Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

As word of the attack of For Sumpter spreads, it produces a “volcanic upheaval” (327). Many in the North have varying views on the slavery question, but nevertheless feel that the Union must be defended. Lincoln does not want to lose any of the border states like Kentucky or Maryland. Such loss would make the Western front of the Union line nearly indefensible and surround the nation’s capital by Confederate territory, respectively.

One by one, more Southern states leave the Union. The most severe blow comes when Virginia secedes because Robert E. Lee is his first choice to lead the Union Army, and Lee now says he cannot bring himself to draw his sword on his native state. Kearns Goodwin notes, “In public Lincoln maintained his calm, but the growing desperation of the government’s position filled him with dread” (354).

While Lincoln tries to save the Union and organize his forces, his wife Mary is busy on a shopping spree in New York, where she wishes to buy items to refurbish the White House: “[D]riven by the need to prove herself, Mary Lincoln became obsessed with recasting her own image and renovating that of her new home” (359).