Apostle of Union
Subtitle: a political biography of Edward Everett
By: Matthew Mason
Series: Civil War America; Civil War America (Series)
Publisher: The University of North Carolina Press
Published: 2016
Language: eng
Number of pages: 434
ISBN-13: 9781469628608; 9781469628615
Copyright date: 2016
Subjects: Politics and government; United States; United States. Congress; Legislators; Governors; History; Biography; Statesmen
Description: Known today as "the other speaker at Gettysburg," Edward Everett had a distinguished and illustrative career at every level of American politics from the 1820s through the Civil War. In this new biography, Matthew Mason argues that Everett's extraordinarily well-documented career reveals a complex man whose shifting political opinions, especially on the topic of slavery, illuminate the nuances of Northern Unionism. In the case of Everett--who once pledged to march south to aid slaveholders in putting down slave insurrections--Mason explores just how complex the question of slavery was for most Northerners, who considered slavery within a larger context of competing priorities that alternately furthered or hindered antislavery actions. By charting Everett's changing stance toward slavery over time, Mason sheds new light on antebellum conservative politics, the complexities of slavery and its related issues for reform-minded Americans, and the ways in which secession turned into civil war. As Mason demonstrates, Everett's political and cultural efforts to preserve the Union, and the response to his work from citizens and politicians, help us see the coming of the Civil War as a three-sided, not just two-sided, contest. -- Inside jacket flap.
Notes: Includes bibliographical references (pages 327-425) and index.
Table of contents: title: Scholar, preacher, and paper warrior; title: The House: doughface; title: The House: Whig nationalist; title: The governor and the abolitionists; title: Good cop: minister to Great Britain; title: Harvard president and semi-private citizen; title: Shooting star in Washington: secretary of state and senator; title: Saving Mount Vernon; title: Last ditches: Union meetings, the election of 1860, and the secession crisis; title: Civil warrior.