Us Free Trade And Investment Agreements And Associations With Foreign Countries Handbook Book

This is the second of ten volumes about the life and times of Abraham Lincoln written by John Nicolay and John Hay, his private secretaries during his presidency. Given that, some of my review has to cover the same ground as my review for Volume I, so bear with me. Better yet, read my earlier review and double back to this…

As I mentioned in my other review, this is less of a biography and more of a history of the United States in which Abraham Lincoln appears as the principal character. And once again, there are entire chapters in which Lincoln does not appear at all. The second volume details the time from "Bleeding Kansas (1856) to the eve of secession (December 1860) and other than the Illinois senatorial campaign of 1858, the Lincoln speeches of 1858 and 1859, and the presidential election of 1860, Abraham Lincoln appears only as a minor character.

However, Mssrs. Nicolay and Hay provide an excellent account of the slow and steady march towards secession, centering on the split of the Democratic Party between the respective supporters of Stephen Douglas and James Buchanan. Neither comes out with any kind of positive reputation, although Buchanan gets the worst of it as an ineffective chief executive with a cabinet full of traitors to the Union (John Floyd, I'm looking at you). John Brown is also singled out for particular scorn, and Hay's and Nicolay's descriptions provide an excellent window into how Brown was viewed by his post-contemporaries of the late 19th century.

All of this so completely contradicts the "Lost Cause" narrative and deserves extra consideration because of its close proximity in time to the actual events. As such, the second volume continued to live up to — and exceed — my expectations and I will repeat my fervent recommendation for anyone who is passionate about American history to include this in her/his readings.