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Every Drop of Blood: The Momentous Second Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln
A brilliantly conceived and vividly drawn story—Washington, D.C. on the eve of Abraham Lincoln’s historic second inaugural address as the lens through which to understand all the complexities of the Civil War
By March 4, 1865, the Civil War had slaughtered more than 700,000 Americans and left intractable wounds on the nation. After a morning of rain-drenched fury, tens of thousands crowded Washington’s Capitol grounds that day to see Abraham Lincoln take the oath for a second term. As the sun emerged, Lincoln rose to give perhaps the greatest inaugural address in American history, stunning the nation by arguing, in a brief 701 words, that both sides had been wrong, and that the war’s unimaginable horrors—every drop of blood spilled—might well have been God’s just verdict on the national sin of slavery.
Edward Achorn reveals the nation’s capital on that momentous day—with its mud, sewage, and saloons, its prostitutes, spies, reporters, social-climbing spouses and power-hungry politicians—as a microcosm of all the opposing forces that had driven the country apart. A host of characters, unknown and famous, had converged on Washington—from grievously wounded Union colonel Selden Connor in a Washington hospital and the embarrassingly drunk new vice president, Andrew Johnson, to poet-journalist Walt Whitman; from soldiers’ advocate Clara Barton and African American leader and Lincoln critic-turned-admirer Frederick Douglass (who called the speech “a sacred effort”) to conflicted actor John Wilkes Booth—all swirling around the complex figure of Lincoln.
In indelible scenes, Achorn vividly captures the frenzy in the nation’s capital at this crucial moment in America’s history and the tension-filled hope and despair afflicting the country as a whole, soon to be heightened by Lincoln's assassination. His story offers new understanding of our great national crisis, and echoes down the decades to resonate in our own time.
542 pages, Kindle Edition
First published March 3, 2020
322 people are currently reading
3630 people want to read
About the author
Edward Achorn
5 books67 followersEdward Achorn, a Pulitzer Prize finalist for Distinguished Commentary, is an editorial page editor with The Providence Journal. He is also author of Fifty-Nine in ’84: Old Hoss Radbourn, Barehanded Baseball, and the Greatest Season a Pitcher Ever Had. His reviews of books on American history appear frequently in the Weekly Standard. He lives in an 1840 farmhouse outside of Providence, Rhode Island.
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 141 reviews
May 8, 2020
It was a great speech, yes; brief, literate, rhythmic. Abraham Lincoln's Second Inaugural Address still sends chills with its blueprint of hope and compassion. It defines the author of the speech, too, which in a way was a point of this book.
Yet, there's more here. Edward Achorn has done something remarkable within. He takes one 24-hour period, from Friday night, March 3, 1865 to Saturday night, March 4, 1865. That Saturday was the day of Lincoln's second inaugural. But in the telling, almost an hour by hour account, Achorn gives mini-biographies of those in attendance: Lincoln, of course, and Mary Lincoln, Salmon and Kate Chase, Frederick Douglass, Walt Whitman, Andrew Johnson, photographer Alexander Gardner, and John Wilkes Booth. The latter features prominently in the Epilogue.
One gets the sense that Lincoln was proud of his effort on the Address, and there's a lot said about the manner in which he created it, his writing method. Notwithstanding, Lincoln sensed that the speech would not be "immediately popular." He wasn't wrong about that.
Indeed, in case you haven't heard recently,* Lincoln was the subject of much vitriol during his Presidency. In 1864, the La Crosse Democrat, a Wisconsin newspaper, editorialized: The man who votes for Lincoln now is a traitor and murderer. And if he is elected to misgovern for another four years, we trust some bold hand will pierce his heart with dagger point for the public good. A Michigan paper called Lincoln's first inauguration, "the greatest calamity that ever befell this or any country under the light of the sun."
Frederick Douglass claimed, "Abraham Lincoln is no more fit for the place he holds than James Buchanan." He would come around though. Even John Hay, his secretary who adored him, opined that Lincoln was guilty of "some hideously bad rhetoric--some indecorums that are infamous."
Walt Whitman thought even less of Congressmen, who he described as "a huge mess of traitors, loafers, hospitals, axe-grinders."
Perhaps not much has changed. Self-interest continues, and politics will always be as stinky as the then-infamous Washington D.C. canal. Still, Clara Barton was about then, as nurses are now. America has always been a story of heroes and villains.
Anyhow, this is a story I have read about a lot and, I think, know well. Yet, I like that I can still find something new, or something I've forgotten, some minor detail, maybe, that adds a hue or rekindles the very love of the act of reading.
One of the many mini-biographies is about a table. Benjamin Brown French was in charge of the inauguration ceremonies. He realized that Lincoln would need a ceremonial table to hold a tumbler of water. So, he had one specially made with leftover iron parts from the construction of the Capitol's dome. It would be thirty inches high by twenty inches wide by twenty inches deep. It was, uh, unique, and French told the President he could take it with him back to Illinois when he retired from the Presidency. That event, of course, never happened. Instead, French donated it to the Massachusetts Historical Society. Here's more from the Epilogue:
Both Ronald Reagan and Barrack Obama used the sacred object in their inaugurations. According to the Washingtonian magazine, one of Reagan's junior staffers wasn't very impressed. "He thought it looked dingy, and spray-painted it white," giving the preservationists at the "Massachusetts Historical Society "a heart attack." Restored, it was put on display at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center.
_____ _____ _____
*With malice toward none, and charity for all, consider these recent quotes:
"They always said nobody got treated worse than Lincoln. I believe I am treated worse." - Donald Trump
"One rule of American politics: don't compare yourself to Abraham Lincoln." - Dan Rather
"Just for the record, you're not allowed to say you're being treated worse than him (Abraham Lincoln) if you are still alive." - Jimmy Kimmel
"Lincoln, they used to talk about him almost as bad as they talk about me.” - Barrack Obama
You can't believe everything you read on the Internet. -Abraham Lincoln
Yet, there's more here. Edward Achorn has done something remarkable within. He takes one 24-hour period, from Friday night, March 3, 1865 to Saturday night, March 4, 1865. That Saturday was the day of Lincoln's second inaugural. But in the telling, almost an hour by hour account, Achorn gives mini-biographies of those in attendance: Lincoln, of course, and Mary Lincoln, Salmon and Kate Chase, Frederick Douglass, Walt Whitman, Andrew Johnson, photographer Alexander Gardner, and John Wilkes Booth. The latter features prominently in the Epilogue.
One gets the sense that Lincoln was proud of his effort on the Address, and there's a lot said about the manner in which he created it, his writing method. Notwithstanding, Lincoln sensed that the speech would not be "immediately popular." He wasn't wrong about that.
Indeed, in case you haven't heard recently,* Lincoln was the subject of much vitriol during his Presidency. In 1864, the La Crosse Democrat, a Wisconsin newspaper, editorialized: The man who votes for Lincoln now is a traitor and murderer. And if he is elected to misgovern for another four years, we trust some bold hand will pierce his heart with dagger point for the public good. A Michigan paper called Lincoln's first inauguration, "the greatest calamity that ever befell this or any country under the light of the sun."
Frederick Douglass claimed, "Abraham Lincoln is no more fit for the place he holds than James Buchanan." He would come around though. Even John Hay, his secretary who adored him, opined that Lincoln was guilty of "some hideously bad rhetoric--some indecorums that are infamous."
Walt Whitman thought even less of Congressmen, who he described as "a huge mess of traitors, loafers, hospitals, axe-grinders."
Perhaps not much has changed. Self-interest continues, and politics will always be as stinky as the then-infamous Washington D.C. canal. Still, Clara Barton was about then, as nurses are now. America has always been a story of heroes and villains.
Anyhow, this is a story I have read about a lot and, I think, know well. Yet, I like that I can still find something new, or something I've forgotten, some minor detail, maybe, that adds a hue or rekindles the very love of the act of reading.
One of the many mini-biographies is about a table. Benjamin Brown French was in charge of the inauguration ceremonies. He realized that Lincoln would need a ceremonial table to hold a tumbler of water. So, he had one specially made with leftover iron parts from the construction of the Capitol's dome. It would be thirty inches high by twenty inches wide by twenty inches deep. It was, uh, unique, and French told the President he could take it with him back to Illinois when he retired from the Presidency. That event, of course, never happened. Instead, French donated it to the Massachusetts Historical Society. Here's more from the Epilogue:
Both Ronald Reagan and Barrack Obama used the sacred object in their inaugurations. According to the Washingtonian magazine, one of Reagan's junior staffers wasn't very impressed. "He thought it looked dingy, and spray-painted it white," giving the preservationists at the "Massachusetts Historical Society "a heart attack." Restored, it was put on display at the U.S. Capitol Visitor Center.
_____ _____ _____
*With malice toward none, and charity for all, consider these recent quotes:
"They always said nobody got treated worse than Lincoln. I believe I am treated worse." - Donald Trump
"One rule of American politics: don't compare yourself to Abraham Lincoln." - Dan Rather
"Just for the record, you're not allowed to say you're being treated worse than him (Abraham Lincoln) if you are still alive." - Jimmy Kimmel
"Lincoln, they used to talk about him almost as bad as they talk about me.” - Barrack Obama
You can't believe everything you read on the Internet. -Abraham Lincoln
June 8, 2020
Read if you: Want an insightful look at Lincoln, but don't want a massive birth-to-death biography.
Several years ago, I embarked on a presidential biography reading project, in which I read a biography of each president (I finished in Obama's second term). I've loved presidential biographies since I was a child, but a presidential biography has to have a different take/perspective in order for me to want to read it.
This is an engrossing and revealing account of the waning years of the Civil War and Lincoln's presidency. Achorn skillfully brings to life the heartbreak of the time, Lincoln's significant unpopularity, and the notable cast of people circling around Lincoln and the inauguration, including Frederick Douglass, Clara Barton, Walt Whitman, and John Wilkes Booth.
Definitely recommended for those who are always eager for another great Lincoln read.
Many thanks to Atlantic Monthly Press and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.
Several years ago, I embarked on a presidential biography reading project, in which I read a biography of each president (I finished in Obama's second term). I've loved presidential biographies since I was a child, but a presidential biography has to have a different take/perspective in order for me to want to read it.
This is an engrossing and revealing account of the waning years of the Civil War and Lincoln's presidency. Achorn skillfully brings to life the heartbreak of the time, Lincoln's significant unpopularity, and the notable cast of people circling around Lincoln and the inauguration, including Frederick Douglass, Clara Barton, Walt Whitman, and John Wilkes Booth.
Definitely recommended for those who are always eager for another great Lincoln read.
Many thanks to Atlantic Monthly Press and NetGalley for a digital review copy in exchange for an honest review.
April 15, 2022
Every Drop of Blood is another of the many entries into the Lincoln literary canon that focuses on a specific moment in the great president's life and, by extension, the various events and people that orbited it. In this case the focal point is Lincoln's Second Inauguration, a moment of triumph that preceded by a little over a month Robert E. Lee's surrender to Ulysses Grant, which effectively concluded the Civil War and crowned Lincoln's presidency. At the inauguration itself, Lincoln delivered a speech now considered to be one of the greatest in American history, sealing his fate. John Wilkes Booth raged as he listened to Lincoln's words. A month later, he assassinated Lincoln. All this is told succinctly by Edward Achorn, although the presentation isn't strictly linear. By coming at the Second Inauguration from different angles and via different characters (Walt Whitman, Frederick Douglass, Lincoln, Booth, Salmon Chase), Achorn has to double back on events a few times over, which has a more discombobulating effect than a standard narrative approach to Lincoln's re-election would have. And by focusing so much on Booth, he doesn't so much build to Lincoln's great speech as he does to his ill-fated trip to Ford's Theater. Essentially he primes the reader for the epilogue. However, these are minor criticisms of an evocative book that does a great job of conveying the climate of America in the final days of Lincoln's term. It isn't an enthralling deep dive a la
Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln
or
Lincoln
but it's still pretty good.
August 28, 2022
After reading Achorn's forthcoming The Lincoln Miracle: Inside the Republican Convention That Changed History, about Lincoln winning the 1860 Republican presidential nomination, I decided to read this earlier work of his, about a much later event in the Lincoln timeline. In both books, he manages to offer fresh takes on familiar events, using eyewitness accounts, contemporary newspaper reports and his own gift for expressive writing to turn what others treat as a collection of discrete events into a cohesive, compelling work of storytelling.
So, strictly speaking, there's not much "new" or surprising, per se, in this telling of Lincoln's second inaugural. Anyone who's read about Lincoln knows about events of the day like Lincoln's memorable speech, Andrew Johnson's drunken one, and the ominous foreshadowing of John Wilkes Booth's attendance. But Achorn adds detail and color that brings it all together and gives it a “you-are-there” feel.
Both books use a similar, semi-chronological format, as each chapter is subtitled with a day or time of day leading up to, during, and after the main event. But Achorn only loosely sticks to a strict ticktock of events, as he also weaves in a whole lot of background and context and mini-biographies of others who attended or were otherwise associated with the inauguration in some way.
I found this structure a little distracting in The Lincoln Miracle, as some of the background could come across more like digressions that detracted from the main story. In the case of this book, though, the specific point in time referenced in each chapter was less important to the overall story, so the digressions were less distracting.
The mini-biographies introduce everyone from well-known figures like Frederick Douglass and Walt Whitman, to lesser-known people like photographer Alexander Gardner, and unknowns like wounded soldier Selden Connor. All eventually have some connection to the events of Inauguration Day, though some more than others - Frederick Douglass’s complicated relationship with Lincoln reaches an important high point on Inauguration Day, while Gardner took some of that day’s iconic photos. Whitman, on the other hand, only briefly crossed paths with Lincoln on a number of occasions but never knew him and was, at that time, simply one among Lincoln’s throng of admirers. And Connor’s story, which begins the book, is intriguing and absorbing and I couldn’t wait to see how he fit into the broader narrative, but his arc never really has a payoff, which was a bit of a letdown.
The most prominent secondary character of all is Booth, whose menacing presence is felt throughout the book. He flits in and out of most Lincoln biographies that note his attendance at the inauguration, his later attendance at Lincoln’s speech from the White House where Booth determined to carry out his plot once and for all, and the assassination itself. But Achorn fills in all the details of Booth’s whereabouts and activities during that stretch of time, how he came to attend the inauguration and get so close to Lincoln, and whether simple twists of fate might have caused the assassination to happen that very day - or whether its actual occurrence six weeks later could have been averted altogether.
Amid all of this is the story of Lincoln himself. All of the secondary characters and descriptions of the city, the weather and the crowds take a back seat once the book reaches the climax of Lincoln’s second inaugural address. Achorn analyzes the meaning of what Lincoln said, without getting into Garry Wills- or Ronald White-level parsing of individual words and phrases and literary influences. His analysis is insightful but not overdone.
In all, there are parts of the book that seem extraneous and parts that are familiar, but Achorn is such an appealing writer and storyteller that he makes it all feel fresh. That’s especially impressive from someone who had never written about Lincoln before this. After reading and enjoying both of his Lincoln books so far, I look forward to seeing what he has planned next.
So, strictly speaking, there's not much "new" or surprising, per se, in this telling of Lincoln's second inaugural. Anyone who's read about Lincoln knows about events of the day like Lincoln's memorable speech, Andrew Johnson's drunken one, and the ominous foreshadowing of John Wilkes Booth's attendance. But Achorn adds detail and color that brings it all together and gives it a “you-are-there” feel.
Both books use a similar, semi-chronological format, as each chapter is subtitled with a day or time of day leading up to, during, and after the main event. But Achorn only loosely sticks to a strict ticktock of events, as he also weaves in a whole lot of background and context and mini-biographies of others who attended or were otherwise associated with the inauguration in some way.
I found this structure a little distracting in The Lincoln Miracle, as some of the background could come across more like digressions that detracted from the main story. In the case of this book, though, the specific point in time referenced in each chapter was less important to the overall story, so the digressions were less distracting.
The mini-biographies introduce everyone from well-known figures like Frederick Douglass and Walt Whitman, to lesser-known people like photographer Alexander Gardner, and unknowns like wounded soldier Selden Connor. All eventually have some connection to the events of Inauguration Day, though some more than others - Frederick Douglass’s complicated relationship with Lincoln reaches an important high point on Inauguration Day, while Gardner took some of that day’s iconic photos. Whitman, on the other hand, only briefly crossed paths with Lincoln on a number of occasions but never knew him and was, at that time, simply one among Lincoln’s throng of admirers. And Connor’s story, which begins the book, is intriguing and absorbing and I couldn’t wait to see how he fit into the broader narrative, but his arc never really has a payoff, which was a bit of a letdown.
The most prominent secondary character of all is Booth, whose menacing presence is felt throughout the book. He flits in and out of most Lincoln biographies that note his attendance at the inauguration, his later attendance at Lincoln’s speech from the White House where Booth determined to carry out his plot once and for all, and the assassination itself. But Achorn fills in all the details of Booth’s whereabouts and activities during that stretch of time, how he came to attend the inauguration and get so close to Lincoln, and whether simple twists of fate might have caused the assassination to happen that very day - or whether its actual occurrence six weeks later could have been averted altogether.
Amid all of this is the story of Lincoln himself. All of the secondary characters and descriptions of the city, the weather and the crowds take a back seat once the book reaches the climax of Lincoln’s second inaugural address. Achorn analyzes the meaning of what Lincoln said, without getting into Garry Wills- or Ronald White-level parsing of individual words and phrases and literary influences. His analysis is insightful but not overdone.
In all, there are parts of the book that seem extraneous and parts that are familiar, but Achorn is such an appealing writer and storyteller that he makes it all feel fresh. That’s especially impressive from someone who had never written about Lincoln before this. After reading and enjoying both of his Lincoln books so far, I look forward to seeing what he has planned next.
February 22, 2020
Just when you think nothing new can be written about the Civil War! I can't say I'm a fan of war books, but "Every Drop of Blood" is more than about war. The author spins a tale of the times through the lens of Lincoln's second inauguration.
The title comes from a passage in Lincoln's brief second inaugural address: "Yet if God wills that it [the war] continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." Powerful words that paint slavery for what it is, an evil.
I just finished a biography of a woman of no particular importance who just happened to be living in Rochester, NY, when reform movements swept the region, and then in Washington DC as an agent of an abolition society, providing services to African Americans who were living in wretched conditions. ("A Civil Life in an Uncivil Time" by Paula Tarnapol Whitacre about Julia Wilbur). It gave me a grounding from which to appreciate the expanded look of the time and place provided by this book.
Even in widening his scope to include the big picture, the author digs deep for the telling details that make a great story. For example, who knew about the rambling, drunken speech Lincoln's vice president gave on the day Lincoln took the oath of office? What a hilarious scene! I also appreciated the frequent side trips into stories surrounding people we've all heard about, like Clara Barton. I had no idea she'd devoted herself to tracking down the identity of fallen soldiers, to ease the grief of their families. I only knew her as a Civil War nurse and founder of the Red Cross.
Readers of historical nonfiction will enjoy this book, not just readers of war books or Lincoln books.
The title comes from a passage in Lincoln's brief second inaugural address: "Yet if God wills that it [the war] continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man's two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said "the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether." Powerful words that paint slavery for what it is, an evil.
I just finished a biography of a woman of no particular importance who just happened to be living in Rochester, NY, when reform movements swept the region, and then in Washington DC as an agent of an abolition society, providing services to African Americans who were living in wretched conditions. ("A Civil Life in an Uncivil Time" by Paula Tarnapol Whitacre about Julia Wilbur). It gave me a grounding from which to appreciate the expanded look of the time and place provided by this book.
Even in widening his scope to include the big picture, the author digs deep for the telling details that make a great story. For example, who knew about the rambling, drunken speech Lincoln's vice president gave on the day Lincoln took the oath of office? What a hilarious scene! I also appreciated the frequent side trips into stories surrounding people we've all heard about, like Clara Barton. I had no idea she'd devoted herself to tracking down the identity of fallen soldiers, to ease the grief of their families. I only knew her as a Civil War nurse and founder of the Red Cross.
Readers of historical nonfiction will enjoy this book, not just readers of war books or Lincoln books.
March 2, 2024
Hardback edition. Abe Lincoln said "Those who deny
freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; &
under a just God, cannot long retain it." (pg 86) The
author explored the complexity of Lincoln's thoughts
and opinions. Gave this 4 stars.
The author explored why Abe Lincoln was popular or
scorned in the North & South. And who he claimed as
allies (IE General US Grant, George Burt Lincoln : no
relation, John Bingham, Judge David Davis) or compet-
itors (IE Salmon Chase, Senator Stephen Douglas etc.)
And the newspaper coverage at the time? Pres. Lincoln
received 80 death threats in the mail (pg 161). He had
a security detail, which he tended to dodge. Excepting
after someone shot the stove-pipe hat off his head! He
rationalized if he sustained an injury or death, it was fate.
Abe gave a mixed message RE slaves in the US (comprised
of 36 states in his era). According to the author, "For years
Lincoln had carefully explained that, though he considered
slavery immoral and adamantly opposed it's extension to
the territories, he was no abolitionist: he thought trying to
abolish slavery all at once wouldn't only violate the Consti-
tution but tear the country apart." Lincoln had a theory,
per the author, that the Almighty was punishing both North
and South in the Civil War for the great wrong of slavery.
(pg 248).
"Colored troops" numbered 150,00 after Lincoln encouraged
slaves to j0in the Union Army. (pg 168) The Civil War
resulted in nearly 800, 000 American deaths & cost $4M
per day. (prologue pg 17).
Salmon P. Chase undermined Lincoln as Secretary of the
Treasury, but Lincoln later nominated Chase who became
Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court. Frederick Douglass
declared "Slavery is not abolished until the black man has
the ballot."(pg 184). He called Lincoln "double tongued"
until he met the President and gradually admired him. The
author didn't mention that Lincoln's former law partner,
Wm Herndon, later discredited Lincoln after his untimely death.
Things I learned---
1) The Union's General Grant & Confederate's General
Lee tried to forge a peace treaty w/o Lincoln's knowledge.
Until...
2) John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators plotted to
kidnap Lincoln at his 2nd inauguration ceremony. (pg 129)
3) Booth ingratiated himself w/ New Hampshire Senator
Hale's daughter in order gain access to VIP inauguration
admission/events. He became secretly engaged to her.
He had a pro-Union brother.
4) Booth had symptoms of syphilis which may have further
disordered his mind. (pg 114). Booth's cohort stabbed to
death Secy of State William Seward in his own home.
(pg 281). The same night Booth murdered Lincoln.
5) General Sherman, known for his "march to the sea"
had a nervous breakdown. General Grant replaced him.
Sherman voiced "He (Grant) stood by me when I was
crazy and I stood by him when he was drunk." (pg 136).
6) Widowed Mrs. Lincoln sent Abe's fav. walking staff
to F. Douglass (pg 288)
It is easy to engage in what ifs? What if General Grant
& his wife had accompanied (they declined) the
Lincolns to Ford Theatre? What if Abe's guard at the
theatre had been more vigilant?
Revised.
freedom to others, deserve it not for themselves; &
under a just God, cannot long retain it." (pg 86) The
author explored the complexity of Lincoln's thoughts
and opinions. Gave this 4 stars.
The author explored why Abe Lincoln was popular or
scorned in the North & South. And who he claimed as
allies (IE General US Grant, George Burt Lincoln : no
relation, John Bingham, Judge David Davis) or compet-
itors (IE Salmon Chase, Senator Stephen Douglas etc.)
And the newspaper coverage at the time? Pres. Lincoln
received 80 death threats in the mail (pg 161). He had
a security detail, which he tended to dodge. Excepting
after someone shot the stove-pipe hat off his head! He
rationalized if he sustained an injury or death, it was fate.
Abe gave a mixed message RE slaves in the US (comprised
of 36 states in his era). According to the author, "For years
Lincoln had carefully explained that, though he considered
slavery immoral and adamantly opposed it's extension to
the territories, he was no abolitionist: he thought trying to
abolish slavery all at once wouldn't only violate the Consti-
tution but tear the country apart." Lincoln had a theory,
per the author, that the Almighty was punishing both North
and South in the Civil War for the great wrong of slavery.
(pg 248).
"Colored troops" numbered 150,00 after Lincoln encouraged
slaves to j0in the Union Army. (pg 168) The Civil War
resulted in nearly 800, 000 American deaths & cost $4M
per day. (prologue pg 17).
Salmon P. Chase undermined Lincoln as Secretary of the
Treasury, but Lincoln later nominated Chase who became
Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court. Frederick Douglass
declared "Slavery is not abolished until the black man has
the ballot."(pg 184). He called Lincoln "double tongued"
until he met the President and gradually admired him. The
author didn't mention that Lincoln's former law partner,
Wm Herndon, later discredited Lincoln after his untimely death.
Things I learned---
1) The Union's General Grant & Confederate's General
Lee tried to forge a peace treaty w/o Lincoln's knowledge.
Until...
2) John Wilkes Booth and his co-conspirators plotted to
kidnap Lincoln at his 2nd inauguration ceremony. (pg 129)
3) Booth ingratiated himself w/ New Hampshire Senator
Hale's daughter in order gain access to VIP inauguration
admission/events. He became secretly engaged to her.
He had a pro-Union brother.
4) Booth had symptoms of syphilis which may have further
disordered his mind. (pg 114). Booth's cohort stabbed to
death Secy of State William Seward in his own home.
(pg 281). The same night Booth murdered Lincoln.
5) General Sherman, known for his "march to the sea"
had a nervous breakdown. General Grant replaced him.
Sherman voiced "He (Grant) stood by me when I was
crazy and I stood by him when he was drunk." (pg 136).
6) Widowed Mrs. Lincoln sent Abe's fav. walking staff
to F. Douglass (pg 288)
It is easy to engage in what ifs? What if General Grant
& his wife had accompanied (they declined) the
Lincolns to Ford Theatre? What if Abe's guard at the
theatre had been more vigilant?
Revised.
May 10, 2020
Recently I read Ted Widmer’s new book LINCOLN ON THE VERGE: THIRTEEN DAYS TO WASHINGTON. In Widmer’s narrative he explores a number of Abraham Lincoln’s most important speeches given during his odyssey across America to his first inauguration in 1861. When I came across Edward Achorn’s equally new book EVERY DROP OF BLOOD: THE MOMENTOUS SECOND INAUGURATION OF ABRAHAM LINCOLN I expected the author to focus more on Lincoln’s iconic speech in March 1865. Much to my disappointment the book focuses on events, personalities, and the politics surrounding Lincoln’s effort in addition to a narrative that focuses in minute detail on the prevailing attitudes that existed in Washington for the twenty four hour period leading to the speech and the state of the city during that time as opposed to Lincoln’s development of the speech. I was also somewhat disappointed in that much of what Achorn has to say has been reviewed by countless historians offering little that is new apart from spending about fourteen pages on the speech itself.
From the outset Achorn sets the scene for the inauguration introducing a number of important historical characters and their past and future roles in American history. Achorn’s description of the new Vice President Andrew Johnson portends the future political warfare that would almost lead to his removal from office after Lincoln’s assassination. Another important personage we are introduced to is Samuel P. Chase, the then Secretary of the Treasury whose political ambitions were fueled by his daughter Kate Sprague who was married to a senator from Rhode Island. Chase had never gotten over the fact that Lincoln achieved the presidency and he did not, an office he coveted. Lincoln deftly handles Chase’s machinations and nominates him as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to remove him as a political threat. Achorn dives into the many conspiracies and rumors designed to unsettle Lincoln and his advisors and its impact on the city from the start.
It seems Achorn leaves no aspect of this short period in our history unturned. He describes the atmosphere in the streets, the mud that people had to deal with, and even a discourse on the proliferation of prostitution in the city describing “Hooker’s Division” as the ladies of the night and soldiers who served in General Joseph Hooker’s army. The discussion of the role of Frederick Douglass is important as it reflects his disappointment in Lincoln who he refers to as the “white man’s president. John Wilkes Booth political views and attitude toward race are explored as is a plot to kidnap Lincoln.
Achorn possesses a fluid writing style and the ability to focus on the character traits of the figures he speaks about and is able to create a word picture in the reader’s mind of those under discussion. His description of the poet Walt Whitman who became a special New York Times correspondent for the inauguration is wonderful, as he is seen as a “the big hairy, rambunctious buffalo of a man” as a case in point as is Alexander Gardner, a photographer who eventually took over Matthew Brady’s Washington office who “looked solid, boxy, unblinking as his machine.” Gardner had created a sensation with his pictures from the Antietam battlefield and took the last photo of Lincoln with his enigmatic smile for posterity. Lastly, the description of Lincoln , so reported by a British journalist as a man with “long bony arms and legs, which somehow, seem to always be in the way” and “nose and ears which have been taken by mistake from a head of twice the size,” is entertaining but also inciteful to how these figures were perceived by contemporaries.
Achorn provides a series of mini biographies embedded in the narrative. Portraits of Frederick Douglass, Samuel P. Chase, Stephen Douglas, William Henry Seward, General William T. Sherman, and Mary Todd Lincoln are among a number of historical figures that are examined that provide insight into their politics and beliefs. All are significant and pursue actions that are historically significant, though some more than others.
Perhaps Achorn’s best chapter revolves around Lincoln’s political style and his evolution as a wordsmith pointing out that his folksy way of communicating brought disdain from certain segments of society, newspaper reporters, and politicians. Achorn is correct as he points out that over time Lincoln’s speeches developed a plain-speaking succinct style people, including those just listed and literary types grew to appreciate as the president’s words impacted the general public in such a positive fashion.
Apart from these portraits Achorn allows the reader to gain a feel for what Washington, DC was like in March 1865. At times, the narrative reads like a travelogue that can be somewhat overwhelming as the author seems to describe each social event, the amount of mud in the streets, the lack of city infrastructure, and the availability of housing. Diverse groups of people who are attending are described in detail, in addition to the racial implications of the city’s composition.
If you are looking for a good synopsis of events surrounding Lincoln’s second inauguration and an analysis of the last days of the Civil War, Achorn’s effort should prove satisfying despite the fact that Achorn seems to drag out his story of a twenty-four hour period over the entire book, often pursuing digressions and flashbacks. Just be aware if you are looking for a book that is an intellectual analysis of the speech akin to Gary Wills’ LINCOLN AT GETTYSBURG, you will be disappointed.
From the outset Achorn sets the scene for the inauguration introducing a number of important historical characters and their past and future roles in American history. Achorn’s description of the new Vice President Andrew Johnson portends the future political warfare that would almost lead to his removal from office after Lincoln’s assassination. Another important personage we are introduced to is Samuel P. Chase, the then Secretary of the Treasury whose political ambitions were fueled by his daughter Kate Sprague who was married to a senator from Rhode Island. Chase had never gotten over the fact that Lincoln achieved the presidency and he did not, an office he coveted. Lincoln deftly handles Chase’s machinations and nominates him as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court to remove him as a political threat. Achorn dives into the many conspiracies and rumors designed to unsettle Lincoln and his advisors and its impact on the city from the start.
It seems Achorn leaves no aspect of this short period in our history unturned. He describes the atmosphere in the streets, the mud that people had to deal with, and even a discourse on the proliferation of prostitution in the city describing “Hooker’s Division” as the ladies of the night and soldiers who served in General Joseph Hooker’s army. The discussion of the role of Frederick Douglass is important as it reflects his disappointment in Lincoln who he refers to as the “white man’s president. John Wilkes Booth political views and attitude toward race are explored as is a plot to kidnap Lincoln.
Achorn possesses a fluid writing style and the ability to focus on the character traits of the figures he speaks about and is able to create a word picture in the reader’s mind of those under discussion. His description of the poet Walt Whitman who became a special New York Times correspondent for the inauguration is wonderful, as he is seen as a “the big hairy, rambunctious buffalo of a man” as a case in point as is Alexander Gardner, a photographer who eventually took over Matthew Brady’s Washington office who “looked solid, boxy, unblinking as his machine.” Gardner had created a sensation with his pictures from the Antietam battlefield and took the last photo of Lincoln with his enigmatic smile for posterity. Lastly, the description of Lincoln , so reported by a British journalist as a man with “long bony arms and legs, which somehow, seem to always be in the way” and “nose and ears which have been taken by mistake from a head of twice the size,” is entertaining but also inciteful to how these figures were perceived by contemporaries.
Achorn provides a series of mini biographies embedded in the narrative. Portraits of Frederick Douglass, Samuel P. Chase, Stephen Douglas, William Henry Seward, General William T. Sherman, and Mary Todd Lincoln are among a number of historical figures that are examined that provide insight into their politics and beliefs. All are significant and pursue actions that are historically significant, though some more than others.
Perhaps Achorn’s best chapter revolves around Lincoln’s political style and his evolution as a wordsmith pointing out that his folksy way of communicating brought disdain from certain segments of society, newspaper reporters, and politicians. Achorn is correct as he points out that over time Lincoln’s speeches developed a plain-speaking succinct style people, including those just listed and literary types grew to appreciate as the president’s words impacted the general public in such a positive fashion.
Apart from these portraits Achorn allows the reader to gain a feel for what Washington, DC was like in March 1865. At times, the narrative reads like a travelogue that can be somewhat overwhelming as the author seems to describe each social event, the amount of mud in the streets, the lack of city infrastructure, and the availability of housing. Diverse groups of people who are attending are described in detail, in addition to the racial implications of the city’s composition.
If you are looking for a good synopsis of events surrounding Lincoln’s second inauguration and an analysis of the last days of the Civil War, Achorn’s effort should prove satisfying despite the fact that Achorn seems to drag out his story of a twenty-four hour period over the entire book, often pursuing digressions and flashbacks. Just be aware if you are looking for a book that is an intellectual analysis of the speech akin to Gary Wills’ LINCOLN AT GETTYSBURG, you will be disappointed.
June 6, 2022
I am becoming more and more frustrated with Kindle. It seems like every time I do an in-depth review, it mysteriously disappears. That’s what happen on this one.
I love the book. It was well referenced and I learned very much about the times surrounding the Lincolns second inauguration.
I love the book. It was well referenced and I learned very much about the times surrounding the Lincolns second inauguration.
October 8, 2020
So here’s the deal: when the pandemic began I was almost thrilled at the prospect of almost unlimited free reading time and except for the pesky demands for food and clean clothing with the odd nod to basic sanitation, that proved to be the case.
However, my expectations of actually reading A LOT OF BOOKS, like WAY more than usual, ended up looking more like this thing my son sent me - which I can’t seem to insert on my phone - so, paraphrasing and apologizing re attribution etc
I love books! I’m such a bookworm!
Cool! How many have you read?
Well... here’s the thing ....
And here’s my thing. I haven’t read nearly as much as I thought I would. I’ve just struggled to focus. Settling in for reruns of The Great British Baking Show, Parks and Rec, and Schitt’s Creek has been so much easier. And soothing, I need soothing. We need more of life in the big baking tent, right? But I thought surely by now I’d be doing well enough to tackle this long awaited read.
Nope. I had to renew it 3 times and confess to some heavy skinning.
Surely part of it is my mental and emotional state but I found the writing overly verbose and I wanted the focus to be in the speech, on Lincoln himself, but it seemed to be more about all the members of society and their positions and parties etc. While capturing the mood of DC, and the country, at the time, I could not bring myself to care who was snubbing who, where anyone was staying etc. I love Walt Whitman, Bur did a whole chapter about him belong here?
Therefore my favorite part ended up being the speech, which I will always find moving but can also find easily with a quick google.
So, here’s to brain candy reading and The Big Baking Tent in the hopes that when 2020 is over I’ll get some of my mental bandwidth back.
However, my expectations of actually reading A LOT OF BOOKS, like WAY more than usual, ended up looking more like this thing my son sent me - which I can’t seem to insert on my phone - so, paraphrasing and apologizing re attribution etc
I love books! I’m such a bookworm!
Cool! How many have you read?
Well... here’s the thing ....
And here’s my thing. I haven’t read nearly as much as I thought I would. I’ve just struggled to focus. Settling in for reruns of The Great British Baking Show, Parks and Rec, and Schitt’s Creek has been so much easier. And soothing, I need soothing. We need more of life in the big baking tent, right? But I thought surely by now I’d be doing well enough to tackle this long awaited read.
Nope. I had to renew it 3 times and confess to some heavy skinning.
Surely part of it is my mental and emotional state but I found the writing overly verbose and I wanted the focus to be in the speech, on Lincoln himself, but it seemed to be more about all the members of society and their positions and parties etc. While capturing the mood of DC, and the country, at the time, I could not bring myself to care who was snubbing who, where anyone was staying etc. I love Walt Whitman, Bur did a whole chapter about him belong here?
Therefore my favorite part ended up being the speech, which I will always find moving but can also find easily with a quick google.
So, here’s to brain candy reading and The Big Baking Tent in the hopes that when 2020 is over I’ll get some of my mental bandwidth back.
November 8, 2022
President Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address is argued by some to be his finest written or spoken work.
I confess that the title alone drew me to the work.
This book concentrates on folks who prepared for, viewed or remembered the actual inauguration. The story is told from varying viewpoints. There are politicians – pro and con, spies, taxi drivers, and soldiers – wounded, Negro, officers and enlisted. There are various groups of citizens from through-out the country in town to participate in the parades and festivities.
The famous and well known of the era are present - Frederick Douglass, Edwin Booth, Gideon Welles, John Wilkes Booth, Lucy Hale, daughter of Sen. John Parker Hale of New Hampshire, Kate Chase, daughter of Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, as well as President and Mrs. Lincoln. There is Walt Whitman, Clara Barton and several wounded soldiers, John Hay and John Nicolay - secretaries to President Lincoln. Alexander Gardner, the photographer, is also present. (His photographic record may be better than any letter or anecdote.)
The weather is recorded and becomes a subplot throughout the events.
Mr. Achorn combines records and memories of the official and prominent with the ordinary citizen. He has presented a remarkable and memorable volume that should become a treasured addition to the Abraham Lincoln Assassination library.
I recommend this work to all Civil War or Lincoln Assassination buffs. It is an excellent story for high school students and adults who may have only a slight interest in the topic.
I confess that the title alone drew me to the work.
This book concentrates on folks who prepared for, viewed or remembered the actual inauguration. The story is told from varying viewpoints. There are politicians – pro and con, spies, taxi drivers, and soldiers – wounded, Negro, officers and enlisted. There are various groups of citizens from through-out the country in town to participate in the parades and festivities.
The famous and well known of the era are present - Frederick Douglass, Edwin Booth, Gideon Welles, John Wilkes Booth, Lucy Hale, daughter of Sen. John Parker Hale of New Hampshire, Kate Chase, daughter of Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase, as well as President and Mrs. Lincoln. There is Walt Whitman, Clara Barton and several wounded soldiers, John Hay and John Nicolay - secretaries to President Lincoln. Alexander Gardner, the photographer, is also present. (His photographic record may be better than any letter or anecdote.)
The weather is recorded and becomes a subplot throughout the events.
Mr. Achorn combines records and memories of the official and prominent with the ordinary citizen. He has presented a remarkable and memorable volume that should become a treasured addition to the Abraham Lincoln Assassination library.
I recommend this work to all Civil War or Lincoln Assassination buffs. It is an excellent story for high school students and adults who may have only a slight interest in the topic.
May 23, 2020
Extremely well-done history of the speech itself and the many threads of history of history that led up to it: the war itself (of course), the public perceptions of Lincoln (surprisingly crude and unforgiving), the people and their experiences (an extraordinary assembly that includes, in part, Walt Whitman tending to wounded soldiers in the hospitals; John Wilkes Booth, seething through DC and elsewhere and tending a secret romance with the daughter of a sitting American senator; Salmon P. Chase, haughty and ambitious, and his striking daughter, Kate; Ulysses Grant; Frederick Douglass; foreign dignitaries; and many, many others, famous, infamous, and forgotten); the angry politics of the time and the diverse ways in which Lincoln's in which Lincoln's proclamations and speeches were received; the muddy streets of DC, filled with enormous numbers of people, on the day the speech was give; the thousands of people standing in line to enter the White House to shake Lincoln's hand... It is a rich tapestry, and Achorn is adept at tracing each thread in a very accessible and engaging way.
Adam Barr, who narrated the Audible edition I listened to, did a very good job.
Adam Barr, who narrated the Audible edition I listened to, did a very good job.
January 6, 2020
Different type of book from some of the other books I have read about Lincoln. I just say out loud such a interesting man and to think how he so didn't fit in when was young,starting out before he met his wife. He had a belief and he tried too stay true to them. I'm from the South and I know all about slavery but he was right,no one has the right to own another human being but there were some,more than you think that Southerns did take care of the ones they owned. To much politics and not enough common sense in Washington. Lincoln had such a heart,slow to anger but I sure wouldn't want to be on the receiving end! This book has a lot of information that I have not read in other books. Wish I could have met the man!.Good read on Lincoln and the men who served under him. Read this through Net Gallery!
June 6, 2020
Though I have read some books over the years about Lincoln (the assassination plot in Manhunt by James L. Swanson and The Lincolns in the White House by Jerrold M. Packard), I did learn some new things: Lincoln's fluidity on the slavery question, that Andrew Johnson was drunk at this inauguration, that several links connected with John Wilkes Booth and the assassination were not investigated--primarily because one of Booth's love interests was a prominent senator's daughter--and that views on the Civil War on both sides were conflicting. Achorn writes with a nice balance between engagement and information that is never dry.
April 18, 2020
Achorn’s richly detailed history of Lincoln’s second inaugural places the event in its chaotic social, political and military context. He convincingly recreates the experience of being in Washington on March 4, 1865. Along the way he digresses into wonderfully revealing personality profiles of the people in Washington, in Lincoln’s orbit, and on the edges, including Walt Whitman, Frederick Douglass and John Wilkes Booth among many others, figures well known and not, political, ,military, social, cultural and familial, as they made their way to and from the ceremony. Not least are revealing glimpses of Lincoln himself, although more in passing as others move in and out of his gambit. It is very effective, and very interesting.
On the other hand, there are some difficult issues. Achorn devotes a chapter to the young Lincoln, growing up in a household dominated by a father he came to detest and a mother he idolized but who died when he was only seven. Inexplicably, there is no mention of his step-mother Sarah, who he idolized as fully as he did his birthmother, and who had a deep and lasting effect upon him. She does get a single reference by name in a later chapter, noting he adored her. But attempting to describe and understand the influences of his youth without recognizing one of the primary and lasting influences of that youth is strange.
Secondly, although I understand that the author’s intent is to illustrate the great divide present in the country at the time of the second inauguration, he does so by presenting uncritically the perceptions of those in the South suffering the effects of the war and those in the North blaming Lincoln for the blood and sacrifices of the war. The result is an unstated sense of empathy for the people of the South, suffering woes imposed upon them out of all proportion to their offenses. Achorn seems to subscribe to the litany of Southern apologetics for the war – states’ rights, economic exploitation by the industrial north, Southern noblesse oblige and preservation of the ideals of the Constitution, and to a degree, slavery. That is misleading, at best, and ultimately a disservice to Lincoln although such is not the author’s intent, I am sure.
It was the South that initiated the war. It was the South that began preparing for secession as early as the Nullification crisis of Andrew Jackson’s second administration, solely to protect and preserve slavery. It was the South that refused to accept the results of the first national election it lost and chose secession and war instead, again to protect, preserve and expand slavery. It was the South that flatly refused Lincoln’s platform recognizing the Constitutionality of slavery while seeking to restrict its expansion outside of the southern states, insisting upon the unadulterated right to preserve and expand slavery rather than compromise. It was the South that demanded, as it had ever since the ratification of the Constitution, that compromise on the issue of slavery meant all given by the North, no concession by the South. As Lincoln observed in his Second Inaugural, “While the [First] inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war – seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.”
There is no Lincolnian culpability for the harshness of the war, nor can there be sympathy for the southern cause. It was neither noble nor defensible. The suffering of southern populations subjected to the deprivations and tribulations of invading armies merits compassion. The principles underlying the southern cause do not. Achorn appears not to make such a distinction. General Sherman said it well: “War is the remedy our enemies have chosen. And I say let us give them all they want.”
The war was terrible; the cost in human blood and suffering overwhelming. And it was imposed on North and South alike. Lincoln’s goal throughout was to save the Union, and to recognize that both sides paid dearly and yet were parts of a single whole that must be restored. When Lincoln spoke of the price to be paid for the sins of slavery — “every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword” — he exempted neither North nor South from that awful moral burden. When he spoke of the need to “care for him who shall have borne that battle, and for his widow, and his orphan,” he implied that this included Confederate veterans as well as Union ones.
By the same token, Achorn dwells at length throughout the book on the Northern opposition to Lincoln that bordered on unhinged. Democrat politicians blamed him for the war, for the endless casualties and ever increasing economic burdens, and for failing to end it by negotiating a mutually acceptable outcome with the South. Many of them would have accepted a permanent partition of the Union. The insults, the prevalence of Northern racism and its focus upon targeting Lincoln in the newspapers, in social discourse, and in political debates, are recurrent throughout Achorn’s narrative. And yet, Lincoln was re-elected, resoundingly. And yet, he was hugely popular outside the political morass of Washington. This is only briefly touched upon by the author. His assassination was widely seen as a national catastrophe.
I think Achorn intends to imbue the reader with the true sense of a nation divided, and Lincoln’s dedication to restoring it to an indivisible one. That – the burden of the war and the necessity to promote unity in its aftermath, is the content and purpose of his Second Inaugural Address – a speech as unique in its brevity and clear in its purpose as was the Gettysburg Address before it. Both extraordinary orations… and created and presented by a exceptional and distinctively unique historical figure. The last lines of his last great speech — “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right” — are our best clue to how he might have led the nation through its tortured years of reconstruction, had he lived.
On the other hand, there are some difficult issues. Achorn devotes a chapter to the young Lincoln, growing up in a household dominated by a father he came to detest and a mother he idolized but who died when he was only seven. Inexplicably, there is no mention of his step-mother Sarah, who he idolized as fully as he did his birthmother, and who had a deep and lasting effect upon him. She does get a single reference by name in a later chapter, noting he adored her. But attempting to describe and understand the influences of his youth without recognizing one of the primary and lasting influences of that youth is strange.
Secondly, although I understand that the author’s intent is to illustrate the great divide present in the country at the time of the second inauguration, he does so by presenting uncritically the perceptions of those in the South suffering the effects of the war and those in the North blaming Lincoln for the blood and sacrifices of the war. The result is an unstated sense of empathy for the people of the South, suffering woes imposed upon them out of all proportion to their offenses. Achorn seems to subscribe to the litany of Southern apologetics for the war – states’ rights, economic exploitation by the industrial north, Southern noblesse oblige and preservation of the ideals of the Constitution, and to a degree, slavery. That is misleading, at best, and ultimately a disservice to Lincoln although such is not the author’s intent, I am sure.
It was the South that initiated the war. It was the South that began preparing for secession as early as the Nullification crisis of Andrew Jackson’s second administration, solely to protect and preserve slavery. It was the South that refused to accept the results of the first national election it lost and chose secession and war instead, again to protect, preserve and expand slavery. It was the South that flatly refused Lincoln’s platform recognizing the Constitutionality of slavery while seeking to restrict its expansion outside of the southern states, insisting upon the unadulterated right to preserve and expand slavery rather than compromise. It was the South that demanded, as it had ever since the ratification of the Constitution, that compromise on the issue of slavery meant all given by the North, no concession by the South. As Lincoln observed in his Second Inaugural, “While the [First] inaugural address was being delivered from this place, devoted altogether to saving the Union without war, insurgent agents were in the city seeking to destroy it without war – seeking to dissolve the Union, and divide effects by negotiation. Both parties deprecated war; but one of them would make war rather than let the nation survive; and the other would accept war rather than let it perish. And the war came.”
There is no Lincolnian culpability for the harshness of the war, nor can there be sympathy for the southern cause. It was neither noble nor defensible. The suffering of southern populations subjected to the deprivations and tribulations of invading armies merits compassion. The principles underlying the southern cause do not. Achorn appears not to make such a distinction. General Sherman said it well: “War is the remedy our enemies have chosen. And I say let us give them all they want.”
The war was terrible; the cost in human blood and suffering overwhelming. And it was imposed on North and South alike. Lincoln’s goal throughout was to save the Union, and to recognize that both sides paid dearly and yet were parts of a single whole that must be restored. When Lincoln spoke of the price to be paid for the sins of slavery — “every drop of blood drawn with the lash, shall be paid by another drawn with the sword” — he exempted neither North nor South from that awful moral burden. When he spoke of the need to “care for him who shall have borne that battle, and for his widow, and his orphan,” he implied that this included Confederate veterans as well as Union ones.
By the same token, Achorn dwells at length throughout the book on the Northern opposition to Lincoln that bordered on unhinged. Democrat politicians blamed him for the war, for the endless casualties and ever increasing economic burdens, and for failing to end it by negotiating a mutually acceptable outcome with the South. Many of them would have accepted a permanent partition of the Union. The insults, the prevalence of Northern racism and its focus upon targeting Lincoln in the newspapers, in social discourse, and in political debates, are recurrent throughout Achorn’s narrative. And yet, Lincoln was re-elected, resoundingly. And yet, he was hugely popular outside the political morass of Washington. This is only briefly touched upon by the author. His assassination was widely seen as a national catastrophe.
I think Achorn intends to imbue the reader with the true sense of a nation divided, and Lincoln’s dedication to restoring it to an indivisible one. That – the burden of the war and the necessity to promote unity in its aftermath, is the content and purpose of his Second Inaugural Address – a speech as unique in its brevity and clear in its purpose as was the Gettysburg Address before it. Both extraordinary orations… and created and presented by a exceptional and distinctively unique historical figure. The last lines of his last great speech — “With malice toward none; with charity for all; with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right” — are our best clue to how he might have led the nation through its tortured years of reconstruction, had he lived.
June 4, 2020
Six weeks before Lincoln's assassination, the President delivered his second inaugural address in Washington. As he addressed the crowd, John Wilkes Booth, thwarted in an attempt to kidnap Lincoln only minutes before, stood in the crowd on the Capitol steps only meters away. This is the centerpiece of this snapshot of a few days during the presidency of Lincoln.
And yet it undersells the richer details that makes the book compelling. The book does follow closely the actions and mindsets of both Lincoln and Booth as the war is coming to an end and the government prepares for a new administration. But I found the attention to the scheming and self-important Booth to be only mildly interesting. Other story lines make up the deficit.
The backdrop offers a glimpse into a very different Washington, a boggy city of dusty (or muddy) roads, grubby neighborhoods, and a "stinking canal". Home to an estimated 5000 prostitutes. President Lincoln frequently slipped away from his modest security detail to walk the streets of the city. And on the flip side, citizens could easily meander through the halls of the House and Senate.
For much of the war, people could simply walk into the White House, virtually at will, sometimes getting all the way to the personal secretary's office without being stopped. One tourist from Dubuque, Iowa, pushed her way into a Cabinet meeting, determined to get a look at the president. Lincoln let her in. 'Well, in a matter of looking at one another,' the president said, laughing, 'I have altogether the advantage.'
And other details are well chosen. Among these, you get Frederick Douglass, long a critic of the president, fighting his way to the front of the crowd for the address, and then making his way into the receiving line afterward to become one of the thousands of common people to shake the hand of the president. You have Salmon Chase, Lincoln's abolitionist rival. Then there's Andrew Johnson, the new Vice President, delivering a humiliating and drunken address on the Senate floor on the same day. Clara Barton, desperate to get the President to help finance her effort to reunite families with loved ones lost on the Civil War battlefields. (She would get her approval just a week later.) And Walt Whitman, who Lincoln knew in the street by sight and would exchange greetings with.
Achorn's foray into Lincoln is not unique among biographies, but it nicely reconciles his personal evolution with the particular challenge he faced at the start of his second term. The weary Lincoln would never get to carry out his vision for reconstruction, but his address offered clear evidence for it. Lincoln wanted to make it easy for white Southerners to return to the fold. Both sides in this war, he was arguing, shared responsibility for the grievous offense of slavery. Both sides had brought it to these shores, nurtured it, and sustained it. Lincoln understood reconciliation, and that made him unique in this country. And we are still paying the price for our inability to grapple with our past.
Yes, there are a million books about Lincoln. But who better to write a book about? Or read a book about for that matter. I'll close with this gem:
Lincoln liked the freshness and virility of the writing [in Whitman's Leaves of Grass], Rankin recalled, and took the book home. The next morning, Lincoln brought it back and laid it on the table, "remarking in a grim way that he had 'barely saved it from being purified in fire by the woman,'" Not surprisingly, the rigid and proper Salmon P. Chase leaned more toward Mary Lincoln's view of the book than her husband's.
And yet it undersells the richer details that makes the book compelling. The book does follow closely the actions and mindsets of both Lincoln and Booth as the war is coming to an end and the government prepares for a new administration. But I found the attention to the scheming and self-important Booth to be only mildly interesting. Other story lines make up the deficit.
The backdrop offers a glimpse into a very different Washington, a boggy city of dusty (or muddy) roads, grubby neighborhoods, and a "stinking canal". Home to an estimated 5000 prostitutes. President Lincoln frequently slipped away from his modest security detail to walk the streets of the city. And on the flip side, citizens could easily meander through the halls of the House and Senate.
For much of the war, people could simply walk into the White House, virtually at will, sometimes getting all the way to the personal secretary's office without being stopped. One tourist from Dubuque, Iowa, pushed her way into a Cabinet meeting, determined to get a look at the president. Lincoln let her in. 'Well, in a matter of looking at one another,' the president said, laughing, 'I have altogether the advantage.'
And other details are well chosen. Among these, you get Frederick Douglass, long a critic of the president, fighting his way to the front of the crowd for the address, and then making his way into the receiving line afterward to become one of the thousands of common people to shake the hand of the president. You have Salmon Chase, Lincoln's abolitionist rival. Then there's Andrew Johnson, the new Vice President, delivering a humiliating and drunken address on the Senate floor on the same day. Clara Barton, desperate to get the President to help finance her effort to reunite families with loved ones lost on the Civil War battlefields. (She would get her approval just a week later.) And Walt Whitman, who Lincoln knew in the street by sight and would exchange greetings with.
Achorn's foray into Lincoln is not unique among biographies, but it nicely reconciles his personal evolution with the particular challenge he faced at the start of his second term. The weary Lincoln would never get to carry out his vision for reconstruction, but his address offered clear evidence for it. Lincoln wanted to make it easy for white Southerners to return to the fold. Both sides in this war, he was arguing, shared responsibility for the grievous offense of slavery. Both sides had brought it to these shores, nurtured it, and sustained it. Lincoln understood reconciliation, and that made him unique in this country. And we are still paying the price for our inability to grapple with our past.
Yes, there are a million books about Lincoln. But who better to write a book about? Or read a book about for that matter. I'll close with this gem:
Lincoln liked the freshness and virility of the writing [in Whitman's Leaves of Grass], Rankin recalled, and took the book home. The next morning, Lincoln brought it back and laid it on the table, "remarking in a grim way that he had 'barely saved it from being purified in fire by the woman,'" Not surprisingly, the rigid and proper Salmon P. Chase leaned more toward Mary Lincoln's view of the book than her husband's.
May 11, 2020
Do I really need another book on Lincoln? Of course, I do. This book gives a fascinating look at the days leading up to and following the inauguration of Lincoln for a second term. The focal point, his memorable address, is analyzed cogently. It was interesting to read how the editorial reactions across the country varied so widely; many entirely missing the beauty and significance of this speech. Rather than a triumphant and celebratory message, Lincoln showed that the war's cause -- slavery -- was a sin to be attributed to the entire nation. The author enlightens us that this deeper meaning is overshadowed by the so memorable phrases of the war continuing "until every drop of blood drawn by the lash, shall be paid by another drawn by the sword" and "With malice toward none; with charity toward all...".
The story also covers others who were in the picture as the day enfolded. Particularly featured were Walt Whitman, present in Washington during the war years, and John Wilkes Booth who came quite close to Lincoln on inauguration day. The breakdown of security for the president that permitted Booth to enter the theater box is astonishing to consider. Who knew that one of Booth's lovers was the daughter of a prominent senator, a circumstance covered up in the post assassination investigations.
The story also covers others who were in the picture as the day enfolded. Particularly featured were Walt Whitman, present in Washington during the war years, and John Wilkes Booth who came quite close to Lincoln on inauguration day. The breakdown of security for the president that permitted Booth to enter the theater box is astonishing to consider. Who knew that one of Booth's lovers was the daughter of a prominent senator, a circumstance covered up in the post assassination investigations.
May 23, 2020
This is a terrific book. Achorn brings not only the inauguration, but all the events around it and all the persons involved, particularly Lincoln, to life, but also his friends Walt Whitman and Frederick Douglass. You get to understand the animosity between the north and the south, the republicans and the democrats, and you are amazed at how more things change, the more the stay the same. Very rich, too, the excerpts from various newspapers of the time, the language they used, how they regarded Lincoln and the Civil War. The book is suffused with anecdotes and stories of a cast of related characters, but it is all held well together by the thread of the assassin that we weren't really so familiar with (but are now), J.W. Booth. Achorn also describes very well the town of Washington D.C., The White House, the mud, the smells, the crowds, the sky, the hotels, so that you quite sink into that scenery. Brilliant.
April 30, 2020
We were supposed to go to Springfield and visit Lincoln historical sites over Spring Break, but that trip got postponed. In the meantime, I was still able to learn about Lincoln through this great book.
Although this book focuses on Lincoln’s second inaugural, it’s about much more than that. It weaves together the stories of many people who attended the event, including Frederick Douglass, Walt Whitman, and John Wilkes Booth. However, Abraham Lincoln is at the center of it all, and I enjoyed learning more about him and those who were impacted by him.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.
Although this book focuses on Lincoln’s second inaugural, it’s about much more than that. It weaves together the stories of many people who attended the event, including Frederick Douglass, Walt Whitman, and John Wilkes Booth. However, Abraham Lincoln is at the center of it all, and I enjoyed learning more about him and those who were impacted by him.
Thanks to NetGalley and the publisher for this ARC.
March 15, 2020
Great use of primary sources and correspondence to give us a 360 view of the pivotal 48 hours surrounding the Second Inaugural Address. Lincoln, his assassin, the Cabinet, the Abolitionists and a host of secondary characters come alive to give us a sense of the audience for the words “malice towards none and charity for all”. A tremendous work of historical investigation. I predict it will win the Pulitzer.
July 16, 2020
Review title: American Scripture
The United States owes its soul to Jefferson, a rational Deist who denied the divinity of Jesus yet perfectly expressed the mystery of man's equality before God in his Declaration. It owes its establishment to Washington, a landowner, surveyor, and ofttimes losing general who yet understood the skills needed to form a more perfect union. It owes it sinews to Hamilton, who never held an elected position yet planned and implemented the financial infrastructure that gave the soul and the established government the power it needed to survive. But it owes its existence to Lincoln, who failed in business, failed in politics, failed in relationships, but never stopped learning, never stopped searching, never stopped, so that as President of the United States through his every action, word, emotion, and prayer he accomplished the impossible. So much has been written about him and his time, and we recognize his greatness, but between times it is possible to forget just how superior he was to any leader of any country in history. Ever. Achorn's examination of Lincoln's second inauguration on March 4, 1865 is a classic, fascinating, readable summary and reminder of that greatness. It is, in his last words, *American Scripture." (p. 296).
Lincoln's address that day, like his Gettysburg Address, was stunningly short; one editor of an opposition newspaper commented at the top of the short newspaper column reprinting it that he thought at first the telegraph had transmitted only part of the speech because of a technical glitch! (p. 250). Reprinted complete as an appendix here it is barely two pages long. And far from being universally admired, it was at first criticized by many commentators north and south for being too maudlin, too short, too religious, too vindictive to the south, too soft on the south, or just plain evading all the important issues of the day and the upcoming four years that would need to be addressed: reunification, reparations, punishment for Confederates, repayment of the national debt, and what to do about millions of now-free former slaves; Achorn documents the progress of the 13th amendment ending slavery and the beginning of the process towards voting rights for African-American men (women of all color would have to wait another generation or more).
Indeed, as Achorn spends most of his time establishing the context of the day, we learn (or are reminded again) that Lincoln was viciously attacked and unpopular to large segments of the population both north and south. His reelection hung in the balance and required extraordinary measures like releasing front line troops to go home and vote, and replacing his first term Vice President (Hannibal Hamlin) who was considered too radical in his abolitionist views for most voters for the more moderate and less capable southern Unionist Andrew Johnson. Johnson's obviously drunken ramble in the Senate chambers before Lincoln's brilliant address underscored the gap between the two and made the impending doom of Lincoln's assassination just weeks later the more poignant and portentous. How different might our world have been and might it be today had Lincoln lived?
But he did not, and a key part of Achorn's account is the roles played by John Wilkes Booth, Mary Surratt, and the other conspirators who would execute the deed in April that they had planned in fact for this inauguration day. Booth had a ticket to the Capital and was in the building that day,with apparent intent to either kill or kidnap Lincoln. Achorn describes a confrontation between a policeman and a handsome young bystander who was trying to enter the procession behind Lincoln as he exited the building to the outdoor stage for the event. After the assassination in Ford's Theater and the arrest of Booth, the policeman and other observers recognized and identified him as that angry young man.
Another character who figures in the events leading to that day is Walt Whitman, whose poetry and prose would capture the American experience as well as anyone of the century. He also served as a volunteer for hours every day in the soldiers' hospitals in Washington, DC while writing poetry and newspaper accounts and working at a low level clerks position to make ends meet. He was present at the inauguration and noted the especially brilliant appearance of Venus in the sky that up to the moment of Lincoln's speech that March day had been cold and raining but suddenly cleared to bright sunlight. Frederick Douglass, the free black man who was the boldest spokesman for his race and had criticized Lincoln for his willingness to sacrifice abolitionism and black civil rights to the cause of the Union, was also there in the front row of the crowd in view of the President. At the White House reception later that night, after first being turned away at the door because of his skin color, he was greeted with praise by Lincoln as an equal. Lincoln paused the receiving line to note that he had seen Douglass in the crowd and wanted to know his opinion of the speech; as he had been growing and learning through his life, in his debates with Stephen Douglass in 1858, his famous Cooper Union speech of 1860, his first inaugural address in 1861, his Gettysburg Address in 1863, and now this day, Lincoln was demonstrating by his actions, words, emotions, and prayers that his purpose and goal in the war was to fulfill the soul of the American dream that all men were in fact created equal and reestablish the union of the United States on that simple proposition and nothing less.
I didn't recognize Achorn's name at first, but realized I had read one of his previous books about baseball in the 19th century! While writing compelling popular narrative history, he takes no shortcuts, using and citing only primary sources and providing extensive footnotes and bibliography. It is a happy marriage of effort and skill that not all academic historians can match.
In another recent review I had occasion to reference the aphorism credited to Twain that history doesn't repeat but it does rhyme. Reading through this account published in 2020 in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the heightened awareness of the continued racial injustices in light of George Floyd's murder, and the bitter political and racial divides fostered in today's American politics, I was struck by how closely today rhymes with 1864 and 1865. We were then deep into the fourth year of the horrors of the Civil War, and the rhetoric I read and hear in the news and social media echos that of those years as documented by Achorn. We are already fighting a new civil war, undeclared but just as real, and our purpose and goal must be the same as Lincoln's, to complete the American dream of equality, "with malice toward none; with charity for all.". Our national leaders today lack the actions, words, emotions, and prayers of Lincoln, but we must each act, speak, empathize, and pray like Lincoln that a new leader may emerge (after all, Lincoln didn't become Lincoln in a day) to aid our continued existence.
The United States owes its soul to Jefferson, a rational Deist who denied the divinity of Jesus yet perfectly expressed the mystery of man's equality before God in his Declaration. It owes its establishment to Washington, a landowner, surveyor, and ofttimes losing general who yet understood the skills needed to form a more perfect union. It owes it sinews to Hamilton, who never held an elected position yet planned and implemented the financial infrastructure that gave the soul and the established government the power it needed to survive. But it owes its existence to Lincoln, who failed in business, failed in politics, failed in relationships, but never stopped learning, never stopped searching, never stopped, so that as President of the United States through his every action, word, emotion, and prayer he accomplished the impossible. So much has been written about him and his time, and we recognize his greatness, but between times it is possible to forget just how superior he was to any leader of any country in history. Ever. Achorn's examination of Lincoln's second inauguration on March 4, 1865 is a classic, fascinating, readable summary and reminder of that greatness. It is, in his last words, *American Scripture." (p. 296).
Lincoln's address that day, like his Gettysburg Address, was stunningly short; one editor of an opposition newspaper commented at the top of the short newspaper column reprinting it that he thought at first the telegraph had transmitted only part of the speech because of a technical glitch! (p. 250). Reprinted complete as an appendix here it is barely two pages long. And far from being universally admired, it was at first criticized by many commentators north and south for being too maudlin, too short, too religious, too vindictive to the south, too soft on the south, or just plain evading all the important issues of the day and the upcoming four years that would need to be addressed: reunification, reparations, punishment for Confederates, repayment of the national debt, and what to do about millions of now-free former slaves; Achorn documents the progress of the 13th amendment ending slavery and the beginning of the process towards voting rights for African-American men (women of all color would have to wait another generation or more).
Indeed, as Achorn spends most of his time establishing the context of the day, we learn (or are reminded again) that Lincoln was viciously attacked and unpopular to large segments of the population both north and south. His reelection hung in the balance and required extraordinary measures like releasing front line troops to go home and vote, and replacing his first term Vice President (Hannibal Hamlin) who was considered too radical in his abolitionist views for most voters for the more moderate and less capable southern Unionist Andrew Johnson. Johnson's obviously drunken ramble in the Senate chambers before Lincoln's brilliant address underscored the gap between the two and made the impending doom of Lincoln's assassination just weeks later the more poignant and portentous. How different might our world have been and might it be today had Lincoln lived?
But he did not, and a key part of Achorn's account is the roles played by John Wilkes Booth, Mary Surratt, and the other conspirators who would execute the deed in April that they had planned in fact for this inauguration day. Booth had a ticket to the Capital and was in the building that day,with apparent intent to either kill or kidnap Lincoln. Achorn describes a confrontation between a policeman and a handsome young bystander who was trying to enter the procession behind Lincoln as he exited the building to the outdoor stage for the event. After the assassination in Ford's Theater and the arrest of Booth, the policeman and other observers recognized and identified him as that angry young man.
Another character who figures in the events leading to that day is Walt Whitman, whose poetry and prose would capture the American experience as well as anyone of the century. He also served as a volunteer for hours every day in the soldiers' hospitals in Washington, DC while writing poetry and newspaper accounts and working at a low level clerks position to make ends meet. He was present at the inauguration and noted the especially brilliant appearance of Venus in the sky that up to the moment of Lincoln's speech that March day had been cold and raining but suddenly cleared to bright sunlight. Frederick Douglass, the free black man who was the boldest spokesman for his race and had criticized Lincoln for his willingness to sacrifice abolitionism and black civil rights to the cause of the Union, was also there in the front row of the crowd in view of the President. At the White House reception later that night, after first being turned away at the door because of his skin color, he was greeted with praise by Lincoln as an equal. Lincoln paused the receiving line to note that he had seen Douglass in the crowd and wanted to know his opinion of the speech; as he had been growing and learning through his life, in his debates with Stephen Douglass in 1858, his famous Cooper Union speech of 1860, his first inaugural address in 1861, his Gettysburg Address in 1863, and now this day, Lincoln was demonstrating by his actions, words, emotions, and prayers that his purpose and goal in the war was to fulfill the soul of the American dream that all men were in fact created equal and reestablish the union of the United States on that simple proposition and nothing less.
I didn't recognize Achorn's name at first, but realized I had read one of his previous books about baseball in the 19th century! While writing compelling popular narrative history, he takes no shortcuts, using and citing only primary sources and providing extensive footnotes and bibliography. It is a happy marriage of effort and skill that not all academic historians can match.
In another recent review I had occasion to reference the aphorism credited to Twain that history doesn't repeat but it does rhyme. Reading through this account published in 2020 in the midst of the Covid-19 pandemic, the heightened awareness of the continued racial injustices in light of George Floyd's murder, and the bitter political and racial divides fostered in today's American politics, I was struck by how closely today rhymes with 1864 and 1865. We were then deep into the fourth year of the horrors of the Civil War, and the rhetoric I read and hear in the news and social media echos that of those years as documented by Achorn. We are already fighting a new civil war, undeclared but just as real, and our purpose and goal must be the same as Lincoln's, to complete the American dream of equality, "with malice toward none; with charity for all.". Our national leaders today lack the actions, words, emotions, and prayers of Lincoln, but we must each act, speak, empathize, and pray like Lincoln that a new leader may emerge (after all, Lincoln didn't become Lincoln in a day) to aid our continued existence.
May 19, 2020
Here's my dual review of "Lincoln on the Verge: Thirteen Days to Washington" by Ted Widmer and "Every Drop of Blood: The Momentous Second Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln" by Edward Achorn: https://lawliberty.org/book-review/li...
January 8, 2023
I am grateful to an old friend (and former colleague of mine in the Iowa House of Representatives), Lyle Krewson for recommending this book to me a short time ago!
The author takes an interestingly different route in telling the story about -- but mostly surrounding -- Lincoln's second inauguration, which occurred only scant weeks before his assassination.
Through a remarkable series of mini-biographies, close person examinations as vignettes, and and interweaving of characters and events, the reader gains a very in-depth understanding of the times, the costly war itself, and the person and vision of not just Lincoln, but of a number of fascinating men and women. For one thing, this was the most revealing examination of John Wilkes Booth who is not presented, any more than anyone else is, as the least bit one-dimensional.
I learned for the first time that Booth, who was in love with the daughter of a very influential Senator, had access to the Capitol itself on the day of the inauguration and, in fact, made a desperate attempt to reach Lincoln BEFORE he had been sworn in for a separate term. Since, by this time, his original scheme to kidnap Lincoln in order to exact concessions from the Federal government had become irrelevant, he apparently switched his determination to severely injure or kill the president. As we all know, although he was frustrated that day he succeeded only weeks later.
The Civil war and everything surrounding it -- the impasse over the evil of slavery in the decades before the war, the hardening attitudes of key players in the North and South, and the conflicting opinions so many people had of Lincoln himself -- continues to fascinate me, as I think it has unfortunate eerie parallels to many of the things happening in our beloved country today.
A superbly entertaining, informative, and well-written book that I join Lyle in recommending to others!
The author takes an interestingly different route in telling the story about -- but mostly surrounding -- Lincoln's second inauguration, which occurred only scant weeks before his assassination.
Through a remarkable series of mini-biographies, close person examinations as vignettes, and and interweaving of characters and events, the reader gains a very in-depth understanding of the times, the costly war itself, and the person and vision of not just Lincoln, but of a number of fascinating men and women. For one thing, this was the most revealing examination of John Wilkes Booth who is not presented, any more than anyone else is, as the least bit one-dimensional.
I learned for the first time that Booth, who was in love with the daughter of a very influential Senator, had access to the Capitol itself on the day of the inauguration and, in fact, made a desperate attempt to reach Lincoln BEFORE he had been sworn in for a separate term. Since, by this time, his original scheme to kidnap Lincoln in order to exact concessions from the Federal government had become irrelevant, he apparently switched his determination to severely injure or kill the president. As we all know, although he was frustrated that day he succeeded only weeks later.
The Civil war and everything surrounding it -- the impasse over the evil of slavery in the decades before the war, the hardening attitudes of key players in the North and South, and the conflicting opinions so many people had of Lincoln himself -- continues to fascinate me, as I think it has unfortunate eerie parallels to many of the things happening in our beloved country today.
A superbly entertaining, informative, and well-written book that I join Lyle in recommending to others!
May 10, 2020
Achorn expertly weaves together contemporary accounts to provide us with a special view of Lincoln's second inaugural address.
May 30, 2020
I'm a Lincoln fan and a Civil War buff, but this book was heavy going for me. In the first third or so I almost set it aside - the author seemed determined to reprint everything nasty ever said about Lincoln by his contemporaries - North or South, published or private - presented with little commentary. Eventually the story, as it were, got moving - towards the second inaugural and then the assasination. Achorn tracks many historical figures through these days, some of them central to the action (Lincoln Booth, etc) and some of them peripheral (but with available diaries and letters, presumably). There's a little more balance to the commentary in this section, although the author is still determined to pull down the Lincoln edifice and show him as a man hated as well as revered. The end we all know.
Much of the ground covered is familiar. Any Lincoln buff knows the second inaugural, knows the Gettysburg address, knows that these speeches were not well-regarded at the time. We know about Whitman and his time in the DC hospitals. The author presents all of this again, with exhaustive primary sourcing. Lucy Hale's connection to Booth, and the possible role this played in Booth's access to Lincoln's box, were new to me.
3 stars, I guess
Much of the ground covered is familiar. Any Lincoln buff knows the second inaugural, knows the Gettysburg address, knows that these speeches were not well-regarded at the time. We know about Whitman and his time in the DC hospitals. The author presents all of this again, with exhaustive primary sourcing. Lucy Hale's connection to Booth, and the possible role this played in Booth's access to Lincoln's box, were new to me.
3 stars, I guess
September 16, 2020
A more honest title for this book would have been "Perspectives on the War of Northern Aggression." In an apparent attempt to be "balanced," Achorn traffics in Confederate propaganda and inherently elevates Southern justifications for the rebellion. More ink, for example, is spent on the taking of Confederate private property than on the horrors of slavery. While the reliance on primary material (largely unexamined unfortunately) makes some sections of the book (somewhat) interesting, it hardly compensates for the weak political analysis, frequent use of outdated stereotypes of well-known figures, and, frankly, simplistic interpretation of the Second Inaugural Address itself.
January 4, 2020
An immersive look at the world surrounding President Lincoln's second inauguration March 4th, 1865. As someone who has read several books about Lincoln's presidency, I was pleasantly surprised to learn some new things, and topics are covered with a mix of solemnity and humor.
Also, I laughed out loud at the chapter discussing how Vice President Johnson showed up at the inauguration incredibly drunk and launched into an hour-long diatribe, horrifying Republicans and thrilling Democrats.
arc received from the publisher
Also, I laughed out loud at the chapter discussing how Vice President Johnson showed up at the inauguration incredibly drunk and launched into an hour-long diatribe, horrifying Republicans and thrilling Democrats.
arc received from the publisher
January 7, 2020
Every Drop of Blood: Hatred and Healing at Abraham Lincoln's Second Inauguration
by Edward Achorn takes an impressive look at the world in while Lincoln delivers his second Inauguration address. It is well documented . It is detailed and is a different look at the cultural and the daily world at that time. It is well written.
I received a copy thru a Goodreads Giveaway.
by Edward Achorn takes an impressive look at the world in while Lincoln delivers his second Inauguration address. It is well documented . It is detailed and is a different look at the cultural and the daily world at that time. It is well written.
I received a copy thru a Goodreads Giveaway.
May 24, 2020
Don’t bother. A nothing burger. I’m not sure why this was well received. I literally learned nothing I did not already know about the last month of Lincoln’s life. And the Ken Burns mini treatment is tired.
August 30, 2020
This is a very detailed account of the weekend of Lincoln's second inauguration and of his inaugural address where he said "With malice toward none, with charity for all...". That narrative is the hub from which various spokes emanate: what sort of a person is {fill-in-the-blank} and what was his state of mind? -- the "blanks" being John Wilkes Booth, Andrew Johnson, Salmon Chase, Lucy Hale, Walt Whitman, Frederick Douglass, Abe Lincoln himself, and others. Achorn does an excellent job of making the reader feel like he/she is there, attending Mary Lincoln's reception or scraping mud off one's boots at the inauguration ceremony.
Achorn concludes the book by telling us what happened to the principals after that weekend, including a brief account of the assassination, and including contemporary reaction to the speech itself.
I will say I enjoyed Achorn's two baseball books more than this one, maybe because for me an entire baseball season is more fun than a weekend in Washington DC in March 1865. But I still liked it as my 4-star rating indicates.
One thing that struck me was how Lincoln himself was viewed by many contemporaries. He was a Washington outsider not generally embraced by the Washington establishment. He didn't fit in with preconceptions of what a President should be. From page 104:
Does this sound like any other President you might know?
I found the similarities to President Trump of today striking. This is off the subject of the book, but the comparisons are obvious to any fair-minded person. And I am absolutely convinced Lincoln would have used Twitter just as Trump does if Lincoln were President today.
But back to the book itself. I gained a deeper understanding of this key time in America's history, and how it reverberated forward in time even to today (and that is not a Trump reference, it's a cultural reference).
Achorn concludes the book by telling us what happened to the principals after that weekend, including a brief account of the assassination, and including contemporary reaction to the speech itself.
I will say I enjoyed Achorn's two baseball books more than this one, maybe because for me an entire baseball season is more fun than a weekend in Washington DC in March 1865. But I still liked it as my 4-star rating indicates.
One thing that struck me was how Lincoln himself was viewed by many contemporaries. He was a Washington outsider not generally embraced by the Washington establishment. He didn't fit in with preconceptions of what a President should be. From page 104:
Lincoln's speeches and state papers seemed puzzling to their readers at first because, unlike the works of more systematically [my emphasis] educated presidents, they popped with catchy phrases and homely ideas. The July 4, 1861, message, for example, included the phrase "sugar-coated," which a government editor and seasoned newspaperman ... urged Lincoln to remove, noting the use of such a term was undignified and unworthy of a state paper of lasting historic importance. ... Lincoln responded, "that the word expressed precisely my idea... . The time will never come ... when people won't know exactly what sugar-coated means." Many highly educated Americans found Lincoln's folksiness embarrassing and ungentlemanly. [my emphasis]From page 105:
[An Illinois lawyer said] "Was there ever such a curious melange of almost supreme greatness and boyish vacuity as was compressed in this unique, uneven and incomprehensible man?" ... Ralph Waldo Emerson [said] "You cannot refine Mr. Lincoln's taste, extend his horizon, or clear his Judgements [sic]; he will not walk dignifiedly through the traditional role of the President of America, but will pop out his head at each railway station and make a little speech, and get into an argument with Squire A or Judge B. He will write letters to... any editor or reporter or saucy party committee that writes to him, and cheapen himself."
May found his style to be clunky and uninspiring.
Does this sound like any other President you might know?
I found the similarities to President Trump of today striking. This is off the subject of the book, but the comparisons are obvious to any fair-minded person. And I am absolutely convinced Lincoln would have used Twitter just as Trump does if Lincoln were President today.
But back to the book itself. I gained a deeper understanding of this key time in America's history, and how it reverberated forward in time even to today (and that is not a Trump reference, it's a cultural reference).
June 13, 2020
I was pleased with Every Drop of Blood on many counts. First, Achorn reviewed a tremendous array of primary sources like newspaper articles and editorials, individual diaries and memoirs, correspondence, and collections of papers by many of the people who knew and/worked with Lincoln. He also reviewed a number of secondary sources: journal articles and books.
Second, he presented all of this information in a well organized, comprehensive, highly nuanced, and well documented analysis of the social and political circumstances surrounding Lincoln, his presidency, and the Civil War at that time. The chapters explaining Lincoln's thinking behind the speech and analyzing the speech itself were particularly informative and interesting.
Third, the author’s descriptions of Lincoln as well as numerous other key figures of those days were so lush as to make them come alive. Given my own readings over the years about Lincoln and the Civil War I already knew quite a bit about many of these people. But I learned a lot about others like poet-journalist Walt Whitman; nurse Clara Barton; photographer Alexander Gardner; journalist Noah Brook; and friend, 1860 campaign manager, and Supreme Court Justice David Davis. I also got very clear visual images of what Washington DC probably looked like in those days.
Fourth, Achorn’s training as a journalist came through in his direct narrative prose. As a result EDoB was both engaging and highly readable.
IMHO, there were some modest flaws with this book. Foremost was the fact that its thoroughness meant that it occasionally became redundant. How many times does one need to be told how sad and tired Lincoln appeared? Or that he was very tall, thin, ungainly, and inattentive to his clothing? Or how much Salmon Chase felt he should have been President? Not being interested in fashion I found the descriptions of the clothing worn by the women to be overkill. Was it necessary to describe so many newspaper editorials written after the speech?
Additionally, it struck me as odd that practically nothing was written about Secretary of State William Seward. Although he had been a rival of Lincoln’s for the nomination in 1860, the two men reportedly developed a deep friendship over the course of Lincoln’s first term. Per another book, A Team of Rivals, they spent a lot of time together. Why did Achorn not include something about that in this book?
For those who would like to read an interview with the author I recommend the following: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/23/bo...
For those who want to read an excellent depiction of Lincoln’s political acumen leading up to and during his presidency: A Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
An interesting psychological analysis of Lincoln’s deep and unremitting sadness: Lincoln’s Melancholy by Joshua Wolf Shenk.
For those who want to read an engaging portrayal of John Wilkes Booth and his family: My Thoughts be Bloody by Nora Titone.
For those interested in the relationship between Frederick Douglass and Lincoln: The Radical and the Republican by James Oakes.
For those who want to learn about how some men not noted in EDoB saw Lincoln: We Are Lincoln’s Men by David H Donald.
Second, he presented all of this information in a well organized, comprehensive, highly nuanced, and well documented analysis of the social and political circumstances surrounding Lincoln, his presidency, and the Civil War at that time. The chapters explaining Lincoln's thinking behind the speech and analyzing the speech itself were particularly informative and interesting.
Third, the author’s descriptions of Lincoln as well as numerous other key figures of those days were so lush as to make them come alive. Given my own readings over the years about Lincoln and the Civil War I already knew quite a bit about many of these people. But I learned a lot about others like poet-journalist Walt Whitman; nurse Clara Barton; photographer Alexander Gardner; journalist Noah Brook; and friend, 1860 campaign manager, and Supreme Court Justice David Davis. I also got very clear visual images of what Washington DC probably looked like in those days.
Fourth, Achorn’s training as a journalist came through in his direct narrative prose. As a result EDoB was both engaging and highly readable.
IMHO, there were some modest flaws with this book. Foremost was the fact that its thoroughness meant that it occasionally became redundant. How many times does one need to be told how sad and tired Lincoln appeared? Or that he was very tall, thin, ungainly, and inattentive to his clothing? Or how much Salmon Chase felt he should have been President? Not being interested in fashion I found the descriptions of the clothing worn by the women to be overkill. Was it necessary to describe so many newspaper editorials written after the speech?
Additionally, it struck me as odd that practically nothing was written about Secretary of State William Seward. Although he had been a rival of Lincoln’s for the nomination in 1860, the two men reportedly developed a deep friendship over the course of Lincoln’s first term. Per another book, A Team of Rivals, they spent a lot of time together. Why did Achorn not include something about that in this book?
For those who would like to read an interview with the author I recommend the following: https://www.nytimes.com/2020/02/23/bo...
For those who want to read an excellent depiction of Lincoln’s political acumen leading up to and during his presidency: A Team of Rivals by Doris Kearns Goodwin.
An interesting psychological analysis of Lincoln’s deep and unremitting sadness: Lincoln’s Melancholy by Joshua Wolf Shenk.
For those who want to read an engaging portrayal of John Wilkes Booth and his family: My Thoughts be Bloody by Nora Titone.
For those interested in the relationship between Frederick Douglass and Lincoln: The Radical and the Republican by James Oakes.
For those who want to learn about how some men not noted in EDoB saw Lincoln: We Are Lincoln’s Men by David H Donald.
Displaying 1 - 30 of 141 reviews