Every Drop of Blood: The Momentous Second Inauguration of Abraham Lincoln
Edward Achorn
Atlantic Monthly Press (March 2010)

“Now he belongs to the ages.” Edward M. Stanton

Here is the context of the title of this book, from Abraham Lincoln’s Second Inaugural Address:

“Yes, if God wills that it continue, until all the wealth piled by the bond-man two hundred and fifty years of unrequited toil shall be sunk, and until every drop of blood drawn with the lash shall be paid by another drawn with the sword, as was said three thousand years ago, so still it must be said ‘the judgments of the Lord are true and righteous altogether.'”

In the Prologue, Edward Achorn shares the best description of Abraham Lincoln while president that I have as yet encountered, provided by British journalist Edward Dicey (in 1862). It is found on Page xxvi and begins, “Fancy a man six-foot [-four] high, and thin [begin italics] out of [end italics] proportion, with long bony arms and legs, which, somehow, seems to be always in the way; with great rugged furrowed hands, which grasp you like a vise when shaking yours; with a long scraggy neck, and a chest too narrow for the great arms hanging by its side” and concludes, Lincoln had “air of strength, physical as well as moral, and a strange look of dignity coupled with all this grotesqueness; and you will have the impression left upon me by Abraham Lincoln.”

Achorn focuses primarily on a brief period of time extending from Lincoln’s re-election and second inauguration through events following his assassination. He creates for his reader full access to various realms of the nation’s capitol (especially the White House) as well as several battlefields where Union forces were systematically eliminating resistance to what was by then an obvious victory. Major figures of special significance include Lincoln, Grant, Davis, and Lee, of course, as well as a few I did not expect (such as Walt Whitman) or know anything about previously (such as Selden Connor). Like all other great historians, Achorn is a master raconteur.

Here are a few brief excerpts that suggest the thrust and flavor of Achorn’s style:

o “Booth had watched in horror as Lincoln sent his armies of invasion against Southern people who wanted only to live apart from the North in peace, with their institution of slavery protected and nurtured. He saw a despotic president prosecuting the conflict with increasing brutality, u leashing the hellish terror of Sherman’s forces on helpless women, children and the aged in Georgia and South Carolina, waging an inhuman war of attrition in Virginia, jailing thousands of citizens without trial, attacking free speech, and bringing contempt on America and its sacred emblem — the red, white, and blue…The man who had wrought these disasters was to be sworn in on March 4 — to what Booth was certain would be another four years of despoiling the flag, destroying American ideals, and trying to make blacks the equals of whites. Lincoln had to be stopped.” (Page 19)

“Grant had fully grasped Lincoln’s war aims — to extinguish the Confederacy’s capacity to fight. This war…was about killing Confederate soldiers as quickly as possible, destroying the South’s farms and factories, and forcing the rebels to quit. The hideous math guiding Lincoln and Grant was irrefutable: the South was far less capable than the North of feeding fresh young men into the lines to replace those who had been slaughtered.” (Pages 53-54)

o “This big, hairy, rambunctious buffalo of a man had worked on and off as a journalist, mainly in Brooklyn. He had become notorious in literary circles, though, as author of Leaves of Grass, a wildly original volume of poems that had shocked and appalled large numbers of his readers. This day [March 4, 1865], he was covering Lincoln’s inauguration as a special correspondent for The New York Times. Readers knew name so well that the newspaper had accorded him the rare journalistic distinction of a byline: ‘Walt Whitman.'” (Pages 58 and 59)

o “Lincoln’s hard life had left him with thick scar tissue over his psychic wounds, an expectation of disappointment, given the long futility of his struggle to shine in a world that seemed to be against him, and an unflinchingly pragmatic view l o;./;////////////////n  an natured. Butt had also prepared him peculiary well to wage increasingly brutal warfare in te face of constant heartache nd nerve-wracking setbacks, issuing orders that inevitably led to immense death and misery, all the time knowing his failure would lead to the country’s annihilation and earn him the condemnation And ridicule of history.” (Page 84)

o “The presidential secretaries John Nicolay and John Hay confirmed that ‘his mail. was infested with brutal and vulgar menace, mostly anonymous, the proper expression of vile and cowardly minds.” The president acknowledged that he constantly received death threats. “Lincoln simply stuck them into a pigeonhole in his desk. ‘In that place I have filed eighty just such things as these. I  know I am in danger; but I am not going to worry over threats like these.’

“Lincoln’s indifference to it all no doubt contributed to his weak security. For much of the war, people could simply walk into the White House, virtually at will, sometimes getting all the way to his personal secretary’s office without being stopped.” (Page 161)

o “Installed in the massive mock-Greek temple was a nineteen-foot-high statue of Abraham Lincoln — powerful, solid, enthroned — in stern contemplation staring out at the unknown masses to come…Inside the massive white building, engraved on walls to the left and the right, behind pillars that seem to set them off as mini-temples of their own, were two short speeches of Abraham Lincoln, the Gettysburg Address and the second inaugural address. Derided by many in their time as grotesque expressions of a rude country lawyer’s peculiar sensibility, they have been lifted forever to the realm of American scripture.” (Page 296)

No brief commentary such as mine can possibly do full justice to the abundance of valuable information and insights that Edward Achorn provides. However, I hope I have at least indicated why I think so highly of him and his work. This book is a “magic carpet” that transports a reader to one of the most interesting and, yes, most disruptive periods in U.S. history. The Union was preserved but the one person who could have unified the nation was denied that sacred duty. He prayed for “a just and lasting peace, among ourselves, and with all nations.” Especially now, pursuing that elusive objective remains a work in progress.

I also highly recommend Jonathan Horn’s Washington’s End: The Final Years and Forgotten Struggle. The more we learn about the greatest leaders throughout history, the more human they become…and the more remarkable their achievements seem to be.