Chapter 25: “A Sacred Effort”: Winter 1864–1865

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Imagine this, November 1864.

You hear the roar of cannons, but it's celebration, cheering crowds,

immense crowds, actually.

And a nation just exhausted from years of brutal civil war is suddenly feeling hopeful.

Right.

Abraham Lincoln has just won his second term as president.

It's a huge moment.

The Union cause, which, you know, felt so uncertain for so long, suddenly feels like it has momentum again.

It's a moment of massive relief.

Yeah.

But also like profound uncertainty still.

The war isn't actually over, not by a long shot.

No, absolutely not.

And the future of slavery, national unity itself, how you even start rebuilding the country,

it's all hanging right there in the balance.

Mercuriously.

And in this deep dive, we're digging into a really pivotal chapter from Doris Kearns Goodwin's team of rivals.

Our mission, really, is to understand Lincoln's incredible political genius right as the civil war was heading towards its end.

And that monumental task of putting the nation back together was just beginning.

It's how he managed that famously complex cabinet.

Yeah, the team of rivals itself.

Exactly.

And how he pushed for, essentially, a constitutional revolution to end slavery, how he pursued this very fraught peace process and delivered that timeless message of reconciliation.

All while keeping that unique, deeply human leadership style he had.

Think of this as your shortcut to really getting a handle on one of history's most fascinating leaders during maybe his most critical period.

So the setting is Washington, D .C.

We're talking late 1864, moving into early 1865.

The Union armies, they've had some big wins, huge victories, actually.

But the fighting goes on.

And every single decision Lincoln makes now, while you can feel the weight of history on it, it's going to echo for generations.

Absolutely.

And our central figure, of course, is President Lincoln, the humble rail splitter, now grappling with just the immense weight of a nation tearing itself apart.

And he's surrounded by this truly extraordinary group, these men who are both his rivals, guys he beat for the nomination, and his totally indispensable allies in the cabinet.

That's right.

You've got William Seward, the Secretary of State, witty, strategic, and by this point, probably Lincoln's closest confidant.

Then there's Edwin Stanton, Secretary of War, volatile,

iron -willed, you could say, absolutely essential, but man, notoriously difficult to work with.

Definitely.

And Gideon Wells, a Secretary of the Navy, more reserved, quiet, but incredibly effective.

He basically built this powerful Navy almost from nothing.

We'll also touch on Edward Bates, the outgoing Attorney General.

His legal opinions were actually quite progressive for the time, really shaping how people thought about citizenship.

And finally, Salmon P.

Chase,

the ambitious one, former Treasury Secretary, always had his eye on the presidency.

Now he's angling for a new powerful role.

You can just feel the ambition radiating off him.

The stakes just couldn't be higher, could they?

The war's still raging, slavery hasn't been abolished everywhere, and this huge question of reconstruction, of unity, it looms over everything.

How did Lincoln possibly navigate all this?

That's what we're going to unpack.

It starts right after the election.

Okay, let's dive in.

How did Lincoln start to, you know, solidify things after that win, dealing with his cabinet and the pressures?

Well, right after the re -election, November 10th, 1864, there's this massive celebration on the White House lawn, just an immense cheering crowd.

Right, and Lincoln speaks from a second -floor window.

He doesn't just celebrate the win.

He celebrates that a people's government can sustain a national election in the midst of a great civil war.

That's powerful.

It really is.

A statement about democracy's resilience, even then.

And the mood, it was kind of infectious, later over at Seward's place, the Secretary of State is apparently just incredibly jovial.

Saying things like, soon you'll have to look mighty sharp to find a man who was a secessionist,

optimistic maybe, but shows the mood.

Definitely shows the mood.

He was playfully poking fun of his colleagues, Fezman and Stanton, telling Wells to tighten the blockade.

It's a sign the atmosphere had improved in the cabinet.

And it needed to, right.

With Chase and Montgomery Blair, the ambitious one and the more conservative one gone, a lot of that internal fighting, that animosity, sort of faded.

It really did.

Wells himself noted his relationship with Seward became much more

amicable.

Even Stanton sounded less radical sometimes.

Lincoln felt the rhythm was working.

He didn't want a big shakeout.

He liked the team he had, even with the rivalries.

Exactly.

And his bond with Seward had deepened significantly.

Wells called Seward Lincoln's only confidant and advisor

on the really big stuff.

Seward got it too.

He famously said there is but one vote in the cabinet and that is cast by the president.

Lincoln listened, he collaborated, but the final call was his.

A key insight into his leadership right there.

Absolutely.

And then you have Stanton,

Secretary of War, notoriously abrasive, right.

Their partnership wasn't warm like with Seward, but man was it effective.

They had this kind of unwritten code, didn't they?

Like they could veto each other, but Lincoln had the final say when it mattered.

That's the one.

And Stanton, he was actually pretty sick at this time.

He told his doctor,

Barnes, keep me alive till this rebellion is over and then I will take a rest.

Just shows his dedication.

Wow.

That dedication, even with his difficult personality, it shows Lincoln's genius, right?

Recognizing and holding on to crucial talent, even when it wasn't easy.

Lincoln rarely overruled him, despite Stanton's bluntness.

There's that great story about the congressman wanting a military appointment.

Stanton says no, flat out.

And Lincoln backs him.

Completely.

Calls Stanton the rock on the beach of our national ocean against which the breakers dash and roar, without him I should be destroyed.

High praise, considering how tough Stanton could be.

Still, Lincoln carried his own burdens, especially pardons.

He was always looking for any good excuse for saving a man's life.

Said it made him happy.

Yeah, he felt that deeply.

Stanton though, saw it as his grim duty to be yielding.

A clerk saw him listen stone -faced to a family pleading for a deserter's life.

Only to find him moments later completely broken up.

Sobbing, yeah.

Repeating, God help me to do my duty.

It's just a heartbreaking glimpse into the sheer personal cost of leadership in wartime, even for the toughest guys.

Lincoln even took the public fall for Stanton sometimes, didn't he?

Like with that Pennsylvania prisoner issue.

He did.

Wrote that the secretary of war is wholly of any part in this blunder, shielding him, remarkable loyalty.

And we shouldn't forget Gideon Wells' Neptune, Lincoln called him the Navy secretary, reserved but loyal.

Totally loyal.

And what a job he did.

Lincoln recognized it as a Herculean task.

Took the Navy from what, 70 odd ships to nearly 700.

Made it a world -class power and enforced that blockade relentlessly.

So the only real cabinet change came when Edward Bates resigned as attorney general.

He was getting older, unwell.

Right.

At 71, wanted to step down.

But he waited, very loyally, until Lincoln's reelection was secure.

A real gesture of respect.

And Bates' impact, while maybe quieter, was pretty significant, especially on racial issues for the time.

It really was.

He evolved, supported Lincoln's wartime powers, endorsed emancipation, and crucially issued this groundbreaking legal opinion.

The one declaring that free blacks were citizens of the United States?

That's the one.

In principle, it just overturned the Dred Scott decision.

Which, you have to remember, had denied citizenship to all African Americans just a few years earlier and poured fuel on the fire, leading to war.

So this was a massive, if subtle, constitutional shift happening right there.

Redefining who was an American.

Exactly.

Bates initially found Lincoln's style a bit loose, but came to appreciate his way of explaining things with stories, with illustrations.

His departure was very cordial, nothing like Chase's exit earlier.

And finding his replacement.

Lincoln needed someone from a border state.

Joseph Holt turned it down, but recommended James Speed, who happened to be the older brother of Joshua Speed.

Lincoln's great, great friend from his younger days, leading to that classic Lincoln quip.

About knowing James, but not so well as I know his brother Joshua.

That, however, is not strange, for I slept with Joshua for four years.

Just Lincoln being Lincoln.

Defusing any awkwardness, making it clear this was a deep, non -sexual friendship from way back.

And Speed was a good fit politically too, right?

Perfect fit, actually.

He was a constitutional abolitionist.

Believed slavery could and should end legally through the Constitution.

Exactly where Lincoln was headed.

So the cabinet is relatively stable, but then this other huge thing happens.

Chief Justice Roger Taney dies.

Mid -October, 64.

Yeah, Taney.

The author of the Dred Scott decision himself.

His death creates this massive opening on the Supreme Court.

Hugely important.

And several people desperately wanted that job, including Stanton.

Stanton really wanted it.

Called it the only position he ever desired.

For financial security, maybe a chance to recover his health.

But Lincoln had that dilemma.

Where can I get a man to take Secretary Stanton's place?

The War Department was just too critical.

So Stanton steps back.

He does.

Puts duty first.

Montgomery Blair also really wanted it.

Kind of his compensation for being pushed out of the cabinet earlier.

He had credentials, represented Dred Scott even, but Lincoln had concerns.

Yeah, worries about Senate confirmation and Blair's more conservative views on reconstruction and black citizenship just didn't align with where Lincoln and the country seemed to be moving.

So after considering others, Lincoln goes back to Sam and T.

Chase.

His first impulse.

Even knowing Chase's unbounded ambition, knowing all the meaner things Chase had done behind his back.

It seems incredible why Chase.

Lincoln believed his legal ability and crucially, his commitment to the Union cause during the war outweighed all the personal baggage.

He even hoped the appointment might cure him of the White House fever.

Talk about magnanimity, turning his biggest rival into the Chief Justice.

He was extraordinary.

And Chase, to his credit on this front,

quickly made a significant move regarding racial justice.

John Rock, the black lawyer.

Exactly.

Within hours of Chase taking the oath, John Rock was admitted to practice before the Supreme Court.

Chase approved it.

Harper's Weekly called it an extraordinary reversal of Dred Scott.

A remarkable indication of the revolution happening.

While Lincoln's managing these huge political chess moves, Mary Lincoln's life, it wasn't easy.

Public scrutiny, those debts, the grief over Willie Sill.

No, it was incredibly tough.

And her oldest son, Robert, wanted to join the army.

You see the immense personal pressures Lincoln was under on top of, you know, saving the nation.

But then, as 1865 begins, the war news finally starts turning consistently good.

Really good.

Yes.

Sherman's March to the Sea.

A stunning success.

Just irrepressible joy in Washington.

Lincoln had been anxious about it initially.

But was quick to give Sherman all the credit.

The honor is all yours, he wrote.

And the victories kept piling up.

General Thomas smashing Hood's army at Nashville.

Stanton apparently rushed over the White House in the middle of the night.

Finding Lincoln in his nightdress with a lighted candle.

Classic image.

Totally.

Then Fort Fisher falls.

Yeah.

That closes Wilmington, the last major Confederate port.

Supplies basically cut off.

Wells was ecstatic.

Seward thought the Navy's job was almost done.

And then Stanton himself goes south to meet Sherman.

That's interesting.

Very interesting.

And apparently, Stanton, usually so stern, kind of relaxed, became the genial companion.

But more importantly, they agreed on special field orders.

Number 15.

That's the 40 acres order, right?

Allocating land to freed slaves.

That's the one.

40 acres of tillable ground.

Congress followed up by creating the Freedmen's Bureau.

A really significant early step towards trying to give Freedmen some economic foundation.

Though obviously complex and fraught later on.

But perhaps nothing consumed Lincoln's focus in January 65, more than the 13th Amendment.

Abolishing slavery for good.

Absolutely nothing.

He was genuinely afraid the Emancipation Proclamation, being a wartime measure based on his commander in chief powers, might be invalidated once the war ended.

So the amendment was crucial.

Permanent.

The king's cure for all the evils, he called it.

Right.

And it had failed in the House before.

The vote was going to be incredibly tight.

So Lincoln gets personally involved, deeply involved.

Starts lobbying members directly, calling them into his office.

Yes.

He told James Rollins from Missouri, tell them of my anxiety to have the measure pass.

He argued it would send a clear signal to the south that even border states wouldn't support slavery anymore.

And he wasn't afraid to use the power of his office, was he?

Telling allies to get those last crucial votes.

Oh yeah.

I am president of the United States, clothed with immense power, and I expect you to procure those votes.

That meant dangling jobs, pardons, assignments, whatever it took.

And then there was that whole business with the peace commissioners potentially messing up the vote.

Right.

Ashley, the amendment's floor manager, was terrified that news of Confederate commissioners coming to talk peace would make Democrats think the war was over and they didn't need the amendment.

So Lincoln uses that cunning evasion.

He does.

Ashley asked if commissioners were in the city.

Lincoln says truthfully, no peace commissioners in the city or likely to be in it because they were on their way to Fort Monroe, not in D .C.

It was technically true, but strategic.

It kept the vote on track.

The vote itself sounds incredibly dramatic.

The House packed.

Completely packed.

Chief Justice Chase was there.

Cabinet members.

Senators.

Ashley cleverly gave time to Democrats who'd switched sides, letting them explain their vote back home.

Like Kofroth saying, if by my action today I dig my political grave, I will descend into it without a murmur.

Powerful stuff.

And the final count, 119 for, 56 against.

Just over the two thirds needed.

A moment of silence, apparently, then just an explosion of cheers.

Cannons firing across Washington.

Lincoln was overjoyed, called it the complete consummation of his own great work.

And even his old critic, William Lloyd Garrison, the abolitionist, gave him the credit, called Lincoln the man the country was more immediately indebted to for the amendment than perhaps to any other man.

Quite a turnaround.

A huge turnaround.

Now about those peace commissioners, Lincoln was maybe a bit evasive about.

That's another fascinating story.

Right.

The Hampton Roads Conference.

It started with Francis Preston Blair going off on his own.

Sort of unauthorized, yeah.

Blair, the elder statesman, went to Richmond hoping he could broker a deal where North and South unite against the French in Mexico, putting the Civil War on hold.

He actually met with Jefferson Davis.

Davis was open to talking.

Cordial, yes, but talked about two countries.

Lincoln's response, dictated by Stanton, was absolutely firm.

There are not two countries.

And there never will be two countries.

And peace talks had to be about our one common country.

Exactly.

So Davis sends three commissioners, including his VP Alexander Stevens, to meet union reps near union lines at Fort Monroe.

And on their way, there's that moment where the firing stops and the bands play sweet home, shows how weary everyone was.

Deeply weary.

Grant met them simply, escorted them to a ship, Seward went first, laying out Lincoln's three indispensable conditions.

Restoration of the proclamation and no ceasefire until the wolf actually ended non -negotiable.

Right.

But Grant felt the commissioners were genuinely seeking peace and wired Lincoln, urging him to come meet them himself.

Lincoln drops everything and heads south on the fastest steamer in the world.

So they meet.

February 3rd, 1865.

The Hampton Roads Conference.

On the River Queen.

Four hours.

Stevens and Lincoln actually knew each other from Congress, shared some warm memories, but Lincoln got straight to the point.

Peace meant the South had to cease that resistance.

Full stop.

There's that moment Hunter brings up King Charles I and Lincoln's dry wit comes out.

All he distinctly recollect about the case of Charles I is that he lost his head in the end.

Classic Lincoln.

Just cuts through the historical analogy.

Seward then drops a bombshell about the 13th Amendment having just passed Congress.

That must have changed the dynamic.

Huge change.

Lincoln even floated the idea of compensated emancipation again.

$400 million for the slaves.

Trying to soften the blow, find some common ground.

But his cabinet shot that down later.

Unanimously.

They thought it was politically impossible, would alienate the radicals, maybe show weakness.

Lincoln was apparently quite saddened, saying, you are all against me.

The idea died there.

And the conference ended with no agreement.

Back in Washington, the radicals were furious before they even knew the result, right?

Afraid Lincoln had sold out emancipation.

Daddy, Stevens was ready to denounce him.

But Lincoln's report to Congress was masterful.

He framed it perfectly.

Sticking to one common country and his three non -negotiables.

The report got thunderous applause.

Even Stevens had to admire his sagacity, wisdom, and patriotism.

Lumpen turned a failed peace talk into a political win, showing the Confederates were unreasonable.

Brilliant political maneuvering.

Davis, predictably, reacted badly.

Used the failure to rally Southerners for more resistance.

I can have no common country with the Yankees, he declared.

So the war grinds on.

Union victories continue.

Columbia falls.

Charleston is evacuated.

But leading up to the second inaugural, Lincoln seems kind of down.

Yeah, Goodwin mentions he was quite depressed over having to approve the execution of a Confederate spy, John Yates Beale.

Had to stand firm, but it weighed on him.

He is filling up for the ceremony.

But the vice presidential swearing in?

That was a mess.

Oh, Andrew Johnson.

Total disaster.

He was clearly intoxicated, gave this rambling, incoherent speech.

Forgot Gideon Wells' name right to his face.

Stanton was petrified.

Speed thought he was deranged.

Yeah.

But Lincoln ensured.

Unruffled.

Outwardly, at least.

Lincoln later made excuses saying Johnson made a bad slip, but wasn't a drunkard.

Again, showing that composure.

Then Lincoln steps up for his own inaugural.

And the weather changes.

Just as he steps forward, the sun, hidden all day, supposedly breaks through the clouds.

People saw it as a good omen.

And the capitol dome, finally finished with the statue of freedom on top, stood there as this symbol of endurance.

The speech itself?

It wasn't what people expected, was it?

No gloating about victories.

Not at all.

It was short, somber, deeply theological, almost.

He talked about shared responsibility.

Both read the same Bible and pray to the same God,

suggesting the war was God's judgment on both North and South for the sin of slavery.

Until, you know, the scales were balanced.

Every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword.

Sobering words.

Incredibly sobering.

But then comes that shift, that unforgettable plea for healing.

With malice toward none, with charity for all, with firmness in the right, as God gives us to see the right, let us strive on to finish the work we're in, to bind up the nation's wounds.

To care for him who shall born the battle and for his widow and his orphan, just timeless, a blueprint for reconciliation.

Frederick Douglass was there, wasn't he?

And had trouble getting into the reception afterward.

He was.

Initially turned away because of his race, the old custom.

But Lincoln saw him, insisted he be let in, called out, here comes my friend Douglass.

And Lincoln genuinely wanted his opinion on the speech.

Desperately wanted it.

There is no man in the country whose opinion I value more than yours, Lincoln told him.

Douglass replied, Mr.

Lincoln, that was a sacred effort.

Lincoln himself felt it was maybe his best work, though not immediately popular.

Reactions were mixed.

Some found it too religious, not enough statesmanship.

Others hailed its grand simplicity, called it the finest state paper in all history.

Praise came from overseas, too.

And even the Charleston Mercury, a die -hard secessionist paper, grudgingly admired his ability to marshal talent.

Right?

Comparing it starkly to the situation in Richmond.

Astonishing, really.

Which leads to that final insight from Charles Dana.

Lincoln's genius wasn't just gathering talent.

It was impressing his own purpose, perception, and resolution on them.

Making them subordinates to his vision.

He was the master.

So, wrapping this all up, what are the big takeaways from this period, this chapter, Lincoln, at his absolute peak, really?

Absolutely.

You see him as a master of coalition building.

Managing these huge egos, these difficult personalities in his cabinet.

But always, always steering them towards the Union's goal.

And a leader showing real moral growth.

Right?

Pushing relentlessly for that constitutional end to slavery, the 13th Amendment, even with all the political risks and maneuvers involved.

Definitely.

You also see this strategic genius on the battlefield backing Sherman.

In politics, the lobbying, the handling of the peace conference failure.

Yeah.

Just masterful.

And underpinning it all, that uncommon magnanimity, elevating chase, staying loyal to Stanton, and ultimately articulating that vision of reconciliation in the second inaugural, even while dealing with immense personal loss and pressure.

An incredible combination of qualities.

And Lincoln's ability, then, to keep that clear vision, handle that intense pressure, unify a team that was literally called rivals, pursuing a common moral goal.

It really offers powerful lessons for leadership today, doesn't it?

Whatever challenges you might be facing.

It really does.

It's about conviction, but also that profound humanity he never lost.

Which brings us to a final thought.

Maybe something for you to chew on.

In our own time, which often feels so defined by division,

what can we actually learn from Lincoln's second inaugural?

That whole idea of shared responsibility, of malice toward none.

How do we find a path forward after deep conflict?

A question as relevant today as it was in 1865.

We really hope this deep dive has given you a valuable shortcut to understanding this incredible, pivotal moment in American history.

Thanks so much for joining us.

Yeah, thank you.

And a warm thank you from all of us here at the Deep Dive team.