Five years ago, the Lincoln Forum established an annual book prize recently named in honor of our distinguished chairman with cash award of 1,000 to honor outstanding scholarship on the life and career of our nations 16th president. Published the year preceding the of this award. Previous winners of the book prize include sidney blumenthal, james oakes, ted widmer and. Roger lowenstein. On behalf of my colleagues on the book prize jury, michele crowe, kristen mcwherter and daniel weinberg, it my honor and pleasure to announce the 2023 howard holter or lincoln book prize winner edward acorn for his the lincoln miracle inside the Republican Convention, the changed history. Not yet. Acorn presents a brilliantly written, riveting account of the 1860 Republican Convention that was held in chicago during summer of that year. He recounts in comprehensive how Abraham Lincoln the darkest, dark, stunned the political pundits of the time by defeating William Seward of new york. Considered by most observers as overwhelming favorite for the republican nomination for president. Acorns page. Turner. I must admit, i could not put this book down even i knew how it would end places the in the cigar smoke filled hotel rooms of party movers and shakers and on the raucous convention floor, introducing us to lincolns rivals, and especially his convention managers who worked the key state delegations and made the essential deals to achieve lincolns nomination. The 1860 Republican Convention, one of the most important, if not the most important in our nations history. And it acorn has given us the the convention deserves before i call it to the stage i want to tell you a little about our book prize winner ed, a resident of rehoboth, massachusetts, is a Pulitzer Prize for commentary and winner of the yankee quill award and the author of the highly praised every drop of the momentous second inaugural ocean of, Abraham Lincoln. Also available, i believe, in the bookstore along with the lincoln miracle. He also has written truly widely acclaimed books about 19th century baseball. And is something i didnt know until we chatted. American baseball and American Culture titled entitled 59 and 84. And the of beer and whiskey. I to read that one so please eddie cohen. Wow. Thank you so much. How much of an honor is it to receive an award with the name of harold sir on it . Ive turned to his books for insight into inspiration for decades now. And i never honestly imagined a moment like this would come. So thank you to the forum. And to him. I also want to thank my wife, valerie, who is here today. Shes the one to whom the book is dedicated. Lincoln like to read aloud. Finding that sense inside combined to make his writing clearer and better. And he pretty much drove his law partner, billy herndon, crazy with that. But valerie seemed, to take it. Well, when i read each chapter of, this book to her and i, i was on the right track when, she said, i cant wait to hear what happens next. So. So to and all the lincoln aficionados and scholars here who have been so welcoming and kind to me thank you from the bottom my heart. Now, ill talk a little bit about this book. It was tom. Tom just mentioned. I spent some time in journalism. I actually 41 years in journalism writing every day pretty much about politics. And thats an interesting word, politic thats from two words, polly meaning many and ticks meaning bloodsucking parasites. So but. So that was a good experience for history. Little more about my background. I started off with 19th century history with another side of American Culture, which is the great game of baseball. 59 and 84 was out the grittiest competitors. Hall of famer hosourn who won more games in a single season than any pitcher in history. And that was something managers players regarded as the greatest feat in baseball history well into the 20th century. He was quite a character, a relative contended radbourne drank a quart of whiskey a day during the height of his career, and he was so ornery. He dressed in the other clubs locker because he couldnt stand his teammates when. And he was apparently the first man ever photographed giving the middle finger. And you might notice what hes doin his left hand there on the cover o book. My second book was the summer of beer and whiskey about this crazy the early major league, the American Association and how immigrants actually saved the game when it was going under. And that book is still selling well. I think the title didnt hurt, but of course, anyone who wants to write about the most remarkable figure of the 19th century has to drawn to Abraham Lincoln. Its been my extraordinary privilege in recent to have spent day and night in the company of lincoln, immersed his world and his oervations. I was trained as an Old Fashioned journalist to search earnestly the other side, and i have seriously spent a great deal of time investigating the evidence. He was a tyrant and a white supremacist. But i found that no matter relentlessly, i focused on flaws and errors. This mans humanity, integrity, pragmatism and courage shine through. Theres a good reason all of us are here to to honor man. Lincoln told a story about meeting a woman on horseback in the woods. He waited for her to pass, but instead she scrutinized them carefully before saying, well, for lands sake, you were the holiest man i ever saw. Yes, madam, but i cant help it, he replied. No, i suppose not. But might have stayed at home. Well, i can relate to that as someone whos was in daily journalism rather academia. Ive often felt something of an interloper in the of lincoln scholarship. I might have stayed at home to at last count. There have been something, 19,000 books about Abraham Lincoln published, and thats more than other human being, than jesus christ. And across street from fords theater in washington, we must have seen it. Many people must here must have seen it across the street from. Fords theater in washington is a tower of just some of those books glued together. And they sort of to the heavens. And i admit that was daunting to me. What made me with my 2020 book every drop of blood was my feeling that there was a story about lincoln that had never been told in this way. The story is basically 24 hours in Abraham Lincolns life from the evening of march. 1865, through his second inauguration to the of march 4th, 1865. And this is the lens through which i think we can see in remarkably sharp detail the monstrous unleashed by the civil war. And to grasp the ultimate meaning of that war as lincoln. That meaning in, i believe, is his greatest and most profound speech. The second inaugural. I was struck by the very famous people who kept popping in and out of the story on that day interacting with and with each other, interwove woven like a rich tapestry. The great black leader, frederick douglass, who watched lincoln deliver his speech and later discussed it him at a white house reception. The popular actor john wies booth, who evidently stalked lincoln at the inauguratio the Great American poet walt whitman, who was covering the inauguration forhe new york times, the angel of the battlefield, clara barton, who spent that week trying to meet lincoln and finally greeted him at the reception. And, of course, there was the Vice President elect, andrew johnson, who showed up at the inauguration embarrassingly drunk. And the perception of these very different people provide a powerful and moving view of what that war was about and what lincoln was up against on that rainy, muddy day in washington. And i tried to weave those all into the story. At the center of it all. Of course is abrahamln, who can be seen standing in the middle. This crowd reading h speech just about above the table, a glass of water on it. He did something that day, as i mentioned, that no other no other politician would. On the cusp of victory after, four years of a brutal device of an widely despised war. He declined to make a speech about the unions triumph. Instead argued that both sides had been wrong and that the misery that both had shared might have been the price required for ending terrible moral wrong of slavery. Lincoln argued that it time for americans to stop thinking about selfrighteousness the only way forward. He argued, was to recognize that all had been wrong, to sacrifice, face hatred and vengeance and treat other with mercy, with toward none, with charity, for all. I think that a very narrow focus on a historical event can give us an understanding that usual omniscient view, historical view cannot. It brings us very close to. The ground instead of 30,000 feet up and studied in the course of one day or a short period. Historical figures, almost magic, leigh, become flesh and blood. Real human beings subject to emotions and other vicissitudes, including the politics of moment. It becomes clearer they were groping in the dark and they had no idea how things would turn out. Just like us. With this forced perspective, we also get a stronger sense of everything. Looked, sounded and, smelled. I this approach which some call micro history. In my new book, the lincoln miracle. In that book we go back five years before the inauguration and to the week in chicago in may 1860. At that time, many northerners were fed with the political bullying corruption and censorship of the democrats. Since democrat split between north and south and were unable to choose a candidate at their convention in charleston just days earlier, republicans who gathered in chicago knew they had a very real chance to nominate the next president of the United States and the political struggles that took place that week. I do believe, constituted a miracle for lincoln and for the United States. Lincoln went in as the dark ist of dark horses. After all he had, he had lost two elections for the u. S. Senate and had not Held Public Office for more than a decade. In illinois, said of him, lincoln is undoubtedly the most unfortunate politician that has ever attempted to in illinois, in everything he undertakes. Politically, he seems doomed to. Failure. He has been prostrated in his political schemes to crushed the life of any ordinary man. Lincoln had almost no formal education in this country. Mannerisms struck many people as quaint at best. He he told dirty jokes. His executive experience was pretty much limited to running a two man law office. Lincoln himself had told people did not think himself fit for the presidency, and two years earlier he had declared, with a roaring laughter. Just think of such a sucker as me as president in early 1860, when he visited new york city. He struck many people as crude. He had troubled deciphering a menu with with many items in french until a waiter mentioned beans. Lincolns face brightened and he said, hold on there. Bring beans. I know beans. In fact, lincolns chances seem so remote that the of the Republican NationalCommittee Approved chicago as the convention site, in part because they thought it was neutral ground. No serious candidate from illinois. Thidat candidates in those daydid not show up at the convention. And lincoln was such a long that he contemplated attending. He told a friend. He felt like he was too much of a candidate to go with. Not quite enough to stay at home. In the end, he wisely stayed back in springfield, the begins on saturday, may 1860. On morning david dav, 45, left his in bloomington, illinoian took the 140 mile train trip up to chicago. Go. There he discovered that no one was in charge and the lincoln was so disorganized that nobody had even booked a room to serve as its headquarters. Davis more than 250 pounds judge would come to lincoln intimately while the eighth judicial circuit with immediately took over as manager without any official appointment. He bribed a family to leave its rooms, got to lincoln headquarters, sign up on the door and barely slept. The next six days. In this lithograph of the candidates that same day, harpers weekly played lincoln on the bottom withhe ao rans. Its written description of lincoln was dead last among all the candidates at best. People were talking about lincoln as a possible Vice President ial. Cummins. Cummins coming as he did from the crucial swing state front and center with the biggest picture and first and longest write up was the superstar of the republican party. The former governor, new york and current u. S. Senator William Seward. Seward was regarded as the founder and father of the republic and party, a bold opponent, slavery and defender of the rights of. And he was managed a brilliant political strategist named thurlow wheat, who who could make or break senators and president s. He had more money behind him than any candidate. Seward had traveled to europe. Several months before the convention where he kept his preparation for the presidency by meeting with world leaders, including Queen Victoria pope pius the ninth and Frances Emperor the third. When returned, he was mobbed by americans who wanted him to be the next president. He was far and away the most candidate with the delegates gathering in chicago. But his strength was the sept of this man as the radical abolitionist john brown. Prio october, he had raided a federal armory and planned to prove slaves guns for a violent insurrection against whites. While brown was apprehended in hang the infuriated the south terrified many voters in the north. Many thought all the slavery talk was putting impossible pressures on the political system and to break the nation and to ignite a bloody civil war. And nobody was more famous for antislavery rhetoric than William Seward. The lincoln had made many of the same points against slavery. He was far less known as a swing voters and thus not as threatening. On top of that, seward had supported immigrants and was close to catholic leaders, something that turned off a sizable portion of the republicans base who feared a Mass Immigration was helping democrats steal and destroying america from within. Former members of the American Party called the know Nothing Party might well bolt from the republican. If they nominated seward lincolns position on immigrants, meanwhile, was solid, well known that some people assumed was a no nothing. In truth, lincoln despised the movement and liked to tell a story about a man who helped him with his gardening. An irish immigrant named Patrick Lincoln asked pat why he not been born in america. Fate, mr. Lincoln. He said, i wanted to be, but my mother wouldnt let me. One of the most striking things that quickly became clear in my research was that these men gathered in chicago were not choosing a candidate on the basis of who might make the best president in a national crisis. Their biggest concern by far was who would get the most republicans elected, which meant power, jobs and money. The pro Lincoln Chicago press and tribune appealed to this naked selfinterest in an editorial aimed at arriving delegates, quote, constables are worth more than president s in the long run as a means of Holding Political power. The legisla nature is of vastly more consequence to particular states than their delegation is in congress. We look to mr. Lincoln to toe constables, General Assembly members into power. The gods help those who help themselves and. Lincolns men repeated. Lee made that case that week. There was Something Else going on for, lincoln, that wasnt immediately apparent in the national press, though he was obscure and had been defeated repeatedly in the political realm. He was wellknown and wellliked in illinois during his years working the eighth District Court circuit in central illinois. He had been going to small towns and making friends with his funniest and his fairness, his kindness and his intelligence. As a result, david davis could oversee a team of diehard hard supporters ready to work themselves close to exhaustion in for him in chicago. And they could afford to do that because convention was taking place in. State and that kind of personal loyalty made all the difference. Now, early in convention, the chief alternative to seward seemed to be this man. A missouri judge named edward bates, a conservative who did not like all this agitation about slavery. His argued he would calm the south and negate all threats of secession. And he had the backing of some powerful, including the most influential newspaper editor in the country horace greeley. Unfortunately for bates, german immigrants were dead set against him because he had with the no Nothing Party. Prominent germans went so far as to hold their own national in chicago. That same just down the road from the republican one which sent a terrifying to the delegates. German made up only a small percentage of the republican vote, but they were enough to sway elections in many northern. The delegates did dare go with bates, and i call this book the lincoln miracle because so many things beyond lincolns control had to slot into place perfectly to advance him a little bit about chicago in 1860. It a powerful symbol of the american of daring and inon just 25 years earlr, it had been a s cluster of primitive cabins around Fort Dearborn on the swampy banks of the Chicago River. But its Central Location turned it overnight into a roaring transportation hub. And by 1860, its population had soared to 112,000, making it nations ninth largest city. Its skyline was dominated by giant grain elevators, and it was already connected by more rail lines than any city on the globe. Unfortunate lately, that explosive growth left it overrun by and plagued by disease. In