Research
13th Amendment
While researching Stanton yesterday at the Massachusetts Historical Society, I came across several letters that illuminate the history of the Thirteenth Amendment. Everyone “knows” this story now: we have seen it in great detail in the movie version of Lincoln. But one of the joys of research is that new details are always emerging, often…
Read MoreCarriage Ride Redux
On page 340 of my Seward book, I assert that the famous “carriage ride conversation,” in which Lincoln first raised with Seward and Welles an emancipation proclamation, did not occur. Yes, there was a carriage ride, to a funeral of Stanton’s infant child, but no, there was no discussion of emancipation. Among other reasons I…
Read MoreStanton update
As I believe I have reported before, I have now signed an agreement with Simon & Schuster to write a biography of Edwin McMasters Stanton. More than that: I am working away on the book, almost daily, gathering materials, taking notes, thinking about what I am going to say about particular periods in his life.…
Read MoreWhy I Write
I gave a TED talk this morning during the Exeter assembly: about why and how I write history books. The video will be up soon on the Exeter Talks website, but here is the script. Good morning Exeter. As TJ said, I write history books: biographies of famous Americans. When Exeter students ask how I…
Read MoreJay and Jay’s Treaty
Here is what I will say today about Jay and Jay’s Treaty. President Washington faced many serious foreign policy challenges. The British had agreed, in the treaty of peace negotiated by Jay and Franklin and Adams, to evacuate the western forts, at Niagara and Detroit and so on. They did not: and they had Indian…
Read MoreJay and the Federalist
Here, roughly, is what I will say today if time permits about John Jay and the Federalist. The Constitution, when it was published by the Philadelphia Convention in September 1787, was just a proposal. It would only take effect once it was ratified by conventions in nine of the thirteen states. Those who favored ratification…
Read MoreEmancipation
One hundred and fifty years ago, on July 22, 1862, Abraham Lincoln discussed with his cabinet for the first time the possibility of an emancipation proclamation. Lincoln read out to his colleagues a draft declaring that the slaves in the states (if any) still in rebellion on January 1, 1863, would become and remain free. …
Read MoreIndex Anguish
A wise man, John Kaminski, once told me that the index is the most important part of the book. “The index is where most researchers will begin,” he said. “If they are looking for material on paper money, for example, and find no entry for paper money in your index, they will put your book…
Read MoreWilliam Howard Russell
William Howard Russell was already a famous war correspondent when he arrived in the United States in March 1861, intent on covering the imminent American civil war. Russell traveled widely over the next year, leaving in April 1862, and then published in London in 1863 a book he entitled “My Diary North and South.” The…
Read MoreTarbell, Thomas and Burlingame
I am reading this morning a wonderful little book: “Lincoln’s Humor” and Other Essays, by Benjamin Thomas. It is a collection of essays by Thomas, one of the great Lincoln biographers, edited and published after his death by another great Lincoln biographer, Michael Burlingame. One of the essays deals with yet another Lincoln biographer: Ida…
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