Lincoln and the Decision for War: The Northern Response to Secession / Edition 1

by Russell McClintock

Overview

When Abraham Lincoln's election in 1860 prompted several Southern states to secede, the North was sharply divided over how to respond. In this groundbreaking and highly praised book, McClintock follows the decision-making process from bitter partisan rancor to consensus. From small towns to big cities and from state capitals to Washington, D.C., McClintock highlights individuals both powerful and obscure to demonstrate the ways ordinary citizens, party activists, state officials, and national leaders interacted to influence the Northern response to what was essentially a political crisis. He argues that although Northerners' reactions to Southern secession were understood and expressed through partisan newspapers and officials, the decision fell into the hands of an ever-smaller group of people until finally it was Lincoln alone who would choose whether the future of the American republic was to be determined through peace or by sword.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780807871546
Publisher:	The University of North Carolina Press
Publication date:	09/15/2010
Series:	Civil War America
Edition description:	1
Pages:	400
Product dimensions:	6.10(w) x 9.20(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Russell McClintock earned his Ph.D. in U.S. history from Clark University and now teaches at St. John's High School in Shrewsbury, Massachusetts.

Table of Contents

Contents

Preface
Introduction
Chapter 1. On the Brink of the Precipice: The Election of 1860
Chapter 2. I Would Not Endanger the Perpetuity of This Union: November
Chapter 3. Proportions of Which I Had but a Faint Conception: Early December
Chapter 4. The Issues of the Late Campaign Are Obsolete: Late December
Chapter 5. We Know Not What a Day or Two or an Hour May Bring Forth: December-
January
Chapter 6. One's Opinions Change Fast in Revolutionary Times: January-February
Chapter 7. The Storm Is Weathered: January-February, Revisited
Chapter 8. A Calm Pervades the Political World: March
Chapter 9. Any Decision Would Be Preferable to This Uncertainty: March-April
Chapter 10. Everybody Now Is for the Union: April-May
Conclusion: Shall It Be Peace, or a Sword?
Notes
Bibliography
Index

What People are Saying About This

From the Publisher

In this well-written and brilliantly analyzed account, McClintock fills an important gap in our understanding of the secession winter of 1860-61 and the beginning of the Civil War. He goes beyond the focus of other scholars on Republicans and demonstrates the importance of all Northern political elements in the crisis. In the process, he skillfully reminds us of the centrality of politics and political leaders in the events leading up to the war.—William C. Harris, author of Lincoln's Rise to the Presidency

Editorial Reviews

In telling the story so thoughtfully and with such attention to detail, this fine piece of scholarship certainly deserves to take its place alongside the familiar historiographical landmarks.—American Historical Review



[This] work should . . . be the beginning of a reappraisal.—The Journal of American History



McClintock understands . . . the complexity of what was happening in the slave states.—History News Network



A balanced and erudite examination of the secession crisis from the all too neglected northern political angle. . . . [This] deeply researched study promotes fresh interpretations and insights that are deserving of a wide readership. The literature of the secession winter is appreciably richer for its existence. Highly recommended.—Civil War Books and Authors



[McClintock's] analysis is exceptionally clear and well written, easily accessible to the layperson as well as the scholar; it stimulates thought about the nature of leadership and crisis management.—Choice



McClintock transports the reader into the realm of antebellum American brinksmanship. . . . [A] satisfying account.—Civil War Times



A substantial contribution. . . . A fine study that deserves to be read along with the work of Daniel Crofts, Kenneth Stampp, and David Potter.—Journal of Illinois History



Indispensable for students of political history.—Georgia Historical Quarterly



This fine analytic book anatomizes the currents of need at the time, the efforts of the many varied cultures to cope with them and the results.—Journal of American Cultures



Ably researched and well-written.—Bowling Green Daily News

From the Publisher

In his first book, McClintock insists, rightly, that in defining the secession crisis, the words of party leaders and of petitions, the press, and letters to the editors were of central import. How party leaders, especially Lincoln, understood and shaped the crisis created the constitutional and political framework for Northern responses. With deft strokes, McClintock describes the various competing concepts of union among Republicans, Democrats, and others and discovers that in the end they agreed that representative democracy must oppose disunion or else self-government itself would be lost. Lincoln used the power of patronage to secure his hand in managing the crisis and gained his own appreciation of the practicalities of not conceding a right to secession or, should war come, not firing the first shot, thus enabling Northerners to rally to a common love for the "union." More than any other scholar, McClintock incisively shows that in the end the North and Lincoln simply could not let the South go. Highly recommended for academic and large public libraries.

—Randall M. Miller

Library Journal