The Democratic convention was an abject failure. Republicans were divided, Democrats fractured. The nation was buffeted by the competing pulls of abolitionism and preservation of the Union. The Whig party was spent, riven by slavery and nativism. The Lincoln Miracle’s themes are timeless, its subtitle apt: Inside the Republican Convention that Changed History.Īchorn deftly lays out the personas, demographics and rivalries that shaped the nominating contest and the 1860 election. The reader knows Lincoln will prevail, the US will shortly be at war with itself and the Union will triumph at great cost. The Lincoln Miracle is beautifully written, filled with vivid and easily digested prose. The Lincoln Miracle is Achorn’s fourth book but second on Lincoln, after Every Drop of Blood, about the second inaugural address of 1865.
Truly, Trump has cast the Republican party in his own image.Īgainst this bleak backdrop, Edward Achorn delivers The Lincoln Miracle, an in-depth examination of Abraham Lincoln’s successful quest for the Republican presidential nomination at the convention of 1860.Īchorn is a Pulitzer finalist, particularly interested in the 19th century and baseball. He called the Confederate Robert E Lee one of the greatest US generals and said there were good people on both sides in Charlottesville, Virginia, when white supremacists marched in August 2017 and a counter-protester was murdered. Trump grew up in Queens, a New York borough, but his heart belongs to Dixie.
“So, I think I’ve done more for the black community than any other president, and let’s take a pass on Abraham Lincoln, ’cause he did good, although it’s always questionable.”ĭescendants of those freed from slavery under Lincoln? They would probably differ.
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