For the first time, readers will experience America’s gravest crisis through the eyes of the five former presidents who lived it. Author and historian Chris DeRose chronicles history’s most epic Presidential Royal Rumble, which culminated in a multi-front effort against Lincoln’s reelection bid, but not before:
* John Tyler engaged in shuttle diplomacy between President Buchanan and the new Confederate Government. He chaired the Peace Convention of 1861, the last great hope for a political resolution to the crisis. When it failed, Tyler joined the Virginia Secession Convention, voted to leave the Union, and won election to the Confederate Congress.
* Van Buren, who had schemed to deny Lincoln the presidency, supported him in his efforts after Fort Sumter, and thwarted Franklin Pierce's attempt at a meeting of the ex-Presidents to undermine Lincoln.
* Millard Fillmore hosted Lincoln and Mary Todd on their way to Washington, initially supported the war effort, offered critical advice to keep Britain at bay, but turned on Lincoln over emancipation.
* Franklin Pierce, talked about as a Democratic candidate in 1860 and ’64, was openly hostile to Lincoln and supportive of the South, an outspoken critic of Lincoln especially on civil liberties. After Vicksburg, when Jefferson Davis’s home was raided, a secret correspondence between Pierce and the Confederate President was revealed.
* James Buchanan, who had left office as seven states had broken away from the Union, engaged in a frantic attempt to vindicate his administration, in part by tying himself to Lincoln and supporting the war, arguing that his successor had simply followed his policies.
How Abraham Lincoln battled against his predecessors to preserve the Union and later to put an end to slavery is a thrilling tale of war waged at the top level of power.
Chapter 1. I Met Nullification at Its Threshold
Chapter 4. . . . And Tyler, Too
Chapter 9. The Final Election of the Old America
Chapter 10. General Jackson Is Dead!
Chapter 11. The First and Only Choice of the Republicans of Illinois
Chapter 12. A Startling Tide of Reckless Fanaticism
Chapter 13. Five against Lincoln
Chapter 14. The Gathering Storm
Chapter 15. The Tug Has to Come
Chapter 16. The Last Winter of Peace
Chapter 17. That All Will Yet Be Well
Chapter 19. Breakfast at Fort Sumter
Chapter 20. The Meeting That Never Was
Chapter 22. Twilight at Wheatland, Dawn at Manassas
Chapter 23. To Lose Kentucky Is Nearly the Same as to Lose the Whole Game
Chapter 24. Capture on the High Seas
Chapter 25. The Bottom Is Out of the Tub
Chapter 26. Greenbacks and Ironclads
Chapter 27. Any Explanations Which You May Offer Would Be Acceptable
Chapter 29. The Very Vortex of Hell
Chapter 30. Destroy the Rebel Army, If Possible
Chapter 31. A Continuation of War by Other Means
Chapter 33. If My Name Ever Goes into History, It Will Be for This Act
Chapter 35. The Brave Men, Living and Dead
Chapter 36. The Fourth of July
Chapter 37. A New Birth of Freedom
Chapter 39. Those Not Skinning Can Hold a Leg
Chapter 40. Not Unworthy to Remain in My Present Position
Chapter 41. The Last Full Measure
Epilogue: Do Not Despair of the Republic