What are you reading now?

[Linda Anderson]

I am currently reading an amazing book that was recommended to me during my recent visit to the Lincoln Cottage in Washington D.C., titled “Lincoln for President” by Bruce Chadwick.

It is an excellent biography of the 1860 presidential election and how it propelled Abraham Lincoln from one time Congressman and Illinois lawyer to the highest office in the land.
The author introduces an amazing range of influential political figures and meticulously lists poll numbers – I love that.

And it reads like really well written thriller, too.

One thing that had me thinking was the way the William H. Seward was portrayed – while I knew that he set himself up for the presidency in 1864, I never knew that he had such a detailed plan on how to win it. While I understand why he never sought it in 64’, after reading this book and how interested he truly was in this office, I wondered why he did not go for a nomination after Johnson’s term was up.

It could not just have been his age, could it. All the theories I have come up with are incredibly naïve – does anybody have more information on what Seward’s thoughts were and why he went in such a completely different direction in his later life, retiring from public service?

I don't think it was his age, either, Angela. He loved being in Washington. I found the following in Seward: Lincoln's Indispensable Man by Walter Stahr.

"Stanton's suspension led to speculation about Seward's fate. The Chicago Tribune claimed that 'the report that Secretary Seward intends to resign his seat in the cabinet and retire to the shades of private life at Auburn, is received with the utmost indifference by the country.' Seward was no longer an important political figure, the Tribune said, because he had with his steady support of Johnson "effectually committed political suicide.'...Johnson realized that Seward's prospects were slight, for he had 'lost all strength in his own state,' so that he was 'rather a dead carcass."