Congress at War
How Republican Reformers Fought the Civil War, Defied Lincoln, Ended Slavery, and Remade America
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The story of how Congress helped win the Civil War--a new perspective that puts the House and Senate, rather than Lincoln, at the center of the conflict.
This brilliantly argued new perspective on the Civil War overturns the popular conception that Abraham Lincoln single-handedly led the Union to victory and gives us a vivid account of the essential role Congress played in winning the war
Building a riveting narrative around four influential members of Congress--Thaddeus Stevens, Pitt Fessenden, Ben Wade, and the pro-slavery Clement Vallandigham--Fergus Bordewich shows us how a newly empowered Republican party shaped one of the most dynamic and consequential periods in American history. From reinventing the nation's financial system to pushing President Lincoln to emancipate the slaves to the planning for Reconstruction, Congress undertook drastic measures to defeat the Confederacy, in the process laying the foundation for a strong central government that came fully into being in the twentieth century. Brimming with drama and outsized characters, Congress at War is also one of the most original books about the Civil War to appear in years and will change the way we understand the conflict.
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Historian Bordewich (The First Congress) delves deeply into Radical Republicans' determination to outlaw slavery and establish Congress as the most powerful government branch in this packed political history of the Civil War. Bordewich's carefully documented narrative centers on such lawmakers as Thaddeus Stevens, William Pitt Fessenden, and Benjamin Wade, arguing that they coerced President Lincoln into issuing the Emancipation Proclamation that freed slaves in Confederate states. While Lincoln, who receives little sympathy in Bordewich's account, tried to ameliorate slave owners' concerns in order to preserve the Union, Radical Republicans pushed for abolition, suffrage, and punishment for the South. Stevens threatened to arm former slaves, while Wade, who often carried "a rifle-cane and a pair of pistols," documented atrocities against black Union soldiers and pushed for Congress's authority to oversee Reconstruction. Meanwhile, pro-slavery Ohio Democrat Clement Vallandigham demanded an immediate armistice and put forth, in Bordewich's view, a "wartime defense of civil liberties" that might have been celebrated in another era, were it not undermined by his "vicious racism and reactionary politics." Bordewich offers a unique and colorful perspective on the Civil War, and regularly manages to make congressional minutiae entertaining. Readers seeking fresh insight into the era will be satisfied.
