Lincoln and the Democrats

Lincoln and the Democrats describes the vexatious behavior of a two-party system in war and points to the sound parts of the American system which proved to be the country''s salvation: local civic pride and quiet nonpartisanship in mobilization and funding for the war for example. While revealing that the role of a noxious ''white supremacy'' in American politics of the period has been exaggerated - as has the power of the Copperheads - Neely revives the claim that the Civil War put the country on the road to ''human rights'' and also uncovers a previously unnoticed tendency toward deceptive and impractical grandstanding on the Constitution during war in the United States.