Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin

I really didn’t know a lot about Abraham Lincoln before reading this book other than that he was president during the Civil War, he was an Illinois lawyer, and he was assassinated by John Wilkes Booth. I’m not usually a fan of historical nonfiction, but this was a fascinating look into the life and presidency of Lincoln. Part of why I liked the book is that I listened to a good audiobook reading, and partly because Goodwin is a really good writer.

The focus of the book is on how Lincoln when running for the 1861 election ran against Bates, Seward from New York, and Chase from Ohio for the Republican nomination. When Lincoln won the presidency he ended up hiring all three of these men for his cabinet. Seward became Secretary of State and was the first chosen for the cabinet, Chase became Secretary of the Treasury, and I can’t remember what cabinet position Bates got. Seward was disappointed about not winning the presidency, but as soon as he got to know Lincoln and when Lincoln appointed him Secretary of State, Seward grew to have a tremendous amount of respect for the man. Chase on the other hand was always resentful about not winning the presidency, tried to resign the post 4 different times during Lincoln’s first term in office and Lincoln finally accepted his resignation the 4th time. Chase also may have been involved in the circulation of slanderous circular against Lincoln when Chase wanted to run again in 1864. This time, because Lincoln had garnered so much popularity and respect among Northern voters, the circular backfired on Chase and he had to pull out without getting any recognition in the party primaries.

Of course, a big part of the book centers around the Civil War because that was the dominant issue of the day. There are some amazing stories uncovered by Goodwin about General McClellan who was in charge of the Potomac army. McClellan liked to lay blame on everybody but himself. Whereas General Ulysses S. Grant in the West could live with the clothes he had on and a toothbrush, McClellan needed a staff just to haul all of his stuff to the campsites. Also, Lincoln would advise McClellan to move forward against the enemy, and McClellan would wait several days saying his troop weren’t ready, thus giving the South and General Lee time to either retreat or build more troops. There were at least two occasions where if McClellan would have moved, the war may have ended sooner. Lincoln was always very humble and gracious with McClellan even if he started to get annoyed with McClellan’s inaction. What was also very interesting was that McClellan won the Democratic party ticket in 1864 and ran against Lincoln. Lincoln won in a landslide electoral votes with something like 200 to 20. The popular vote was a little closer, but Lincoln still won a second term.

There were so many interesting facts and stories in this book. When Lincoln was working on his emancipation proclamation, for example, he decided he wanted to talk to some of the free blacks in Washington so he invited them to a conference at the White House. Some people in cabinet had this idea that whites and blacks couldn’t live side by side with each other, so Lincoln tested this idea out in the meeting that once the slaves were free they could be exiled to a shore in South America. The blacks at this meeting basically said that they were born here, worked here, died here, and even though they were brought against their will to this country they were not about to leave. Frederick Douglass was also very angry with Lincoln for awhile about this idea. Lincoln eventually got to spend more time with blacks and came to empathize more with their position later and he and Douglass came to respect each other.

I won’t give anymore away about the book except to say that the assassination part at the end was fascinating and I may read another book just about that aspect of Lincoln’s life. It was very interesting that Wilkes Booth had this plan to not just assassinate Lincoln, but also Seward and the vice president Andrew Johnson. Booth would handle the president at Ford’s Theater while his two friends would handle the other two murders. Needless to say, his friends weren’t as successful. You never hear about that aspect of the assassination in school and I thought that was very interesting. Overall I ended up enjoying the book even though I didn’t think I would. I think that is a testament to the writing of Goodwin and her meticulous research.

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