Team of Rivals

by Doris Kearns Goodwin

  “the most un-American…or elsewhere”: Response by Lewis Cass to CS’s speech, May 20, 1856, Appendix the Congressional Globe, 34th Cong., 1st sess., p. 544.

  Preston Brooks’s attack on Sumner: See Boston Pilot, May 31, 1856; NYT, May 23, 1856; Donald, Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War, pp. 294–97.

  “You have libelled…come to punish you”: Boston Pilot, May 31, 1856.

  “Knots of men…by the slave power”: Boston Daily Evening Transcript, May 29, 1856.

  Mass public meetings: Donald, Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War, pp. 300–01.

  “see the slave aggression…in Congress”: F. A. Sumner to CS, June 24, 1856, quoted in Gienapp, “The Crime Against Sumner,” CWH (1979), p. 230.

  “but the knocking-down…Southern spirit”: NYTrib, May 24, 1856.

  “proved a…Republican party”: Gienapp, “The Crime Against Sumner,” CWH (1979), p. 239.

  Sumner hero in North, Brooks in South: Ibid., pp. 221, 222–23; Donald, Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War, pp. 297–99, 304–07.

  “good in conception…in consequence”: Richmond Enquirer, June 3, 1856, quoted in Gienapp, “The Crime Against Sumner,” CWH (1979), p. 222.

  presented Brooks…and walking stick: Columbia [S.C.] Carolinian, reprinted in Charleston Daily Courier, May 28, 1856.

  “We are rejoiced…catch it next”: Richmond Whig, quoted in NYT, May 26, 1856.

  “If thrashing is…wretch, Sumner”: Petersburg [Va.] Intelligencer, quoted in NYT, May 29, 1856.

  “apparent that…Brooks-Sumner affair”: Donald, Charles Sumner and the Coming of the Civil War, p. 309.

  “all shades…and abolitionists”: Thomas, Abraham Lincoln, p. 165.

  “fire and energy and force”: Herndon and Weik, Herndon’s Life of Lincoln, p. 313.

  “That is the greatest…the presidency”: Jesse K. Dubois, quoted in Weik, The Real Lincoln, p. 257.

  “Lost Speech”: Speech at Bloomington, Illinois, May 29, 1856, report in the Alton Weekly Courier, June 5, 1856, in CW, II, p. 341; Oates, With Malice Toward None, pp. 136–37.

  By the late spring of 1856: Republican National Convention, One Hundred Years Ago: Proceedings of the First Republican Nominating Convention, Philadelphia, 1856 (n.p.: n.p., 1956); Gienapp, The Origins of the Republican Party, pp. 334–45.

  both Seward and Chase…the nomination: Van Deusen, William Henry Seward, pp. 174, 176; SPC to Hiram Barney, June 6, 1856, reel 11, Chase Papers.

  gubernatorial election…nomination in 1856: Reinhard H. Luthin, “Salmon P. Chase’s Political Career Before the Civil War,” Mississippi Valley Historical Review 29 (March 1943), p. 525; SPC to Kinsley S. Bingham, October 19, 1855, reel 10, Chase Papers.

  meeting at Blair home: Smith, The Francis Preston Blair Family in Politics, Vol. I, pp. 323–24; Niven, Salmon P. Chase, p. 178; Gienapp, The Origins of the Republican Party, pp. 250–51.

  “approving…invitation”: WHS to TW, December 31, 1855, quoted in Seward, Seward at Washington…1846–1861, p. 264.

  turned to potential candidates: Niven, Salmon P. Chase, pp. 178–79.

  “if the unvarnished…people”: SPC to Edward Hamlin, June 12, 1856, reel 11, Chase Papers.

  neglected to appoint a manager…failed to unite: Hiram Barney to SPC, June 21, 1856, reel 11, Chase Papers; entry for June 1856, SPC diary, 1845–1859, reel 1, Chase Papers, DLC; Luthin, “Salmon P. Chase’s Political Career Before the Civil War,” MVHR (1943), p. 526.

  “I know that if…been accomplished”: Hiram Barney to SPC, June 21, 1856, reel 11, Chase Papers.

  Seward had greater reason…Weed kept him from running: WHS to FAS, June 14 and 17, 1856, quoted in Seward, Seward at Washington…1846–1861, pp. 277–78; Van Deusen, William Henry Seward, pp. 174, 176–77; Macartney, Lincoln and His Cabinet, p. 95; Gienapp, The Origins of the Republican Party, pp. 310, 339.

  Lincoln was staying…“two steps at a time”: Whitney, Life on the Circuit with Lincoln, pp. 94–95 (quote p. 95).

  110 votes for vice president: Republican National Convention, One Hundred Years Ago, p. 67.

  “Davis and I…reckon it’s him”: Whitney, Life on the Circuit with Lincoln, p. 96.

  Bates refused…Whig National Convention: Cain, Lincoln’s Attorney General, pp. 85, 86–88.

  American Party…preserving the Union: Ibid., p. 82.

  “I am neither…disordered territory”: EB before the Whig National Convention in Baltimore, July 1856, quoted in ibid., p. 88.

  results of 1856 presidential election: Congressional Quarterly, Presidential Elections Since 1789, p. 181.

  Dred Scott case: Paul Finkelman, Dred Scott v. Sandford: A Brief History with Documents. The Bedford Series in History and Culture (Boston and New York: Bedford Books, 1997); Don E. Fehrenbacher, The Dred Scott Case: Its Significance in American Law and Politics (New York: Oxford University Press, 1978).

  “an uncompromising…antislavery movement”: Finkelman, Dred Scott v. Sandford, p. 29.

  “Bright skies…bland atmosphere”: Star, March 4, 1857.

  Buchanan inaugural address: James Buchanan, “Inaugural Address, March 4, 1857,” in The Works of James Buchanan, Comprising His Speeches, State Papers, and Private Correspondence. Vol. X: 1856–1860, ed. John Bassett Moore (Philadelphia and London: J. B. Lippincott Co., 1910), p. 106.

  “are not included…bound to respect”: Roger B. Taney, opinion quoted in Finkelman, Dred Scott v. Sandford, pp. 35–36.

  did not stop even there…was not before it: Potter, The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861, pp. 276–79.

  “become convinced…its introduction”: Justice Benjamin R. Curtis, quoted in ibid., p. 279 n24.

  “one of the Court’s…wounds”: Opinion of Felix Frankfurter, in conversation with law clerk Richard N. Goodwin, as told to the author.

  “often wrestled in the halls…justly won it”: Richmond Enquirer, March 10, 1857.

  “the accredited interpreter…and confused”: Richmond Enquirer, March 13, 1857.

  “Sheer blasphemy”: Congressman John F. Potter, quoted in Kenneth M. Stampp, America in 1857: A Nation on the Brink (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1990), p. 104.

  “entitled to just…Washington bar-room”: NYTrib, March 7, 1857.

  “an impartial judicial body”…would fail: Pike, “Decision of the Supreme Court,” March 8, 1857, from the NYTrib, reprinted in Pike, First Blows of the Civil War, pp. 368–69 (quote p. 368).

  “Judge Taney…good, evil”: Frederick Douglass, “The Dred Scott Decision: Speech at New York, on the Occasion of the Anniversary of the American Abolition Society, May 11, 1857,” reprinted in Finkelman, Dred Scott v. Sandford, p. 174.

  “has aroused”…reported to Sumner: FAS to CS, April 23, 1857, reel 15, Sumner Papers.

  Dred Scott was sold…to slavery: Potter, The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861, p. 290.

  Speaking in Springfield…“circumstances should permit”: AL, “Speech at Springfield, Illinois,” June 16, 1857, in CW, II, pp. 398–410 (quotes p. 403, 405, 406).

  “The day of inauguration…English liberty”: WHS, “Kansas-Lecompton Constitution,” March 3, 1858, Senate, Congressional Globe, 35th Cong., 1st sess., p. 941.

  reaction to Seward speech…access to the White House: Van Deusen, William Henry Seward, p. 190.

  “have refused…to such a man”: Samuel Tyler, Memoir of Roger Brooke Taney (Baltimore, 1872; New York: Da Capo Press, 1970), p. 391.

  Seward’s Rochester, New York, speech: WHS, “The Irrepressible Conflict, Rochester, October 25, 1858,” in Works of William H. Seward, Vol. IV, pp. 289–302 (quotes pp. 291, 292; italics added).

  Frances Seward…stance of the South: FAS to CS, January 4, 1859, reel 17, Sumner Papers.

  “that troubled…irrepressible?”: Kenneth M. Stampp, “The Irrepressible Conflict,” in Stampp, The Imperiled Union: Essays on the Background of the Civil War (New York: Oxford University Press, 1980; 1981), p. 191.

  upr
oar in opposition papers: Atlas and Argus, Albany, N.Y., October 28, 1858.

  “more repulsive…Rev. Dr. Parker”: NYH, October 28, 1858.

  “never comprehended…words”: Gienapp, The Origins of the Republican Party, p. 191.

  “if heaven…do it again”: WHS, quoted in Van Deusen, William Henry Seward, p. 194.

  conciliatory…with his adversaries: David M. Potter, Lincoln and His Party in the Secession Crisis (New Haven, Conn.: Yale University Press, 1942), pp. 25–26.

  “alarm and apprehension”: WHS to FAS, February 9, 1849, quoted in Seward, Seward at Washington…1846–1861, p. 98.

  “This general impression…‘Night’s Dream’”: WHS to FAS, February 9, 1849, quoted in ibid., p. 98.

  “Those who assailed…pinch of snuff”: Albany Evening Journal, May 19, 1890.

  Seward’s extravagant dinner parties: Columbus [Ohio] Gazette, April 6, 1860 (quotes); Van Deusen, William Henry Seward, pp. 257–58.

  a trip through Canada: Seward, Seward at Washington…1846–1861, pp. 301–22; Van Deusen, William Henry Seward, p. 183.

  “voyage of discovery”: FPB to WHS, October 5, 1857, quoted in Seward, Seward at Washington…1846–1861, p. 324.

  “very best traveling”…elegant meals: FPB to WHS, November 1, 1857, quoted in ibid., p. 326.

  “At an age…of the nation”: Cincinnati Enquirer, August 6, 1899.

  “a scientific knowledge…surpassed”: Peacock, Famous American Belles of the Nineteenth Century, p. 214.

  “Her complexion…of her head”: Sara A. Pryor, Reminiscences of Peace and War. Revised and enlarged ed. (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1905), pp. 75–76.

  Gothic mansion on Sixth Street: Niven, Salmon P. Chase, pp. 200, 201, 204; SPC to KCS, December 3, 4, 5, and 6, 1857, reel 11, Chase Papers.

  “I feel I am…trust yours”: SPC to KCS, December 5, 1857, reel 11, Chase Papers.

  “you have capacity and will do very well”: SPC to KCS, December 4, 1857, reel 11, Chase Papers.

  role of Ohio’s first lady: Ross, Proud Kate, pp. 32–33, 36–37.

  “I knew all…very early age”: “Kate Chase in 1893,” undated newspaper clipping from the Star, KCS vertical file, DCPL.

  first dinner “in society…very beautiful”: Howells, Years of My Youth, pp. 154–55.

  led to a tryst…end to the relationship: Columbus Special to the Chicago Times, reprinted in Cincinnati Enquirer, August 13, 1879.

  “I find that…any other man”: SPC to Charles D. Cleveland, November 3, 1857, reel 11, Chase Papers.

  met in Lecompton…applied for statehood: Potter, The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861, pp. 300, 306–07, 313–15, 318–20, 322–25.

  now siding with the Republicans: Potter, The Impending Crisis, 1848–1861, pp. 316, 318, 320–21.

  “My objection…a slave State”: Stephen A. Douglas’s speech, “Third Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Jonesboro, Illinois,” September 15, 1858, in CW, III, p. 115.

  He cared not…voted up or down: AL on Stephen Douglas, in “A House Divided”: Speech at Springfield, Illinois, June 16, 1858, in CW, II, p. 463.

  “was not the act…embody their will”: Stephen A. Douglas’s speech, “Third Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Jonesboro, Illinois,” September 15, 1858, in CW, III, p. 115.

  “What can…freedom and justice”: WHS to [FAS?], December 10, 1857, quoted in Seward, Seward at Washington…1846–1861, p. 330.

  Greeley called on Illinois Republicans: Fehrenbacher, Prelude to Greatness, p. 61.

  Lincoln at once…destroyed the Republican Party: AL to Elihu B. Washburne, May 27, 1858, in CW, II, p. 455; AL to SPC, April 30, 1859, in CW, III, p. 378; Donald, Lincoln, pp. 204, 208.

  “accosted by friends…to go under”: AL, “Fragment of a Speech,” [c. May 18, 1858], in CW, II, p. 448.

  “What does…here in Illinois?”: AL to Lyman Trumbull, December 28, 1857, in ibid., p. 430.

  “incapable of…pure republican position”: AL to Charles L. Wilson, June 1, 1858, in ibid., p. 457.

  interference of the Eastern Republicans: Illinois Daily Journal, Springfield, Ill., June 16, 1858; Fehrenbacher, Prelude to Greatness, pp. 62–63.

  “Abraham Lincoln…United States Senate”: Thomas, Abraham Lincoln, p. 179.

  a statewide Republican convention…“Stephen A. Douglas”: Fehrenbacher, Prelude to Greatness, pp. 63, 48 (quote p. 48).

  “A house divided…another Supreme Court decision”: AL, “A House Divided”: Speech at Springfield, Illinois, June 16, 1858, in CW, II, pp. 461, 465–67. “A House Divided” appears in the Bible in Matthew 12:25; Mark 3:24.

  If “the point…talking about”: James M. McPherson, “How Lincoln Won the War with Metaphors,” Eighth Annual R. Gerald McMurtry Lecture, 1985, reprinted in James M. McPherson, Abraham Lincoln and the Second American Revolution (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1991), p. 104.

  “weight and authority…not promise to ever be”: AL, “A House Divided”: Speech at Springfield, Illinois, June 16, 1858, in CW, II, pp. 462–63, 467–68.

  “What if Judge”…to extend slavery: AL’s reply, “First Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Ottawa, Illinois,” August 21, 1858, in CW, III, pp. 22, 20 (quote p. 22).

  “planned to seize…nationalize slavery”: Cain, Lincoln’s Attorney General, p. 77.

  Lincoln, the challenger, asked Douglas: The Lincoln-Douglas Debates: The First Complete, Unexpurgated Text, ed. Harold Holzer (New York: HarperCollins, 1993), pp. 2–6.

  both men covered over 4,000 miles: Ibid., p. 20.

  marching bands…picnics: Baringer, Lincoln’s Rise to Power, pp. 21–22, 24–25, 28, 30–31, 33–34, 37.

  “all the devoted…for athletic contests”: Fehrenbacher, Prelude to Greatness, p. 15.

  “the country people…lines in single combat”: Schurz, Reminiscences, Vol. II, pp. 92, 88.

  “were the successive…of the nation”: AL’s speech, “Sixth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas, at Quincy, Illinois,” October 13, 1858, in CW, III, pp. 252–53.

  “On the whole…extreme modest simplicity”: Schurz, Reminiscences, Vol. II, p. 92.

  followed the same rules…Newspaper stenographers: The Lincoln-Douglas Debates, ed. Holzer, pp. 4, 9.

  “No more striking…and staying power”: Schurz, Reminiscences, Vol. II, p. 94.

  The highly partisan papers: See The Lincoln-Douglas Debates, ed. Holzer, pp. 7–8.

  “when Mr. Lincoln…music in front”: Press and Tribune, Chicago, following Ottawa debate, quoted in The Lincoln-Douglas Debates, ed. Holzer, p. 85.

  “excoriation of Lincoln…in shame”: Chicago Times, in ibid.

  “both comparatively…Hit him again”: Stephen Douglas’s speech, “First Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Ottawa, Illinois,” August 21, 1858, in CW, III, pp. 5–6.

  conceded that Douglas…“upon principle, alone”: AL, “Speech at Springfield, Illinois,” July 17, 1858, in CW, II, p. 506.

  “The very notice…political physicians”: Stephen Douglas, quoted in NYTrib, included in AL’s reply, “Third Joint Debate at Jonesboro,” September 15, 1858, in The Lincoln-Douglas Debates, ed. Holzer, p. 173.

  “Well, I know…if he can”: AL’s reply, “Third Joint Debate at Jonesboro,” September 15, 1858, in ibid., pp. 173, 175.

  a small notebook…“pursuit of Happiness”: Ibid., p. 17. Quotation from paragraph two of the Declaration of Independence (1776).

  “majestic interpretation…in other ages”: AL, “Speech at Lewistown, Illinois,” August 17, 1858, quoted in Press and Tribune, Chicago, August 21, 1858, in CW, II, p. 546.

  “I care more…in Christendom”: Stephen Douglas’s reply, “Seventh and Last Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Alton, Illinois,” October 15, 1858, in CW, III, p. 322.

  “the doctrine…a slave of another”: AL, “Speech at Peoria, Illinois,” October 16, 1854, in CW, II, pp. 265–66.

  “The difference between…these views”: AL, “Speech at Edwardsville, Illinois,” Septem
ber 11, 1858, in CW, III, p. 92.

  set of Black Laws…on juries: Leon F. Litwack, North of Slavery: The Negro in the Free States, 1790–1860 (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1961), pp. 93, 278.

  “If you desire…Never, never”: Stephen Douglas’s speech, “First Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Ottawa, Illinois,” August 21, 1858, in CW, III, p. 9.

  “the signers…that’s the truth”: Stephen A. Douglas’s speech, “Seventh and Last Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Alton, Illinois,” October 15, 1858, in ibid., p. 296.

  “no purpose…the black races”: AL’s reply, “First Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Ottawa, Illinois,” August 21, 1858, in ibid., p. 16.

  “of making voters…nor to intermarry”: AL’s speech, “Fourth Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Charleston, Illinois,” September 18, 1858, in ibid., p. 145.

  “a physical difference…of every living man”: AL’s reply, “First Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Ottawa, Illinois,” August 21, 1858, in ibid., p. 16.

  only unequivocal statement: Harry Jaffa, Crisis of the House Divided, pp. 382–84.

  passing a special law…“whether free or slave”: Koerner, Memoirs of Gustave Koerner, Vol. II, p. 30.

  “Seward did not…of the whites”: Van Deusen, William Henry Seward, p. 94.

  “the two races…in other lands”: Blue, Salmon P. Chase, pp. 83, 84; SPC, quoted in ibid.

  “The most dreadful…prejudice of the white”: de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, ed. Mansfield and Winthrop, pp. 326, 329, 328.

  “in the name of…to go?”: Henry Clay, quoted in Nevins, Ordeal of the Union. Vol. I: Fruits of Manifest Destiny, p. 515.

  “My first impulse…native land”: AL, “Speech at Peoria, Illinois,” October 16, 1854, in CW, II, p. 255.

  More than 3 million: Craven, The Growth of Southern Nationalism, p. 12.

  “What then?…safely disregarded”: AL, quoting his 1854 Peoria speech in his reply, “First Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Ottawa, Illinois,” August 21, 1858, in CW, III, p. 15.

  “With public sentiment…this American people”: AL’s reply, “First Debate with Stephen A. Douglas at Ottawa, Illinois,” August 21, 1858, in ibid., pp. 27, 29.