What do you think?
Rate this book
The Peace That Almost Was: The Forgotten Story of the 1861 Washington Peace Conference and the Final Attempt to Avert the Civil War
A narrative history of the 1861 Washington Peace Conference, the bipartisan, last-ditch effort to prevent the Civil War, an effort that nearly averted the carnage that followed.
In February 1861, most of AmericaÆs great statesmenùincluding a former president, dozens of current and former senators, Supreme Court justices, governors, and congressmenùcame together at the historic Willard Hotel in a desperate attempt to stave off Civil War.
Seven southern states had already seceded, and the conferees battled against time to craft a compromise to protect slavery and thus preserve the union and prevent war. Participants included former President John Tyler, General William ShermanÆs Catholic step-father, General Winfield Scott, and LincolnÆs future Treasury Secretary, Salmon Chaseùand from a room upstairs at the hotel, Lincoln himself. Revelatory and definitive, The Peace That Almost Was demonstrates that slavery was the main issue of the conferenceùand thus of the war itselfùand that no matter the shared faith, family, and friendships of the participants, ultimately no compromise could be reached.
In February 1861, most of AmericaÆs great statesmenùincluding a former president, dozens of current and former senators, Supreme Court justices, governors, and congressmenùcame together at the historic Willard Hotel in a desperate attempt to stave off Civil War.
Seven southern states had already seceded, and the conferees battled against time to craft a compromise to protect slavery and thus preserve the union and prevent war. Participants included former President John Tyler, General William ShermanÆs Catholic step-father, General Winfield Scott, and LincolnÆs future Treasury Secretary, Salmon Chaseùand from a room upstairs at the hotel, Lincoln himself. Revelatory and definitive, The Peace That Almost Was demonstrates that slavery was the main issue of the conferenceùand thus of the war itselfùand that no matter the shared faith, family, and friendships of the participants, ultimately no compromise could be reached.
297 pages, Kindle Edition
First published July 14, 2015
17 people are currently reading
134 people want to read
Ratings & Reviews
Friends & Following
Create a free account to discover what your friends think of this book!
Community Reviews
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews
July 30, 2015
The Peace That Thankfully Wasn’t
Mark Tooley’s The Peace That Almost Was: The Forgotten Story of the 1861 Washington Peace Conference and the Final Attempt to Avert the Civil War is one of those books just begging to be written.
It has been more than 60 years since anyone tackled the subject at length, and the wait was worth it. Tooley’s book is entertaining, informative and – most importantly – an object lesson on the limits of compromise.
Robert Gunderson’s Old Gentlemen’s Convention: The Washington Peace Conference of 1861, was until now the standard edition of the story. It has been surpassed.
Tooley’s tome is likely to replace Gunderson for two reasons.
First, it’s a much better read. His style is smooth and he keeps the narrative moving consistently, even when digressing to explain an arcane point (and there are a number of these). His reconstruction of the details of the debates is meticulous, comparable in their thoroughness to Pauline Maier’s in Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788, her epic study of the state-by-state ratification of the Constitution.
Even more broadly, though, Tooley takes full advantage of the avalanche of research on the antebellum era that has been done over the past six decades. Historians’ views of the war and its causes have been revolutionized in that time, a period that saw revolutionary change of its own that was not unrelated to the earlier conflict.
Gunderson’s version of events is of a different time. Tooley’s take is a modern interpretation that still manages not to get lost in modern PC sensibilities.
Read more: http://johnbicknell1844.com/2015/07/3...
Mark Tooley’s The Peace That Almost Was: The Forgotten Story of the 1861 Washington Peace Conference and the Final Attempt to Avert the Civil War is one of those books just begging to be written.
It has been more than 60 years since anyone tackled the subject at length, and the wait was worth it. Tooley’s book is entertaining, informative and – most importantly – an object lesson on the limits of compromise.
Robert Gunderson’s Old Gentlemen’s Convention: The Washington Peace Conference of 1861, was until now the standard edition of the story. It has been surpassed.
Tooley’s tome is likely to replace Gunderson for two reasons.
First, it’s a much better read. His style is smooth and he keeps the narrative moving consistently, even when digressing to explain an arcane point (and there are a number of these). His reconstruction of the details of the debates is meticulous, comparable in their thoroughness to Pauline Maier’s in Ratification: The People Debate the Constitution, 1787-1788, her epic study of the state-by-state ratification of the Constitution.
Even more broadly, though, Tooley takes full advantage of the avalanche of research on the antebellum era that has been done over the past six decades. Historians’ views of the war and its causes have been revolutionized in that time, a period that saw revolutionary change of its own that was not unrelated to the earlier conflict.
Gunderson’s version of events is of a different time. Tooley’s take is a modern interpretation that still manages not to get lost in modern PC sensibilities.
Read more: http://johnbicknell1844.com/2015/07/3...
March 25, 2021
A much overlooked chapter in American history, the book details the failed Washington Peace Conference of 1861. Presided over by former president Tyler, the conference was a meeting of great minds in an effort to avert civil war. Although ultimately unsuccessful, the conference is still worth studying. I found the book to be very engaging and well written. If you are a Civil War aficionado, this may be the book to read if you ponder what-might-have-been. An excellent read.
December 5, 2017
“The Peace Conference sat a month in Washington and employed every effort to win to reason the stubborn fanaticism of the party that sustains the president, all in vain.”
Following the election of a “coarse”, “vulgar clown” of a Republican, “a man of no intelligence”, to the presidency, establishment politicians got together in Washington to save the policies of the current administration. Republicans were begged by a tearful establishment to betray the extremists who elected them. Republicans feared—and Democrats hoped—that the electoral college would interfere and block this radical “ignoramus” from the White House. “Wise statesmen” implored the Republican president-elect to maintain the policies of the previous Democratic administration, reminding him that he was elected without a majority of votes cast.
Mobs ruled the streets protesting the election, and there was talk of secession.
The year was 1860; the candidate was our first Republican president, Abraham Lincoln. And the policy was slavery. Republicans who opposed slavery were disparagingly called “ultras” by the DC establishment; the term is not otherwise explained by Tooley.
No less than former president John Tyler came to lead a Peace Conference in DC to save the Union by saving slavery. Tooley writes in the introduction that the Peace Conference was very single-minded:
Later apologists for the Southern cause would try to insist that other sectional issues beside slavery were prime motivators behinds the nation’s crumbling in late 1860 and early 1861… But the Peace Conference discussed slavery almost exclusively and the proposed national compromises it ultimately endorsed dealt only with slavery.
Tooley also quoted a member of the Peace Conference, trying to sell its “compromise” to his fellow Missourians:
At the Missouri secession convention on March 5, Peace Delegate Alexander Doniphan reported to delegates, at their insistence. He explained that “we have no other cause from the difficulties that now agitate and disturb the country save the question of negro slavery,” as country is otherwise a “prosperous” and “free and happy people,” feeding “starving millions of the world from overflowing granaries and cloth[ing] the naked with its cotton.”
Tyler was far from neutral. He opposed Lincoln during the election, and:
After Lincoln’s election he pronounced the nation had “fallen on evil times,” with “madness” and demagoguery prevailing over statesmanship.
The writing itself is very unfocused; he uses passive constructions such as “not inaccurately” that obscure the veracity of the subjects. The book wanders between being about the conference, about John Tyler, and about the general times between the election and inauguration of Lincoln without a serious examination of any of those subjects.
He spends first half of the book lightly describing the characters involved, and going into more detail about the clergy who led the committee in prayer to start some of the meetings. Other things go undiscussed. For example, the politicians of the time almost to a man—and woman—assumed that there would be either union or war. But why this assumption exists is not explained, despite references in passing to other alternatives that had been in the air prior to Lincoln’s election.
The book reads almost, but not quite, as if the sections are separate essays. Things get repeated that were already discussed. There are light asides that would more appropriately have been placed along with the subject’s introduction in a previous section.
Even the index is maddeningly incomplete. There is an interesting reference to Junius Booth and John Wilkes Booth on page 171 that I think might be worth looking up later, but which I hadn’t planned on mentioning. I record it here because neither Booth is in the index and I’m writing this for myself.
The greatness of the event, however, saves the writing and organization. There are important historical insights spread through the text, such as the aforementioned focus on slavery, and the official quietude on slavery from the Lincoln administration that is often cited by modern Democratic apologists:
Likely [Reverend George W.] Samson agreed with President Lincoln that it was too early in the war for such sharp denunciations from a prominent church, when border slave states and moderate Northern opinion were crucial, not to mention sensitivities in historically Southern Washington, D.C.
It was essential to keep as few states from seceding as possible until the inauguration. Republicans used the peace conference itself for this purpose; perhaps the greatest effect of the conference is that the talks delayed action until Lincoln’s inauguration (March 4), negating the possibility of compromise by the pro-slavery Buchanan. Because the compromise they wanted was to put slavery explicitly in the constitution, not just protecting it in the states where it already existed, but to protect the possibility of new slave states in the territories.
President Buchanan comes off very poorly, using his final four months after the November 6 election ineffectively, dithering between conciliation and deferring decisions.
The strength of the election process also shows through, however, both in Buchanan (reluctantly) allowing his Lieutenant General to muster the troops to protect DC during the talks and the inauguration and in that the man overseeing the electoral college count was Vice President John Breckinridge, who would later become a general in the Confederate army, and the Confederate war secretary.
March 2, 2021
I really wanted to like this book more, but was a little frustrated with the organization, etc.
First, kudos to Tooley for his incisive historical research on an undervalued chapter of a pivotal moment of our history. The part about General Scott, et al, protecting the Capitol as electoral votes were tallied carries major, haunting overtones to this day.
However, this book really needs an X-Ray feature (at least for Kindle), so the reader can keep track of the dozens of key players at the conference. At times, I felt my head was spinning. Barring that, I hope the second edition carries a "Dramatis Personae" section. Secondly -- and maybe this was just my impression -- I struggled to find a cogent description of precisely which constitutional amendments, compromises, etc. the gathered delegates discussed. An appendix to this end would have been helpful. Finally, the chapter on the contemporaneous clergy in DC, while interesting in its own right, felt shoehorned into the rest of the narrative. Why couldn't each preacher be described as opened with prayer each day?
Nonetheless, the historical research was terrific and I hope to read more from Tooley.
First, kudos to Tooley for his incisive historical research on an undervalued chapter of a pivotal moment of our history. The part about General Scott, et al, protecting the Capitol as electoral votes were tallied carries major, haunting overtones to this day.
However, this book really needs an X-Ray feature (at least for Kindle), so the reader can keep track of the dozens of key players at the conference. At times, I felt my head was spinning. Barring that, I hope the second edition carries a "Dramatis Personae" section. Secondly -- and maybe this was just my impression -- I struggled to find a cogent description of precisely which constitutional amendments, compromises, etc. the gathered delegates discussed. An appendix to this end would have been helpful. Finally, the chapter on the contemporaneous clergy in DC, while interesting in its own right, felt shoehorned into the rest of the narrative. Why couldn't each preacher be described as opened with prayer each day?
Nonetheless, the historical research was terrific and I hope to read more from Tooley.
July 23, 2016
Mark Tooley’s The Peace That Almost Was is subtitled The Forgotten Story of the 1861 Peace Conference and the Final Attempt to Avert the Civil War. Admittedly I was not familiar with this conference held in February at the Willard’s Hotel in Washington, DC. Tooley provides background information for many of the participants of which some were unfamiliar to me, so occasionally I had to turn back to an earlier chapter to freshen my memory of who they were when their statements were recorded in later chapters.
I encountered some interesting trivia in this book such as James Buchanan was the “most experienced man ever to assume the presidency, having served as a state legislator, US congressman, US senator, secretary of state, ambassador to Russia and Britain, and a college president, plus his military service.” This is interesting in light of a 2014 Brooklings Institution survey of the best and worst presidents that ranked Buchanan at the very bottom. I also found interesting a remark made by Lincoln in regards to the controversy about his religious views. He once remarked that he liked the Reverend Gurley of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, because “He don’t preach politics. I get enough of that through the week, and when I go to church, I like to hear the gospel.”
Although scholars sometimes bring up other issues that divided the North and South, the 1861 Peace Conference solely revolved around the issue of slavery. The Southern delegates sought guarantees that their institution of slavery would be protected where it already existed, and some firebrands such as James A. Seddon sought to prohibit any efforts to prevent its spread. It was obvious that the Conference could not succeed, but it “had crucially delayed succession for states like Virginia and helped prevent the succession by border states.” Furthermore it “allowed a cooling period that facilitated the peaceful count of electoral votes in Congress and Lincoln’s inauguration.”
My rating of three stars should not be interpreted as disparaging Mark Tooley’s scholarship or writing. Rather it is my personal reaction to the many excerpts of speeches given by the delegates from both sides. For me it soon became tedious and dull.
I encountered some interesting trivia in this book such as James Buchanan was the “most experienced man ever to assume the presidency, having served as a state legislator, US congressman, US senator, secretary of state, ambassador to Russia and Britain, and a college president, plus his military service.” This is interesting in light of a 2014 Brooklings Institution survey of the best and worst presidents that ranked Buchanan at the very bottom. I also found interesting a remark made by Lincoln in regards to the controversy about his religious views. He once remarked that he liked the Reverend Gurley of the New York Avenue Presbyterian Church, because “He don’t preach politics. I get enough of that through the week, and when I go to church, I like to hear the gospel.”
Although scholars sometimes bring up other issues that divided the North and South, the 1861 Peace Conference solely revolved around the issue of slavery. The Southern delegates sought guarantees that their institution of slavery would be protected where it already existed, and some firebrands such as James A. Seddon sought to prohibit any efforts to prevent its spread. It was obvious that the Conference could not succeed, but it “had crucially delayed succession for states like Virginia and helped prevent the succession by border states.” Furthermore it “allowed a cooling period that facilitated the peaceful count of electoral votes in Congress and Lincoln’s inauguration.”
My rating of three stars should not be interpreted as disparaging Mark Tooley’s scholarship or writing. Rather it is my personal reaction to the many excerpts of speeches given by the delegates from both sides. For me it soon became tedious and dull.
March 21, 2021
I was originally going to rate this at 3 stars, primarily on the grounds there wasn't enough material to justify book-length treatment.
I then thought again about the title. Given that the majority report of the peace conference was basically nothing other than a rehashed version of the Crittenden Compromise, rejected through surrogates by one A. Lincoln himself, no there was NOT a "peace that almost was." The title, whether chosen by Tooley or by an editor, is dishonest.
As for the original rating plan and why? Tooley quotes more than one attendee saying two things:
1. Other persons' speeches are interminable (then often giving a godawful long stemwinder themselves);
2. That no speech there was going to change anybody's opinion.
So, basically, nothing new was being said. A lot of the speeches were to some degree posturing. And, as noted about the title, the propositions that formed the majority report weren't new, either.
So, why write a book?
Also, while there were no major errors, there were a couple of minor ones. Biggest was making Greeley, not Garrison, editor of the Liberator.
And also, also, I understand that Tooley is a religious writer, but things like who prayed invocations at the conference, let alone the history of churches in Washington at that time? More filler, and on a matter that shouldn't have been a book in the first place, its role as filler becomes obvious. There was one bit of good in that, at the end, Tooley talked about these churches and their pastors' roles and stances during the Civil War.
Otherwise, on that bit? One other reviewer notes:
"The book makes a great statement on the inefficacy of prayer, although I do not believe that was the author's intent."
I then thought again about the title. Given that the majority report of the peace conference was basically nothing other than a rehashed version of the Crittenden Compromise, rejected through surrogates by one A. Lincoln himself, no there was NOT a "peace that almost was." The title, whether chosen by Tooley or by an editor, is dishonest.
As for the original rating plan and why? Tooley quotes more than one attendee saying two things:
1. Other persons' speeches are interminable (then often giving a godawful long stemwinder themselves);
2. That no speech there was going to change anybody's opinion.
So, basically, nothing new was being said. A lot of the speeches were to some degree posturing. And, as noted about the title, the propositions that formed the majority report weren't new, either.
So, why write a book?
Also, while there were no major errors, there were a couple of minor ones. Biggest was making Greeley, not Garrison, editor of the Liberator.
And also, also, I understand that Tooley is a religious writer, but things like who prayed invocations at the conference, let alone the history of churches in Washington at that time? More filler, and on a matter that shouldn't have been a book in the first place, its role as filler becomes obvious. There was one bit of good in that, at the end, Tooley talked about these churches and their pastors' roles and stances during the Civil War.
Otherwise, on that bit? One other reviewer notes:
"The book makes a great statement on the inefficacy of prayer, although I do not believe that was the author's intent."
February 17, 2017
In "The Peace That Almost Was: The Forgotten Story of the 1861 Washington Peace Conference and the Final Attempt to Avert the Civil War", Mark Tooley explores the events in February 1861 at Willard Hotel which were an attempt to keep the country from falling into Civil War. The Peace Conference itself was for the moment a redeeming effort by former President John Tyler to gain some political capital back in an attempt to save the union; however, the 19 day event ends up as more political posturing than anything else making the events that would later unfold inevitable. Tooley's book is a times a bit long-winded as he gets into the specific backgrounds of everyone involved in the conference down the pastors in the churches responsible for giving the invocations ahead of each day's sessions as well as on occasion in various chapters jumping ahead w/ the members of the conference & telling what happens to them which in spots can be a distraction. When the book stays on task, it is a fascinating read of this at times forgotten chapter in American history at the end of Buchanan administration & for this reader adds a bit more insight into just how torn a state like Virginia was in whether or not to leave the union. Ultimately the conference fails & Congress pretty much ignores the recommendations of it leading to the Civil War; however, it is nice to be able to gain a bit of an understanding that up until those inevitable moments at Fort Sumter that peace still had some semblance of a chance.
March 19, 2019
The Peace Conference rarely gets much notice in history books other than an asterisk or a side comment, but many people came together from most states to try to keep the peace. This book delves into who attended, the major proposals and what also was going on outside the Peace Conference-in Washington, DC, in Alabama and in a few of the states.
Very interesting the roles the ex-President John Tyler played in trying to maintain peace. He took a leadership role, while also being part of the Virginia Convention that voted against it and for secession.
This was a good book, not perfect, but good as it filled in a big hole of the months right before the start of the Civil War and the attempts at maintaining peace. 1850 and 1820 factor large.
Very interesting the roles the ex-President John Tyler played in trying to maintain peace. He took a leadership role, while also being part of the Virginia Convention that voted against it and for secession.
This was a good book, not perfect, but good as it filled in a big hole of the months right before the start of the Civil War and the attempts at maintaining peace. 1850 and 1820 factor large.
May 31, 2020
Monotonous.
Let's begin with the title. "The Peace That Almost Was". There was not a snowball's chance in Hell that the Civil War could have been avoided in 1861. "The Forgotten Story" was forgotten for a reason. There was nothing worth remembering. This should be a footnote in the life story of John Tyler. That's all. "the Final Attempt to Avert". Nobody attempted to avert anything. Each representative articulated their point of view and encouraged others to compromise, but nobody compromised.
What the book does accomplish is giving short biographies of the representatives and the clergy that opened each day with prayer. The book makes a great statement on the inefficacy of prayer, although I do not believe that was the author's intent.
Read something else.
Let's begin with the title. "The Peace That Almost Was". There was not a snowball's chance in Hell that the Civil War could have been avoided in 1861. "The Forgotten Story" was forgotten for a reason. There was nothing worth remembering. This should be a footnote in the life story of John Tyler. That's all. "the Final Attempt to Avert". Nobody attempted to avert anything. Each representative articulated their point of view and encouraged others to compromise, but nobody compromised.
What the book does accomplish is giving short biographies of the representatives and the clergy that opened each day with prayer. The book makes a great statement on the inefficacy of prayer, although I do not believe that was the author's intent.
Read something else.
July 24, 2025
I have always been interested in the Civil War. I continue to read books that give information which I never knew. This is one of them. There was a conference, a Peace Conference, that was the "final attempt to Avert the Civil War."
The book gives detailed information. I found myself wishing they could have come to a compromise and knowing that they didn't, I found myself thinking of the horrible war that came.
I agree with Ronald C White Jr., and his endorsement of the book: I most appreciate [Tooley's] insights into the roles that Christian ministers and churches played in the struggle between war and peace. Faith matters - and Tooley lifts up this often overlooked dimension of America's struggle for its soul.
The book gives detailed information. I found myself wishing they could have come to a compromise and knowing that they didn't, I found myself thinking of the horrible war that came.
I agree with Ronald C White Jr., and his endorsement of the book: I most appreciate [Tooley's] insights into the roles that Christian ministers and churches played in the struggle between war and peace. Faith matters - and Tooley lifts up this often overlooked dimension of America's struggle for its soul.
July 18, 2017
Interesting read. I found the flow a little choppy at times. However, the information and research is fascinating. The book provides a wealth of information and insight into the varying opinions and thought processes (both political, practical, and moral) of mid-19th century politicians, as they sat on the edge of potential civil war.
February 23, 2021
While I truly appreciate the research that the author had to have done to write this story, the use of quotes from the historic figures was a bit over done. It made the book more difficult to read. This is a story that needed to be told and the significance of the effort to avert the war has been overshadowed by the war.
June 10, 2021
There has been very little written on this peace conference which was the last ditch effort to avoid succession and Civil War in America in the mid-19th century. The characters seemed a little dull and not enough brought to life for my taste. A little disjointed in the writing style at times. The story just wasn't quite compelling enough to keep interested the whole way through. I did enjoy learning about this little known conference of the time. Not one I will probably go back to in the future.
March 12, 2021
Extremely interesting account of a moment of history I cannot say I had previously heard of. Slightly dry reading but held my interest.
April 7, 2023
Read chapter one and then start with chapter five if you don’t want to read about churches and gossip.
October 1, 2024
Informative and educational account of post civil war.
July 19, 2015
I had not heard of this Peace Conference before this book.
It expanded my horizons as to the context of the American Civil War. Tedious in spots, the autor goes into copious amounts of detail; so much so that a reading of the into, initial chapter, and final chapter summarize the book quite well. But I picked up a lot of interesting info.
One ironic tidbit: The Republican party was seen as progressive, even radical compared to the Democrats--who were much more committed to the status quo.
It expanded my horizons as to the context of the American Civil War. Tedious in spots, the autor goes into copious amounts of detail; so much so that a reading of the into, initial chapter, and final chapter summarize the book quite well. But I picked up a lot of interesting info.
One ironic tidbit: The Republican party was seen as progressive, even radical compared to the Democrats--who were much more committed to the status quo.
September 16, 2015
Tooley does a good job of recounting the history behind the failed Peace Conference prior to Lincoln taking office in March 1861. But what is missing here are Tooley's own thoughts on the conference and the proposals of the men who were there. He only gives a few scant opinions in the final pages of the book. It seems that the great historians not only say what happened but try to set the action in light of the great questions and ideas that are ever present.
Displaying 1 - 18 of 18 reviews