by Chris DeRose
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.
* Martin 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.
About the Author
Chris DeRose is
the author of the highly acclaimed Congressman Lincoln: The Making
of America’s Greatest President and Founding Rivals: Madison vs.
Monroe, the Bill of Rights, and the Election that Saved a Nation. DeRose is
an assistant professor of law at Arizona Summit Law School and political
strategist who for the past seventeen years has served in nearly every capacity
on campaigns up and down the ballot in five different states. He lives in
Phoenix, Arizona.
Visit him at chrisderosebooks.com
or @chrisderose on Twitter.
ISBN 978-0762796649, Lyons Press, © 2014, Hardcover, 392
Pages, Photographs, Illustrations, End Notes, , Bibliography & Index. $28.95. To
Purchase the book click HERE.
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