Abraham lincoln biography cabinet members title

Civil War Treasures from the New-York Historical Society
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Doris Kearns Goodwin, Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln

Abraham Lincoln was “psychologically astute,” according to historian Doris Kearns Goodwin. He had “a first-rate emotional intelligence.” As President, Lincoln separated his anställda feelings from his analysis of the strengths and weaknesses of colleagues. His own cabinet was a remarkable group – a spirited but often undisciplined set of horses which President Lincoln was expected to give rein to and rein in as well.

In Team of Rivals, Doris Kearns Goodwin has “coupled the account of his life with the stories of the remarkable men who were his rivals for the 1860 Republican presidential nomination – New York senator William H. Seward, Ohio governor Salmon P. Chase, and Missouri’s distinguished elder statesman Edward Bates.”

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Abraham Lincoln

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Abraham Lincoln, sixteenth President of the United States, was born near Hodgenville, Kentucky on February 12, 1809. His family moved to Indiana when he was seven and he grew up on the edge of the frontier. He had very little formal education, but read voraciously when not working on his father’s farm.  A childhood friend later recalled Lincoln's "manic" intellect, and the sight of him red-eyed and tousle-haired as he pored over books late into the night.  In 1828, at the age of nineteen, he accompanied a produce-laden flatboat down the Mississippi River to New Orleans, Louisiana—his first visit to a large city--and then walked back home.  Two years later, trying to avoid health and finance troubles, Lincoln's father moved the family moved to Illinois.

After moving away from home, Lincoln co-owned a general store for several years before selling his stake and enlisting as a militia captain defending Illi

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An Extraordinary President and His Remarkable Cabinet

An interview with Doris Kearns Goodwin about Lincoln's Team of Rivals

Spring 2006, Vol. 38, No. 1

By Ellen Fried

 

In 1860, prairie lawyer and former one-term congressman Abraham Lincoln stunned the country by prevailing over three prominent rivals—William H. Seward, Salmon P. Chase, and Edward Bates—to win the Republican nomination for President. Perhaps equally surprising was what Lincoln did after being elected President: He appointed all three rivals to his cabinet—Seward as secretary of state, Chase as secretary of the treasury, and Bates as attorney general.

In Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln, Doris Kearns Goodwin explores the extraordinary array of personal qualities that allowed Lincoln first to appoint, then to win over, men who had previously opposed him, and reveals how Lincoln's bold and brilliant actions helped him steer the country through its darkest days.

Goodwin won the P