By Mark Tooley
A narrative history of the 1861 Washington Peace Conference,
the bipartisan, last-ditch effort to prevent the Civil War, an effort that
nearly averted the carnage that followed.
In February 1861, most of America’s great
statesmen—including a former president, dozens of current and former senators,
Supreme Court justices, governors, and congressmen—came together at the
historic Willard Hotel in a desperate attempt to stave off Civil War.
Seven southern states had already seceded, and the conferees
battled against time to craft a compromise to protect slavery and thus preserve
the union and prevent war. Participants included former President John Tyler,
General William Sherman’s Catholic step-father, General Winfield Scott, and
Lincoln’s future Treasury Secretary, Salmon Chase—and from a room upstairs at
the hotel, Lincoln himself. Revelatory and definitive, The Peace That Almost
Was demonstrates that slavery was the main issue of the conference—and thus of
the war itself—and that no matter the shared faith, family, and friendships of
the participants, ultimately no compromise could be reached.
ISBN 978-0718022235, Thomas Nelson Books, © 2015, Hardcover,
320 pages, Photographs, Illustrations, End Notes,& Index. $26.99. To
purchase this book click HERE.
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