I have also incurred a different sort of obligation. My own histories have been possible only because of the labor of hundreds of scholars and writers who preceded me. I have hoped that my end notes and bibliographies would lead readers to books that offer a fuller study of individuals and events than my broad surveys could accommodate.
This time, my debt is especially strong to Professor Eric Foner of Columbia University. Until he published Reconstruction in 1988, many scholars, in the North as well as in the South, tended to absolve the former Confederates of failing to guarantee full civil rights for the freed slaves. They blamed instead the corruption of the carpetbaggers and the misdeeds and ineptitude of the Negroes themselves.
There were such notable exceptions as W. E. B. DuBois and his Black Reconstruction in America, but Professor Foner denounced much of the scholarship from the Jim Crow era as academia’s “everlasting shame.”
Now a great number of exemplary works exist, and I was particularly grateful for the insights and impressive work of David Herbert Donald, Jean Edward Smith, Hans L. Trefousse, Ari Hoogenboom, and many others.
Almost every day in recent years, I have come upon an incident or detail that increased my appreciation of our legacy. It has been especially rewarding to scrape away the worshipful patina from George Washington and find fallibility and compromise but also a true hero who ranks with the greatest men of any age.
Some chapters could be painful to relive—slavery, the abuse of native tribes, Jim Crow. But at the worst of times, the spirit from our heritage shone through and sustained the nation’s promise.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR
© DAVID SOBEL
A. J. Langguth is the author of eight books of nonfiction and three novels. After Lincoln marks his fourth book in a series that began in 1988 with Patriots: The Men Who Started the American Revolution. He served as a Saigon bureau chief for the New York Times, after covering the Civil Rights movement for the newspaper. Langguth taught for three decades at the University of Southern California and retired in 2003 as emeritus professor in the Annenberg School for Communication and Journalism. He lives in Los Angeles.
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NOTES
APRIL 14, 1865
Lt. General Ulysses S. Grant begged off: U. S. Grant, Memoirs, 640.
Julia Grant felt she had been snubbed: Chamlee, 4.
“Is anything the matter?” Julia Grant, 156. Some early details wired to Grant were mistaken. Seward was stabbed with a bowie knife, not shot, and his son was struck with the butt of a revolver. A later, more accurate account of events appears on page 51.
President Lincoln had been assassinated: J. E. Smith, 410.
Like most of his relatives: Farina, 26.
Where there had been joy: U. S. Grant, Memoirs, 641.
Grant remembered that Lincoln had set: U. S. Grant, Memoirs, 644.
He allowed Lee’s officers to retain: Waugh, 99.
“He thought,” Grant recalled: U. S. Grant, Memoirs, 648.
And the rebellious Southerners “surely”: U. S. Grant, Memoirs, 642.
CHAPTER 1. CHARLES SUMNER (1865)
Sumner’s grandfather had fought: Benson, 11.
A lifelong crusader, the elder Sumner: A. M. Taylor, 6.
He developed a loathing for the theatrical: A. M. Taylor, 58.
Calling on Chief Justice Roger Taney: A. M. Taylor, 63.
Sumner dined at the Garrick Club: Sumner, Memoir, 2, 21.
At Windsor Castle, he toured: Sumner, Memoir, 2, 16.
The familiar ritual at Tremont Temple: Sumner, Memoir, 2, 339.
Sumner began by denouncing: Sumner, Memoir, 2, 343.
“In our age there can be no peace”: Sumner, Memoir, 2, 348.
In contrast, the warship Ohio docked in Boston Harbor: Sumner, Memoir, 2, 350.
“War is known as the last reason”: Sumner, Memoir, 2, 354.
To restore a semblance of good humor: Sumner, Memoir, 2, 357.
But at least one Boston general admired: Sumner, Memoir, 2, 357.
He worried that taking the position would mean: A. M. Taylor, 193.
Over the next two years, Sumner became: Benson, 16.
To heighten the insult: A. M. Taylor, 306.
“Nothing but politics now”: A. M. Taylor, 280.
One friend observed that at any gathering: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 30.
Even so, Brooks was expelled before: Benson, 26.
As a Democrat who did not favor: Benson, 26.
Sumner had already annoyed fellow senators: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 198.
Back home, Sumner’s speeches berated the Know Nothings: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 228.
Once he had asked Sumner, as a personal favor: J. M. Taylor, 91.
But even she had advised Sumner: Goodwin, 184.
If only Butler had been born: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 176.
Now Sumner claimed that there was nothing: Benson, 117.
The first Democrat to respond: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 240.
Speaking next, Stephen Douglas: Benson, 122.
Douglas asked, “Is it his object”: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 242.
Answering Douglas, Sumner referred to him: Benson, 130.
When newspapers published extracts: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 241.
Brooks realized that his cousin was expected: Benson, 131–32.
But when he confided that plan: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 245.
Edmundson saw that Brooks had taken a seat: Benson, 140.
“Mr. Sumner,” Brooks began: Benson, 132.
As the beating continued, however: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 246.
The unrelenting blows had splintered: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 247; Benson, 132.
One of Brooks’s friends, Representative Laurence Keitt: Benson, 139.
But the two reached the scene: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 247.
Awakening from his frenzy, Brooks mumbled: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 247.
A doctor arrived to stanch: Benson, 206.
As he drifted off to sleep: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 249.
The doctor was optimistic: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 262.
When Sumner finally returned to the Capitol: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 273.
In Paris, the young novelist Henry James: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 274.
From the time of the attack, crowds throughout: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 251.
At an Indignation Meeting, Emerson spelled out: Benson, 176.
The Herald of Laurensville, South Carolina: Benson 164.
The merchants of Charleston: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 255.
That theme was taken up by the Richmond Whig: Goodwin, 185.
But North Carolina’s Wilmington Herald: Benson, 170.
At that, Butler shout
ed, “You are a liar!”: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 257.
After he declined to appear: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 250.
“But he quickly answered, No”: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 260.
In New York State, Frances Seward was resigned: J. M. Taylor, 102.
When he died from a throat infection early in 1857: Benson, 203.
To another friend, Sumner said: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 284.
Sumner said he dreaded being again: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 289.
On their side, Southerners had forgiven: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 292.
Brown did not speak but held it: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 293.
Yes, he condemned Brown’s actions: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 293.
Sumner heard Buchanan out: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 309.
Sumner began mildly: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 295.
“I have not yet found time”: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 299.
The young women were described as “laughing”: Holzer, 50.
“A poet has said that the shot”: Holzer, 51.
“Much as I desire the extinction”: Benson, 219.
“They will all go”: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 313.
Sumner declined with a reproach: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 319.
He told the story afterward: Holzer, 417.
“When with the Romans”: Eaton, 309.
But, Sumner added, Lincoln might not recognize: Donald, Sumner . . . Civil War, 319.
Mary Lincoln reported that: Donald, Lincoln Men, 214.
Before reading his proclamation aloud: Goodwin, 464.
Then, when “the eagle of victory”: Goodwin, 468.
The Union army responded by publishing: John Fabian Witt, “Lincoln’s Code: The Laws of War in American History,” New York Times, September 22, 2012, A21.
Lincoln lamented, “If there is a worse place than hell”: Goolrick, 92–93.
Further Union losses served to test the alliance: Donald, Lincoln Men, 186.
“Remember that I am President of the United States”: Goodwin, 687.
One of his friends, a Polish translator in the Senate: Donald, Sumner . . . Rights, 152.
CHAPTER 2. WILLIAM HENRY SEWARD (1865)
“Assassination is not an American habit”: J. M. Taylor, 240.
Seward had already dislocated a shoulder: J. M. Taylor, 62.
She wrote to her sister that, seeing him: J. M. Taylor, 241.
At fifteen, he entered Union College: Stahr, 13.
Eight weeks later, Henry’s father read: J. M. Taylor, 17.
Graduating from Union College at nineteen: J. M. Taylor, 18.
During that campaign, Seward denounced: Hale, 47.
Sixteen at the time of the War of 1812: Van Deusen, 11.
Jury members did not leave their seats: Weed, 36.
Very soon, however, politics proved irresistible: Van Deusen, 16.
By 1830, however, Weed was confessing: Weed, 209.
Seward’s move to Albany set a pattern: Hale, 83.
But he had also found it “easy to enlist”: Weed, 317.
If Jackson’s Democrats were so afraid: Hale, 94.
They came away feeling, in the words: Hale, 95.
Thurlow Weed granted that his “disappointment”: Weed, 431.
While he had been traveling in Europe: J. M. Taylor, 34.
Seward burned the letters without reading them: Stahr, 39.
“My heart turns to you”: J. M. Taylor, 36.
He wrote to his former friend, pointing out: J. M. Taylor, 37, cites WHS to Albert Tracy, December 29, 1834, Seward Papers, University of Rochester.
Weed had calculated that Seward was the best: Weed, 452.
He took care not to offend: Weed, 452.
Pressed by abolitionists to spell out: Stahr, 57.
He courted the growing Irish vote: Hale, 165.
“God bless Thurlow Weed!” Stahr, 57.
Very soon, Weed established such sway: Van Deusen, 107.
To pursue that line of attack: J. M. Taylor, 51.
Promoting the catchy “Tippecanoe and Tyler, too”: Williams, 53.
To pay off their bets, he wrote, “please call”: Van Deusen, 113.
“My principles are too liberal”: J. M. Taylor, 53.
Frances’s father had moved his bed: J. M. Taylor, 53.
“You will say that Henry Clay is a slave owner”: J. M. Taylor, 60.
When their son, Augustus, graduated: Stahr, 106.
For his efforts, Taylor’s brother had promised: Stahr, 109.
But Seward granted that Lincoln: J. M. Taylor, 73.
Finally, in Seward’s telling, Lincoln “admitted”: J. M. Taylor, 74; Stahr, 110–11, questions the anecdote.
Looking on, Thurlow Weed fretted that the ensuing outcry: Hale, 192.
“All is dark for him and for the country”: Hale, 195.
Although Weed was urging caution: Weed, 428.
“Come on, then, gentlemen of the slave states”: Hale, 218.
He said, “The heart of the country is fixed”: Hale, 235.
“She is too noble a woman”: J. M. Taylor, 102.
But by the time the Republicans convened: Stahr, 163–64.
after Mississippi’s second senator, Henry “Hangman”: Denton, 59.
Mrs. Davis later praised his genuine: Denton, 58.
Carl Schurz, a young German-born journalist: Schurz, 2, 34.
As for renown, Seward’s speeches: Denton, 57.
“I am not,” Lincoln had said, “nor ever have been”: Guelzo, xxv.
One of them warned the Republicans, “You may elect”: Hale, 256.
“Let us have faith that right makes might”: Denton, 31.
But Seward’s delegate count still fell: Stahr, 192.
Despite his aching disappointment: Hale, 259.
He wrote back to one sympathizer: J. M. Taylor, 119.
His retinue had picked up Charles Francis Adams, Jr.: J. M. Taylor, 120.
“I sat and watched the old fellow”: Denton, 64.
To a Detroit audience, he described Negroes: J. M. Taylor, 122.
“Loyalty to the Union will be treason to the South”: W. Davis, Deep Waters, 33.
When they said good-bye, Lincoln asked playfully: Weed, 623.
Weed had been furious since 1854: J. M. Taylor, 120.
She wrote to her husband, about to turn sixty: J. M. Taylor, 120.
In formally tendering the offer: J. M. Taylor, 127.
For the first time, Washington began to censor: Goodwin, 353.
He also urged Lincoln to act when a secessionist mob: Goodwin, 354–55.
Recent evidence of military incompetence: J. M. Taylor, 207.
They already viewed Seward with suspicion: J. M. Taylor, 205; Goodwin, 489.
Led by Salmon Chase, the Radicals called: Goodwin, 487.
In the Chicago Tribune, Joseph Medill: J. M. Taylor, 205.
Informed on December 16, 1862, of an impending vote: Donald, Lincoln Men, 167.
Seward by then had the run of the White House: J. M. Taylor, 189, cites Frederick W. Seward, “Lincoln and Seward,” in Obediah Seward of Long Island and His Descendents, printed privately, 1948.
But in fact, Mary Lincoln harbored misgivings: Goodwin, 495.
As for the secretary of state’s role: Goodwin, 494.
Charles Sumner declined a dinner invitation: J. M. Taylor, 211.
Seward had also adroitly resolved the Trent: J. M. Taylor, 185.
he read and admired a draft of brief remarks: J. M. Taylor, 222.
When a celebration in Washington erupted: J. M. Taylor, 234.
Powell knocked her to the floor: Weichmann, 82–83.
Powell was arrested, taken before a military court: Chamlee, 163.
Booth replied curtly that it would be: Weichmann, 83.
In Booth’s view, “the country was formed for the white man”: Weichmann,
50–51.
Powell learned that Surratt had been carrying messages: Weichmann, 30.
Damning every victory by the Northern: Weichmann, 21.
Most of Mrs. Surratt’s borders were family: Weichmann, 97–98.
“I must go up, must see him”: Chamlee, 1.
Terrified, William Bell ran out the front door: Weichmann, 161.
Seward’s daughter Fanny had been keeping a vigil: Chamlee, 2.
When he grabbed at a figure: Chamlee, 2.
Frederick was left behind with a fractured skull: Weichmann, 162.
CHAPTER 3. JEFFERSON DAVIS (1865)
Although he soon learned of General Lee’s surrender: W. Davis, Jefferson Davis, 619–20.
Alone with his aides inside the house: Dodd, 259, cites Stephen R. Mallory, “Last Days of the Confederate Government,” Parts 1 & 2, McClure’s Magazine, December 1900 and January 1901.
Growing up in Kentucky, “Little Jeff”: W. Davis, Jefferson Davis, 7.
Davis’s father, Samuel, an ambitious farmer: Cooper, 13–14.
She and her husband indicated their determination: W. Davis, Jefferson Davis, 6.
At age eight, Little Jeff was sent: Cooper, 16.
Back home as a teenager, he tried to rebel: Cooper, 28.
Edgar Allan Poe, who arrived at West Point: Cooper, 34.
He explained that he always called Pemberton: W. Davis, Jefferson Davis, 80.
The tedium of army life was relieved: W. Davis, Jefferson Davis, 52.
He was talked out of challenging Taylor: W. Davis, Jefferson Davis, 53.
To a friend, Taylor lamented: Cooper, 66.
Knoxie wrote to reassure her parents: Cooper, 72.
Men meeting the twenty-seven-year-old: W. Davis, Jefferson Davis, 85.
With the outbreak of war with Mexico: Cooper, 128.
Davis seldom won the affection of his men: W. Davis, Jefferson Davis, 137.
He stayed in the saddle, stanched his wound: W. Davis, Jefferson Davis, 138.
After Lincoln Page 39