Mr. Book just finished Chorus Of The Union: How Abraham Lincoln And Stephan Douglas Set Aside Their Rivalry To Save The Union, by Edward Robert McClelland.

The first half of the book did a very good job focusing on the Lincoln-Douglas debates before moving on to both of their paths to the 1860 nominations and then the presidential campaign. The book then covers the aftermath of the election before concluding with Douglas’ death shortly after Lincoln was sworn in.

One of the great features of history books is all of the little tidbits that are contained. One great example from this book is a quote from Douglas that I don’t remember ever seeing before. He was so against either the House electing Breckinridge in a contingent election that he told a congressman “the election shall go into the House; before it shall go into the House, I will throw it to Lincoln.”

By late October 1860, Douglas realized that Lincoln was going to be elected so he headed to the south to campaign. But, not for Lincoln, but instead to try to get southerners to accept a Lincoln presidency. The author has a very good answer as to his motives: “Why did Douglas spend the last two weeks of the campaign in states he had no chance of winning? For one thing, he took the threat of secession far more seriously than the Republicans.” Douglas was also sure that, if Lincoln was elected, he’d be a “powerless” President, who would be thwarted by Democratic majorities in both houses of Congress. In the author’s words, “If Lincoln got into any mischief, if he violated any man’s Constitutional rights [the author really means if he violates slave-owners rights], the Democrats should be ready to punish him to the full extent the Constitution allowed. That, not secession, was the proper response to President Lincoln.”

This book was a very enjoyable and informative book about the relationship between Lincoln and Douglas. It wasn’t really merely about them putting their differences aside, as the title had implied. But, considering how good it was, I didn’t mind that.

I give this book an A. Goodreads requires grades on a 1-5 star system. In my personal conversion system, an A equates to 5 stars. (A or A+: 5 stars, B+: 4 stars, B: 3 stars, C: 2 stars, D or F: 1 star).

This review has been posted at my blog, Mr. Book’s Book Reviews, and Goodreads.

Mr. Book finished reading this on August 28, 2024.