Review: Team of Rivals

Team of Rivals tracks the lives of Abraham Lincoln and his three rivals for the 1860 Republican nomination: William Seward, Salmon Chase, and Edward Bates. Lincoln, the least well known among the four, ended up winning the nomination because he was the most acceptable second choice to everyone.

Following his ensuing election, Lincoln selected all three to serve in his Cabinet; Seward became Secretary of State, Chase became Secretary of the Treasury, and Bates became Attorney General. Everyone thought that his selections meant he would be a mostly figurehead president (including his rivals themselves), but he soon proved to be the true master of his administration.

I was surprised to find out how divided the North and the Republican party were during the Civil War. The different factions (abolitionists, industrialists, anti-slavery former Democrats, anti-immigrant groups, War Democrats, and former Whig conservatives) would have splintered and immobilized the government if they had been led ineptly, but Lincoln was able to keep it all ogether.

In time, Seward would come to regard him not only for his political brilliance, but appreciate him as a true friend. The night John Wilkes Booth assasinated Lincoln, Seward was also attacked. When Seward recovered, he could deduce the president was dead -- the flag was at half-staff and Lincoln (a true friend) was not at his side.

As author Doris Kearns Goodwin put it on p. 745, "he lay back on the bed, 'great tears coursing down his gashed cheeks, and the dreadful truth sinking into his mind.'"

Lincoln fought with his men, but he also appreciated them, and earned their loyalty. Reconciling the egos as disparate as Francis Blair (his postmaster) and Edward Stanton (the Secretary of War) took herculean efforts. Those who were disloyal (such as Chase) were retained for their talents, but he never burned any bridges. Even after Chase resigned his position and campaigned against him in 1864, Lincoln valued his principles and nominated him to Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.

A masterful statesman, Lincon also possessed a keen gauge of public opinion. Even though abolition wasn't a driving force in the early part of the war, he timed the Emancipation Proclamation just right. As such, he balanced both sides of the presidential role: the leader and the public serant.

Later, as the war drew to a close, his magnanimity won praise even from the Confederacy. One newspaper in Charleston, South Carolina, lamented that the South lacked such mettle. When he was shot, the South realized all too late that he was the best hope for a quick reconciliation.

The nation had lost a great man.