The Civil War forced America finally to confront the contradiction
between its founding values and human slavery. At the center of
this historic confrontation was Abraham Lincoln. By the time this
Illinois politician had risen to the office of president, the
dilemma of slavery had expanded to the question of all African
Americans’ future. In this fascinating new book Paul Escott
considers the evolution of the president’s thoughts on race in
relation to three other, powerful – and often conflicting –
voices. Lincoln’s fellow Republicans Charles Sumner and
Montgomery Blair played crucial roles in the shaping of their
party. While both Sumner and Blair were opposed to slavery, their
motivations reflected profoundly different approaches to the issue.
Blair’s antislavery stance stemmed from a racist dedication to
remove African Americans from the country altogether. Sumner, in
contrast, opposed slavery as a crusader for racial equality and a
passionate abolitionist. Lincoln maintained close personal
relationships with both men as he wrestled with the slavery
question. In addition to these antislavery voices, Escott also
weaves into his narrative the other extreme, of which Lincoln was
politically aware: the virulent racism and hierarchical values that
motivated not only the Confederates but surprisingly many
Northerners and which were embodied by the president’s eventual
assassin, John Wilkes Booth. Sumner, Blair, and violent racists
like Booth each represent forces with which Lincoln had to contend
as he presided over a brutal civil war and faced the issues of
slavery and equality lying at its root. Other books and films have
provided glimpses of the atmosphere in which the president created
his Emancipation Proclamation. Lincoln’s Dilemma evokes more
fully and brings to life the men Lincoln worked with, and against,
as he moved racial equality forward.
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