13.Chernow, Washington, pp. 581–82.
14.Jay was suggested because he had negotiated with the British at the Paris talks in 1783. He had served as secretary of foreign affairs under the US confederation government between 1783 and 1790 and as minister to Spain for the Continental Congress in 1779.
15.See Forrest McDonald, Alexander Hamilton: A Biography (New York: W. W. Norton, 1982), pp. 285–305.
16.A good description of the strengths and weaknesses of the treaty can be found on pages 71 through 103 of Todd Estes, The Jay Treaty Debate: Public Opinion and the Evolution of Early American Political Culture (Amherst: University of Massachusetts Press, 2008).
17.In his letter of July 29, 1795, to Alexander Hamilton, George Washington wrote: “To judge of this work from the first number, which I have seen, I augur well of the performance; & shall expect to see the subject handled in a clear, distinct and satisfactory manner” (Founders Online, July 29, 1795, https://founders.archives.gov/documents/Hamilton/01-18-02-0318 [accessed September 20, 2017]).
18.For a fuller account of Hamilton’s media campaign and an understanding of how extraordinary the accomplishment was, see Estes, Jay Treaty Debate, pp. 83–85, and Ron Chernow, Alexander Hamilton (New York: Penguin, 2005), pp. 493–97.
19.John Alexander Carroll and Mary Wells Ashworth, First in Peace, vol. 7 of George Washington, ed. Douglas Southall Freeman (New York: Scribner’s, 1957), p. 273n45.
CHAPTER TWO: ABRAHAM LINCOLN & WILLIAM SEWARD
1.Eulogy given by Abraham Lincoln at the funeral of former president Zachary Taylor, July 25, 1850.
2.Richard B. Harwell, ed., The Union Reader: As the North Saw the War (New York: Longmans, Green, 1958), pp. 326–30.
3.The American Experience, season 13, episode 8, “Abraham Lincoln and Mary Lincoln: A House Divided,” directed by David Grubin, written by David Grubin and Geoffrey C. Ward, aired February 20, 2001, on WGBH/PBS, Boston.
4.The relationship between Abraham and Mary changed when they reached the White House. Before then, if Abraham was at work and Mary fell into “one of her moods,” he would come home to personally and lovingly console her. But once he became president, he no longer had the time, or perhaps the interest, to take care of her in the same way. Her moods grew worse, and, as a consequence, the marriage suffered. Before they entered the White House, Abraham and Mary had shared a close political partnership. In Illinois, he had looked to her for strategy advice. She was politically active, was well informed and had good political instincts. But in Washington, the politics and the people were new, and Mary became less central to Lincoln’s planning.
Seward’s wife, Frances, disliked politics and politicians. As Seward built his career, Frances preferred to stay behind to raise their children. She hated the idea of Seward serving in the cabinet, because of the social demands it placed on her. Frances’s lack of interest in politics became a main reason she and Seward spent so much time apart. The separation strained the marriage and, according to some historians, was the impetus for Frances to start a semi-romantic relationship with one of Seward’s friends.
5.Frederick Seward, Reminiscences of a War-Time Statesman and Diplomat (New York: Putnam, 1916), p. 253.
6.Lincoln and Seward discussed their strategy at least twice. First, after deciding to send Seward to meet with Stephens, Lincoln wrote a short list of instructions describing how Seward should conduct himself and what he should say. James Conroy, Our One Common Country: Abraham Lincoln and the Hampton Roads Peace Conference of 1865 (Guildford, CT: Lyons, 2014), p. 131. During the actual meeting, Lincoln and Seward entered the room together after holding back for a few minutes to permit Stephens and his party to get settled. During this period, Lincoln and Seward discussed again what they would say.
7.William Shakespeare, Othello, act II, scene 3, line 243.
8.For a well-paced and more detailed depiction of the nominee selection proceedings, see Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (New York: Simon and Schuster, 2005), pp. 237–56.
9.Journal entry of John Austin, May 18, 1860.
10.Ibid.
11.Ibid.
12.Seward rarely voiced his disappointment about losing the nomination to Lincoln. One of the few documented instances occurred during an exchange between Seward and a member of Congress in which Seward said: “Disappointment! You speak to me of disappointment. To me, who was justly entitled to the Republican nomination for the presidency, and who had to stand aside and see it given to a little Illinois lawyer! You speak to me of disappointment!” Glyndon Van Deusen, William Henry Seward (New York: Oxford University Press, 1967), p. 336.
13.Seward was not only one of the best-traveled men in America, but also one of the best-traveled members of the Republican Party, having served for many years on the powerful Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
14.A copy of the memo and Lincoln’s unsent response can be found in John M. Taylor, William Henry Seward: Lincoln’s Right Hand (New York: HarperCollins, 1991), pp. 308–310.
15.Lincoln’s Uncle Mordecai and at least one of the cousins of Lincoln’s father, Thomas, an uncle, and an aunt were also stricken with depression. Other Lincoln family members struggled with insanity. The many sources on this subject include Michael Burlingame, Abraham Lincoln: A Life, vol. 1 (Baltimore: Johns Hopkins University Press, 2008), p. 6.
16.Lincoln suffered at least two nervous breakdowns in his life. Each time he is reputed to have contemplated suicide. These periods are well covered by many historians; however, one volume specifically dedicated to Lincoln’s bouts with depression and his thoughts of suicide is noteworthy: Joshua Wolf Shenk, Lincoln’s Melancholy: How Depression Challenged a President and Fueled His Greatness (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 2005), pp. 19–23.
17.Doris Kearns Goodwin, as featured on Lillian Cunningham, “His Hand and His Pen,” Presidential, produced by the Washington Post, podcast, April 24, 2016.
18.Lincoln’s mother died from milk poisoning in 1818, when Lincoln was still a boy. His older sister, Sarah, took over caring for him. She helped him grieve, and she raised him as if he was her own child, even teaching him to read. Sadly, she died when Lincoln was a teenager as a result of complications associated with the birth of her first child. By his own admission, he was devastated by her death. In adult life, Lincoln also lost his four-year-old son Edward in 1850 and his twelve-year-old boy “Willie” in 1862.
19.Mary Lincoln did not like Seward, whom she referred to as the “abolitionist sneak” for his immutable views on the subject. She chafed at reports that Seward was the puppet master in the White House; one time, she even threatened to personally show the secretary of state which of them had the most influence with Lincoln. Her dislike for Seward extended to the rest of his family. She once refused to meet with Seward’s wife during a rare social call at the White House. When the Seward women sent up a message with the footman that they would like to meet with Mrs. Lincoln, she sent down word that she was not receiving visitors that day.
20.There are a number of sources for this quote. Here, the source is David Herbert Donald, We Are Lincoln Men: Abraham Lincoln and His Friends (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2003), p. 171.
21.He went on to say, “The Emancipation Proclamation was uttered in the first gun fired at Sumter and we have been the last to hear it. As it is, we show our sympathy with slavery by emancipating slaves where we cannot reach them and holding them in bondage where we can set them free.” For further commentary on Seward’s views, see Allen C. Guelzo, Lincoln’s Emancipation Proclamation: The End of Slavery in America (New York: Simon & Schuster, 2006), p. 222.
22.Border states included Maryland, Delaware, Kentucky and Missouri.
23.President Lincoln made this comment to artist Francis Bicknell Carpenter. Francis Bicknell Carpenter, Six Months at the White House with Abraham Lincoln: A Story of a Picture (New York: Hurd and Houghton, 1866), p. 22. The proclamation was officially issued on September 22, 1862. Lincoln, tak
ing Seward’s advice, waited until the Union Army achieved a battlefield victory—in this case, the Battle of Antietam.
24.That Lincoln would assign Seward oversight of such an unusual project for a secretary of state indicates the nature of their special partnership. Right hands are often asked to perform special duties for the presidents they serve. Lincoln could have asked his attorney general to oversee the project, but instead he went to Seward. Perhaps he did so because he understood that the maneuvers necessary to enable such a controversial piece of legislation might entail conduct beneath the dignity of a president and, because he would need to be close to whoever oversaw the project, he wanted that person to be someone he could trust completely.
25.The Amendment passed the US Senate on April 8, 1864, and the US House of Representatives on January 31, 1865.
26.Since notes were not taken at this meeting, most of what is known is drawn from official accounts submitted to Congress afterward by Lincoln and Seward. Their reports are deliberately incomplete. The account recorded here is based largely on the writings of Stephens, Campbell, and Hunter. Historian James Conroy assembled the recollections of each of the participants and combined them with newspaper reports to create a very readable description of the meeting. That work is the basis of this section. James Conroy, Our One Common Country: Abraham Lincoln and the Hampton Roads Peace Conference of 1865 (Guildford, CT: Lyons, 2014), pp. 172–99.
27.When it was signed, the proclamation covered only those states in active rebellion—which did not include Missouri, Kentucky, Maryland and Delaware. Tennessee, and some parts of Virginia and Louisiana, were also excluded from coverage.
CHAPTER THREE: WOODROW WILSON & EDWARD HOUSE
1.Charles Seymour, a former Sterling Professor of History at Yale, recorded this quote in his biography of Colonel House in 1926. The date and person to whom Wilson supposedly addressed this comment are not identified. Charles Seymour, The Intimate Papers of Colonel House: Arranged as a Narrative (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1926).
2.House never served in the military. The honorific of “colonel” was bestowed upon him as a courtesy similar to that enjoyed by Muhammad Ali, George H. W. Bush and Whoopi Goldberg, who were also “colonels.”
3.Had House decided to run for office, it would not have been difficult. There were many in Texas politics who would have supported his candidacy and, given his reputation, challengers would have been few. For an insightful description and analysis of House’s reasons for not running, see Charles Neu, Colonel House: A Biography of Woodrow Wilson’s Silent Partner (New York: Oxford University Press, 2015), taking special note of pp. 37–38.
4.This is recorded by Edwin A. Weinstein based on a memorandum of an interview with Cary T. Grayson on February 18–19, 1926, and included in the public papers of Woodrow Wilson as cited in Weinstein’s book, Woodrow Wilson: A Medical and Psychological Biography (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1981), p. 15.
5.Ibid.
6.Alexander L. and Juliette L. George, Woodrow Wilson and Colonel House: A Personality Study (New York: Dover Publications, 1964), pp. 6–7.
7.Weinstein’s theory is that Wilson had a type of dyslexia that was different from that caused by brain damage, lack of social stimulation, low intelligence, or emotional trauma. Weinstein, Woodrow Wilson, pp. 16–19.
8.According to Weinstein, the strongest proof of Wilson’s childhood dyslexia emerged in 1896, when, after he suffered his first stroke, Wilson displayed the “mixed cerebral dominance and bilateral representation for language, associated with childhood dyslexia” (Woodrow Wilson, p. 18).
9.Alexander George was the Graham Stuart Professor of International Relations and professor of political science at Stanford University. He was also a head of the social science department at the RAND Corporation. His wife, Juliette George, was a senior scholar of international studies at Stanford. They collaborated on the book Woodrow Wilson and Colonel House: A Personality Study (New York: Dover Publications, 1964).
10.George and George, Woodrow Wilson and Colonel House, pp. 6–7.
11.Weinstein, Woodrow Wilson, pp. 10–13.
12.A. Scott Berg, Wilson (New York: G. P. Putnam’s Sons, 2013), p. 37.
13.Louis Koenig, The Invisible Presidency (New York: Rinehart, 1960), p. 197.
14.Neu, Colonel House, pp. 57–58.
15.Weinstein, Woodrow Wilson, p. 266.
16.Seymour, The Intimate Papers of Colonel House, p. 93.
17.Wilson wanted to prevent banking crises such as the one that had occurred during the Cleveland Administration and which necessitated J. P. Morgan to single-handedly bail out the US economy. In 1895, a banking panic caused a run on gold. The Treasury Department was required to hold $100 million in gold reserve at all times, but so many Americans had traded their bank-account balances for gold that US gold reserves dropped to below $50 million. J. P. Morgan offered to lend the US government $60 million in gold in return for US bonds. President Cleveland demurred. Then, Morgan informed the president that he knew, on good authority, that a large US company was planning to redeem $10 million in gold bonds on the following day, and he knew that the New York treasury held only $9 million in gold. If the bonds were redeemed, as Morgan fully expected, the New York treasury would be insolvent and an already deep banking crisis would worsen. Morgan knew his information was true because a member of his board of directors sat on the board of the company in question.
18.Woodrow Wilson, letter to Joseph Daniels. Baker, Woodrow Wilson, p. 13.
19.Koenig, The Invisible Presidency, pp. 215–17.
20.Ibid.
21.Ibid.
22.Comment by British diplomat Sir William Wiseman conveyed by Colonel House to Woodrow Wilson on April 4, 1917, and August 4, 1917, and contained in the House papers.
23.August Heckscher, Woodrow Wilson (New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1991), p. 334.
24.Ibid., p. 335.
25.Comment by Woodrow Wilson to Colonel House. Journal entry by House on November 6, 1914.
26.Edith Galt, a widow, had been in a loveless marriage and was at first unsettled by Wilson’s passionate pursuit. Wilson might have proposed earlier, but Colonel House urged him to wait a year. For a description of Wilson and Edith’s whirlwind courtship, see Weinstein, Woodrow Wilson, pp. 279–97.
27.Phyllis Lee Levin, Edith and Woodrow: The Wilson White House (New York: Scribner, 2001), p. 105.
28.Ibid., p. 294.
29.Koenig suggests that House uncharacteristically chose to “throw his weight around” as a way to speed the conference proceedings along. Koenig, The Invisible Presidency, p. 246.
30.George and George, Woodrow Wilson and Colonel House, p. 197.
31.Ibid., p. 261.
32.Neu, Colonel House.
33.George and George, Woodrow Wilson and Colonel House, pp. 240–67.
CHAPTER FOUR: FRANKLIN ROOSEVELT & LOUIS HOWE
1.James Roosevelt, My Parents: A Differing View (New York: Playboy, 1976), p. 75.
2.The relationship between the two remained strained throughout their married lives together. They were a family, but Howe and Grace did not go out of their way to be together in the way that two spouses in a loving relationship might. Even when they ran out of excuses to separate, they preferred to live apart. In 1927, Grace inherited enough money to live in comfort for the rest of her life. This wealth should have made it easier for Howe and Grace to live together, but their living situation did not change.
3.Grace Howe, letter to Louis Howe, September 28, 1901, personal papers of Louis Howe.
4.The original letter can be found among Louis Howe’s personal papers for years 1905–1911 held at the FDR Library. An excerpt follows, but the entire letter can be found in Julie M. Fenster, FDR’s Shadow: Louis Howe, the Force That Shaped Franklin and Eleanor Roosevelt (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2009), p. 86.
Dearest Wife of Mine,
It is now 2:30 am and I am forced to go to bed for lack of anyone to sit up and keep me compan
y. I must first dear write you a line, for I want to put something down on paper that you can have and keep and perhaps some time when what I say may make things easier, read. It is only this, dear.
You read my thoughts and my actions wrong, dear.
I trust you trust you trust you—Ever since that night dear when—for the sake of the little son that is gone and the little girl that is here we agreed to drop Willie out of our lives, I have felt that was over. Little girl I didn’t want to see you go away because I was afraid—just what I was afraid of I will tell you sometime but believe me, dear, that was not it. If I acted cross it was not that, it was because, when I realized all I had tried so hard to do to compensate for so much I had asked you to give up had been—like everything I had tried to do—a failure. That, if the doctors warnings came true—you would have no other recollection of our last winter than that I had taken you away from all that you cared for and given you in its place—“the worst winter you had ever had in your life.”
…Forgive me dear for the misery and sorrow I have caused you for the failure I have made of everything, for I can never forgive myself.
I love you I love you I love you
Your Husband
5.Joseph Lash, Eleanor and Franklin (New York: W. W. Norton, 1971), p. 199.
6.Eleanor Roosevelt, This I Remember (New York: Harper & Brothers, 1949), p. 30.
7.Eleanor Roosevelt Autobiography (New York: HarperCollins, 1961), pp. 108–11.
8.Roosevelt, My Parents, p. 85.
9.David McCullough, Truman (New York: Simon & Schuster, 1992), p. 327.
10.Roosevelt, My Parents, p. 92.
11.Elliott Roosevelt and James Brough, An Untold Story: The Roosevelts of Hyde Park (New York: Putnam Adult, 1973). Also see H. W. Brands, Traitor to His Class: The Privileged Life and Radical Presidency of Franklin Delano Roosevelt (New York: Doubleday, 2008), p. 194.
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