Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

Spanning almost a thousand pages, the giant biography covers Lincoln’s early years all the way to his death, and also focuses on three of the important members of his cabinet: William Seward as Secretary of State, Salmon Chase as Secretary of Treasury, and Edward Bates as Attorney General. Each had their own distinct traits and peculiarities of character: Lincoln the melancholy but enthralling storyteller, Seward the popular, optimistic, and affable orator, Chase the capable, diligent, and high-minded administrator, and Bates the family-minded judge and a counterbalance for the cabinet. The biographies start with the 1860 Republican nomination for president, and of Lincoln’s dark horse bid for the presidency – as the war began and escalated, the narrative shifts to the cabinet, divided in ideology but united in the mission to preserve the union. Although long, I think the emphasis on the cabinet and its stars painted a more accurate and broader picture than crediting the political and military successes to the president alone.

There were two parts that defined Lincoln’s manner: first, was he was painfully deliberate in making decisions, and second, that when he did decide, he never went back on it. During the Civil War, one of the greatest mistakes the Union and Lincoln made was in employing the hesitant and timid General McClellan as the highest-ranking general, and it’s compounded by having him stay in the post for 2 years. It took all that time and lost opportunity for Lincoln to replace the man, perhaps out of his giving due patience for McClellan to come around – but in matters of war, this delay was among Union's, and thereby Lincoln's, greatest mistakes. Yet, in policy, deliberation is critical, and in issuing the Emancipation Proclamation and not going back on its then-radical position, Lincoln’s deliberate resoluteness proved to be prescient and appropriate. Lincoln did not waver when the initial backlash from moderates and conservatives hit; and for all his policies, once a stance was taken, there was no going back, and this deliberate resoluteness was one of the most praiseworthy traits he had. Lincoln was not the most efficient wartime president, since war and chaos called for men of quick decisiveness – but Lincoln’s brand of deliberate resoluteness is unparalleled in policy, and from it the results of those old policies we still remember.