Summary Of Team Of Rivals By Doris Kearns Goodwin

Team of Rivals is a book written by Doris Kearns Goodwin, a renowned American historian. Her book is more than a biography about Lincoln; as suggested by the title, the book is also about the combined efforts of the members of Abraham Lincoln’s Cabinet from 1861 to 1865. The book follows the Secretary of State, William H. Seward, the Secretary of the Treasury, Salmon P. Chase, and the Attorney General, Edward Bates. The book focuses on Lincoln’s life, both public and private.

Seward was the Governor of New York, and more importantly, a Senator during this time. He bounced around from party to party. He was in the Anti-Masonic Party, the Whig Party, and lastly, the Republican Party. Although he and Lincoln had some political differences, he

Chase, however, was strongly against Lincoln. As well as being the Secretary of the Treasury under Lincoln until his resignation in 1864, he was also a Senator, jurist, and the Governor of Ohio. In addition, he was the sixth Chief Justice of the United States. He became the Father of the Free Soil Party, an abolitionist party. Chase was also a member of the Liberty Party, the Republican Party, and eventually, the Democratic Party. After his move to Cincinnati, he developed a reputation as an abolitionist lawyer. In his home life, he had married three wives, all whom had died very young. He had two daughters, the oldest of which was Kate and had stayed home to help Chase with his

In the first chapter, it is learned that he met Mary Todd at a dance and they soon fell in love. They married, and Lincoln continued his career in law in Springfield, Illinois. In his childhood, he lived in a log cabin with his father, a farmer. He would often send his son off to do tedious and back-breaking farm work in order for his own monetary gain. On one occasion, his father had left for months at a time to seek a wife to take care of the children. He came back and saw that his daughter had died. Lincoln always resented his father for those events.

He ran for the presidential election not expecting to win. In fact, the book opens with the anticipation of waiting to hear who would be the next president. The first few chapters don’t reveal the answer, which keeps the reader reading as a cliffhanger even though what happens next is obvious. One of his advisors says that if “We can’t make you the first choice, we’ll be sure to make you the second” (Goodwin