Seward

Lincoln's Indispensable Man

Walter Stahr

• Publisher: Simon & Schuster
• Year: 2012
• Print ISBN:
  9781439121184
• eBook ISBN:
  9781439127940
• Topic: Politics & International Relations
• Subtopic: Political Biographies
• Index: Politics & International Relations

From the acclaimed author of John Jay: Founding Father comes the illuminating and fascinating biography of the leader of Lincoln’s “team of rivals” and one of the most important Americans of the 19th century.

William Henry Seward was one of the most important Americans of the nineteenth century. Progressive governor of New York and outspoken US senator, he was the odds-on favorite to win the 1860 Republican nomination for president. As secretary of state and Lincoln’s closest adviser during the Civil War, Seward not only managed foreign affairs but had a substantial role in military, political, and personnel matters.

Some of Lincoln’s critics even saw Seward, erroneously, as the power behind the throne; this is why John Wilkes Booth and his colleagues attempted to kill Seward as well as Lincoln. Seward survived the assassin’s attack, continued as secretary of state, and emerged as a staunch supporter of President Andrew Johnson, Lincoln’s controversial successor. Through his purchase of Alaska (“Seward’s Folly”) and his groundwork for the purchase of the Canal Zone and other territory, Seward set America on course to become a world empire.

Seward was not only important, he was fascinating. Most nights this well-known raconteur with unruly hair and untidy clothes would gather diplomats, soldiers, politicians, or actors around his table to enjoy a cigar, a drink, and a good story. Drawing on hundreds of sources not available to or neglected by previous biographers, Walter Stahr sheds new light on this complex and central figure, as well as on pivotal events of the Civil War and its aftermath.

Table of contents

• Cover
• Dedication
• Map List and Illustration Credits
• Introduction
• Chapter 1: “Elements of a Statesman”: 1801–1830
• Chapter 2: “Who Is William H. Seward?”: 1831–1838
• Chapter 3: “A Higher Standard of Social Perfection”: 1839–1842
• Chapter 4: “You and I Can and Must Do It”: 1843–1849
• Chapter 5: “A Higher Law Than the Constitution”: 1849–1854
• Chapter 6: “Foremost Statesman of the Whole North”: 1854–1856
• Chapter 7: “An Irrepressible Conflict”: 1857–1859
• Chapter 8: “Lincoln Nominated Third Ballot”: 1860
• Chapter 9: “Save the Union in My Own Way”: November 1860–March 1861
• Chapter 10: “I Must Do It”: March–April 1861
• Chapter 11: “Through the Fires of Tophet”: 1861
• Chapter 12: “Remove Him!”: 1862
• Chapter 13: “Ask Not Whether the Enemy Is Near”: 1863
• Chapter 14: “Firm and Hopeful”: 1864
• Chapter 15: “I Am Not Dead”: 1865
• Chapter 16: “Political Apostasy”: 1866
• Chapter 17: “Let Us Make the Treaty Tonight”: 1867
• Chapter 18: “I’ll See You Damned First”: 1868–1869
• Chapter 19: “Nothing Remained . . . But to Keep in Motion”: 1869–1872
• Acknowledgments
• Photographs
• About the Author
• Notes
• Index
• Copyright