Abraham Lincoln: The Enigmatic President

The story of the greatest rivalry in American history   Here is the final cover for Maelstrom, A Civil War Novel. 

James Madison wrote a revealing letter to Thomas Jefferson in October of 1788. The following extract from the letter offers insight into Madison’s mindset and that of many of the Founders. Wherever the real power in a government lies, there is the danger of oppression. In our governments the real power lies in the majority of the community, and the invasion of private rights is chiefly to be apprehended, not from acts of government contrary to the sense of its constituents, but from acts in which the government is the mere instrument of the major number of the constituents. Wherever there is an interest and power to do wrong, wrong will generally be done ...  restrictions, however strongly marked on paper, will never be regarded when opposed to the decided sense of the public This is an incredibly prescient letter. A good example of Madison’s wisdom would be the Kansas-Nebraska Act (1854). The Missouri Compromise (1820) prohibited slavery above Parallel 36°30′, and pro-slavery forc...

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  The American Founding documents contend that people have a natural right to form and reform governments. The Declaration of Independence states, "Governments are instituted among men, deriving their just powers from the consent of the governed."  Under that principle, elections are sacrosanct. Despite a raging Civil War, the United States held elections on November 4, 1863. As Commanding General of the U.S. Army, Ulysses S. Grant had to set the policy for military voting. On September 27, he wrote the following letter (abridged) to Secretary of War Edwin Stanton. "The exercise of the right of suffrage by the officers and soldiers of armies is a novel thing. It has, I believe, generally been considered dangerous to constitutional liberty and subversive of military discipline. But our circumstances are novel and exceptional. A very large proportion of legal voters of the United States are now either under arms in the field, or in hospitals, or otherwise engaged in the mi...

 

Everything might change, of course, but for now, I have selected the book cover prototype below. If this cover is finally used, a graphic designer will dress it up to make it look professional.  Comments welcome.  

Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln Doris Kearns Goodwin Goodwin’s smooth style is reader-friendly. Team of Rivals , published in 2005, has become a standard in the crowded Lincoln genre, winning the Lincoln Prize and the Book Prize for American History.  Team of Rivals was also a finalist for several other prizes. More than 18,000 books have been written about Abraham Lincoln, making him one of the most documented figures in history. To market a new perspective, many Lincoln scholars seek to offer a unique take on one of the most studied men in history. Goodwin, when not the narrator herself, allows Lincoln’s cabinet to tell his story.  Every president since George Washington has governed with a cabinet, and the cabinet is often given short shrift by historians. Rightly so, in many cases. But Lincoln was different. He filled his cabinet and lesser positions with his Republican competitors, northern Democratic Party leaders, and other powerful rivals within...