Abraham Lincoln and Men of War-Times: Some Personal Recollections of War and Politics during the Lincoln Administration

by Alexander K. McClure, James A. Rawley (Introduction)

An associate of Abraham Lincoln offers an intimate view of the president’s relations with military men and top politicians, placing particular emphasis on the election campaigns of 1860 and 1864. A. K. McClure, a Republican powerbroker and later editor of the Philadelphia Times, reveals how Lincoln replaced Vice President Hannibal Hamlin with the southern Democrat Andrew Johnson on the 1864 ticket. According to McClure, Lincoln kept his hand hidden in order not to offend Hamlin and his New England supporters. In 1892, the publication of Abraham Lincoln and Men of War-Times caused an angry exchange of letters (included in this edition) between McClure and the late president’s secretary, John G. Nicolay. For all his nobility, Lincoln was a shrewd and cautious politician, running scared for reelection until major Union army victories in September 1864. McClure writes candidly about William T. Sherman, Ulysses S. Grant, and George B. McClellan. Among the politicians discussed are Lincoln’s predecessor, James Buchanan, who fixed the Southern policy that Lincoln followed until war came; Salmon P. Chase, the annoyingly ambitious secretary of the treasury; Edwin M. Stanton, the moody secretary of war; and Thaddeus Stevens, the ferocious congressman whose relations with Lincoln were uneasy at best.

496 pages, Paperback

First published October 28, 1996

About the author

Alexander Kelly McClure. Sometimes noted as A. K. McClure.

Co-founder and editor 1873-1901 of the Philadelphia Times.

Reviews

[David Bird · Rating 3 out of 5]

I found this interesting as a 19th century artifact, and clearly the source for many 20th and 21st century works. For example, he quotes Lincoln as saying of Grant, “I can’t spare this man—he fights,” which is often cited (I am curious now to know whether this is A source, or THE source, of this line).

McClure was a state-level political figure and editor in Pennsylvania, and as this was written after many of the principals it discusses were dead, it is hard to know how much weight to give his claims of proximity to Lincoln or other figures. In this regard this book is a very different sort of source from George Templeton Strong.

McClure also wrote a collection called ‘Lincoln’s Yarns & Stories, A Complete Collection…,’ a book I inherited, in which he regularly refers to himself in the third person as a good friend of Lincoln. Here, he is more subtle, making the more reasonable assertion that Lincoln was known familiarly by many, intimately by few, and with true depth by none. McClure carefully positions himself on the border between familiar and intimate, with numerous stories of one-on-one, late-night sessions at the White House.

The work includes both narratives of key periods where McClure overlapped with Lincoln, and McClure’s assessment of Lincoln’s relations with key figures. In this catalog are included Hanibal Hamlin, Simon Cameron, and Andrew Curtin, whose importance was more clear to McClure than posterity. His final chapter is on Horace Greeley, and his warmth and loyalty toward that figure made me reconsider much of the earlier material: a late, but significant, tell. McClure’s stories must all be seen through the reconciliationist lens.

The edition I got was published in 1961, and has a few Lost-Cause-ish elements, both in the editor’s comments, and in the rather strange cover illustration that has Lincoln’s portrait surrounded by sketches not only of Stanton and Chase, but R E Lee (who is only passingly mentioned), and a bearded figure who might be meant to be Stonewall Jackson. At least there is some attempt at a likeness of Curtin.

[Dick · Rating 3 out of 5]

Another old book - published in 1892 - read so long ago, that I have now forgotten how good or bad it was.