scared for reelection until major Union army victories in September 1864. McClure writes candidly about William T. Sherman, Ulysses S. Grant, and George B. McClellan. Among the politicians discussed are Lincoln's predecessor, James Buchanan, who fixed the Southern policy that Lincoln followed until war came; Salmon P. Chase, the annoyingly ambitious secretary of the treasury; Edwin M. Stanton, the moody secretary of war; and Thaddeus Stevens, the ferocious congressman whose relations with Lincoln were uneasy at best.

Author Biography

James A. Rawley is Carl Adolph Happold Professor Emeritus of history at the University of Nebraska–Lincoln and author of Turning Points of the Civil War, also available as a Bison Book.

Table of Contents

Introduction	p. 7
Preface	p. 17
Lincoln in 1860	p. 27
A Visit to Lincoln	p. 44
Lincoln's Characteristics	p. 72
Lincoln in Politics	p. 85
Lincoln and Emancipation	p. 98
Lincoln and Hamlin	p. 115
Lincoln and Chase	p. 132
Lincoln and Cameron	p. 147
Lincoln and Stanton	p. 170
Lincoln and Grant	p. 189
Lincoln and Mcclellan	p. 208
Lincoln and Sherman	p. 226
Lincoln and Curtin	p. 248
Lincoln and Stevens	p. 277
Lincoln and Greeley	p. 312
Our Unrewarded Heroes	p. 355
The Pennsylvania Reserve Corps	p. 423
Appendix	p. 457
Index	p. 483
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