Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln. New
York: Simon
& Schuster, 2005. 944 pp.
Historians
generally characterize Abraham Lincoln’s emergence as a political figure in the
newly formed Republican Party after 1858 because of his eloquence and stand on
slavery through the Lincoln-Douglas Debates of that year during the Illinois race for the
Senate. They claim that Lincoln’s relative
obscurity, firm but moderate stand on slavery, Whig credentials, reputation as
an eloquent speaker, and a representative of the growing West convinced the
Republican Party to nominate him as their candidate for president in 1860. As president Lincoln selected brilliant and strong-willed
cabinet members who represented various factions of the Republican Party and
regarded him as a backwoods politician they could easily control. These cabinet members believed that they
should be president. Lincoln moved swiftly to establish his own
authority and violated or circumvented Congress, the Constitution, and the
Supreme Court to achieve Union victory in the Civil War.
Historians tend
to explain Lincoln’s
movement away from a cautious, moderate view about the emancipation of slavery
because of the rising influence of the so-called Radicals within the Republican
Party and Congress who wanted to “use the war to abolish slavery immediately
and completely.” They assume that Lincoln recognized this
rising influence and decided “to seize the leadership of the rising antislavery
sentiment himself.” Lincoln’s
role in the Union victory in the Civil War, in issuing the Emancipation
Proclamation, and in espousing a sympathetic and pragmatic reconstruction plan,
and his assassination earned him immediate martyrdom and a place in the
pantheon of great American presidents.
Doris Kearns
Goodwin, in her recently published biography about Lincoln entitled Team of Rivals, modifies and takes issue with some traditional and
recent treatments by historians about the sixteenth president. She expands the use of traditional primary
sources to the untapped reservoir of the published and unpublished letters,
notes, and diaries of Lincoln’s
friends, rivals, enemies, and their families.
As a result, she widens the lens and sees the image of Lincoln as a self-confident, highly
ambitious, pragmatic, and scrupulous politician. She argues that Lincoln won the Republican presidential
nomination in 1860 not by chance, but because he was the “shrewdest and
canniest” of all his rivals.
After winning the
presidency Lincoln
filled his cabinet with his more well-known political rivals and former
Democrats. He won over his rivals
through his political talents, personality, self-deprecation, and patient
temperament, and became the undisputed captain of this highly unusual cabinet. He possessed an incomparable understanding of
presidential powers, managed to keep his governing coalition in Congress
intact, and had a masterful sense of timing.
Goodwin counters the belief that Lincoln
was immobilized by depression and adds that he dispelled the anxieties of his
cabinet members and lifted their spirits during perilous times. Lincoln
“refused to be provoked by petty grievances, to submit to jealousy, or to brood
over perceived slights.”
According to
Goodwin, Lincoln used his sudden national
recognition following the debates with Stephen Douglas to travel to various
sections of the country, especially New York
and New England, for speaking engagements,
thus gaining greater recognition and supporters. He used his supporters and the logistics and
excitement of having the Republican national convention in Chicago, Illinois
to outmaneuver his opponents and win the Republican nomination. He relied on capable lieutenants to woo
convention delegates without personal indictments against his opponents.
Lincoln arrived at his decision to abolish
slavery not as an attempt to seize leadership of the issue from the Radicals in
Congress, but more as a way to diffuse abolition as a divisive and polarizing
issue and to remove the value of slavery to the Confederacy’s prosecution of
the war. The Confederacy used slaves to
support its economy and to construct defenses against Union armies. Lincoln’s
final decision on emancipation, which was expressed as an executive order and
not a Congressional act that freed slaves only in Confederate territory, was
based on military necessities and the desire not to offend the border states so as to
push them into the arms of the Confederacy.
Goodwin points out that Lincoln
had been a fervent proponent of free labor and by 1863 became convinced that
victory in the war depended on emancipation in the Confederacy and gradual
abolition elsewhere. Moreover, Lincoln, attempting to empathize with the position of
blacks, believed that Congress should allocate funds to colonize blacks in Central America.
Goodwin explains that as Lincoln
communicated and met with black leaders, he discarded the idea of colonization,
gained a deeper understanding of blacks’ desire for freedom and loyalty to the United States,
and eventually embraced complete emancipation.
Goodwin’s book is
the result of prodigious research over a ten-year period and is more than a
biography of Lincoln,
but multiple biographies about his rivals.
Reviewers acknowledge Goodwin’s accomplishment; however, they present
several criticisms about her interpretations and omissions. Brian John Murphy praises the book, but
opines that the balanced treatment of Lincoln and rivals retreats to the
background when the narrative reaches the Civil War period and Lincoln takes center
stage. Hans Morgenthau and David Hein point out that
Goodwin makes numerous errors in quoting and citing sources, but not to the
degree that she made errors that dogged her following the publication of her
book on the Fitzgeralds and the Kennedys.
They add that Goodwin failed to understand and penetrate the essence of Lincoln’s deep Calvinist
faith which played a major role in his political makeup and decisions during
the Civil War.
EXPLANATION ABOUT THE BOOK-REVIEW ASSIGNMENT
The narrative above is the example you should follow in
writing the review of the book as part of your research for the Research
Paper. Your review should consist of at
least five full paragraphs. Listed below
is what each paragraph should contain.
Be sure to cite the sources of information used for your review.
1.
Setting the scene: Use the textbook or another source to
establish what is the common view about the subject of the book for review. I used two paragraphs to establish what is
known about Lincoln
as it relates to the information and topics in the book for review.
2.
Establish what the author wants to show and
prove: This is usually covered in the
Introduction to the book.
3.
Examples from the book for review: I used two paragraphs to show what the author
says about Lincoln, his rivals, and major historical decisions during the Civil
War.
4.
What the author claims to have shown and
proven: This is usually conveyed in the
last chapter, conclusion, or epilogue.
5.
Scholarly review of the book: Find a review or two about the book and
present any praises and criticisms.
Criticisms are excellent ways to get a balanced picture about the book.