One of the most significant and far-reaching events in U. S. history, the Lincoln-Douglas debates of 1858 sharpened and brought to a head a number of crucial questions concerning slavery, states' rights, the legal status of blacks, and the effects of the Dred Scott decision. The debates were held as part of the campaign for the Illinois senatorial seat, pitting the two-term incumbent, Democrat Stephen A. Douglas, against the lesser-known Abraham Lincoln,...

This 1911 volume offers a comprehensive look at the seminal 1860 campaign.

"The vivid, behind-the-scenes story of perhaps the most consequential political moment in America's history-Abraham Lincoln's epochal nomination as the Republican Party's candidate for president in 1860. Illinois lawyer Abraham Lincoln had a record of political failure. In 1858, he had lost a celebrated Senate bid against incumbent Stephen Douglas, his second failed Senate run, and had not held public office since one term in Congress a decade earlier....

A biography of the "influential and engaging character" who courted Congress with food, wine, and gifts in the post-Civil War era (The Washington Post Book World). King of the Lobby tells the story of how one man harnessed delicious food, fine wine, and good conversation to become the most influential lobbyist of the Gilded Age. Scion of an old and honorable family, best friend of Henry Wadsworth Longfellow, and charming man-about-town, Sam Ward...

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,...

Few politicians came to the White House with as stellar a resume as James Buchanan. In a career spanning more than forty years, he served in the Pennsylvania state legislature, the House of Representatives, and the U.S. Senate; he was secretary of state and minister to Great Britain; he was even offered a seat on the Supreme Court. His election in 1856 seemed to hold out some hope for bridging the growing chasm between North and South, for he was...