“Every Drop of Blood: The Momentous Second Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln” by Edward Achorn
Edward Achorn’s book, “Every Drop of Blood,” provides key insights into the final days of Lincoln’s presidency and the Civil War. Lincoln faced enemies on all sides, even within his own party, due to his moderate stance. Despite the South’s defeat, with Lee seeking negotiation, Lincoln was still underestimated. The book highlights Lincoln’s skill as a writer, crafting his own speeches, including the Gettysburg Address and the Second Inaugural.
The war had a devastating cost, both financially and in terms of governmental changes. Federal spending soared, and Lincoln used extraordinary measures like martial law and the draft, which earned him widespread animosity. Lincoln’s presidency and life were marked by immense stress and personal tragedies, which contributed to his melancholy.
His complex relationship with organized religion was rooted in a belief in God’s justice and predestination. Slavery was a sin for which the nation was being punished. Lincoln’s speeches often reflected biblical themes. He was deeply committed to the Founding principles, especially individual liberty. His Gettysburg Address emphasized 1776 as the nation’s founding, highlighting the Declaration of Independence’s ideals.
Lincoln recognized human nature’s flaws, which informed his belief in limited government. The war was seen as divine punishment for slavery, yet Lincoln avoided assigning blame in his Second Inaugural Address.
What Can We Learn From the Book?
The big takeaways from this book are these:
1) Lincoln still had plenty of enemies, and not just Southerners. People on his same team thought he was too moderate. Spies, for example, destined to kill him roamed Washington D.C.
2) Lincoln was a moderate. Achorn makes the argument, but Lincoln’s moderate approach is even more prominent in other books. He was navigating a treacherous path. As Prime Minister Thatcher is said to have commented: The problem with the middle of the road is that you are hit by traffic from both sides. This applies to Lincoln. Some thought he didn’t go far enough, and others that he went too far. The moderate approach cost him his life, but it also saved the nation.
3) Lee sent a message the day before the inauguration that he wanted to negotiate terms. So, in every sense the South was defeated.
4) Lincoln was always underestimated. Even after winning the war, holding the union together, delivering magnificent speeches that articulated perfectly the founding principles of the nation, and halting slavery around the world, he was still underestimated.
5) Lincoln wrote his own material – not just the Second Inaugural but the Gettysburg Address and his other writings.
6) In executing the war, he extracted a magnificent cost to the country, both financially but also in changes to the government. Federal spending shot up from 63 million to 1.4 billon.
“In fighting the war relentlessly, assuming vastly greater power than any president had before him, Lincoln had used every weapon he could get his hands on -massive borrowing, the nation’s first federal income tax; the jailing of journalists; the imposition of marital law across the nation, with the use of military tribunals to imprison tens of thousands of civilians who were suspected of making trouble; the draft; and most notably, the emancipation of as many African Americans as possible and their subsequent enlistment in the destruction of the Confederacy. Through these actions, he earned the loathing of countless Americans, both North and South.”
7) Lincoln was under tremendous stress during his Presidency and his heath was not great. In fact, Lincoln’s life had been terribly difficult. He grew up in harsh conditions, his mother died, his beloved sister died, he was forced to work hard labor, and as President it was not just the war, but he lost a son. He and his wife suffered mental health issues. In sum, Lincoln was a melancholy man.
8) Lincoln had a complex relationship with the organized church. What he did understand was that slavery was a sin and for that sin, God was exacting justice. As the author writes about Lincoln’s early experiences attending church: “The lessons he learned stayed with Lincoln. He believed good people forgave the failings of others, but that under the laws of existence, grave wrongs inevitably rebounded on sinners and their society.” He believed in God, that God was in control, and predestination. Accordingly, Biblical relevance reverberates throughout his speeches.”
As it related to slavery,
“He seemed particularly drawn to God’s admonition to Adam before expelling him from the Garden of Eden, in Genesis: ‘In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat bread, until thou return to the ground.’ At the core of Lincoln’s beliefs – forming both his hatred of slavery and his fierce love of the republic – was the idea that each person had a right to get ahead; to keep what he had earned from the sweat of his brow, free from its being snatched away from an aristocracy or a slaveholder.”
9) Lincoln believed in the Founding. At Gettysburg, his address pinned 1776 as the founding of the nation – four score and seven years – which is significant because it was not the laws under the Constitution, but the ideas of individual liberty found in the Declaration of Independence. “Lincoln admired the Founders for creating a system that fully recognized humans as they were – selfish, infused with the survival instinct, prone to step on each other in ruthlessly jostling for status – and accordingly limited the ability of the powerful to prey on individuals.” Part of this believe came from his understanding of human nature.
The war was punishment, not just on the South, for the nation’s sin of slavery. Lincoln’s famed Second Inaugural asserts this notion, but he’s careful not to place blame. Achorn’s book draws readers to the true nature of Lincoln by contextualizing the world Lincoln help to make.
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