The Valley Pincers: Abraham Lincoln’s Campaign to Entrap Stonewall Jackson in the Shenandoah
On May 23, 1862, Confederate Major...
The Frederick Dragnet: Allan Pinkerton, the Union High Command, and the September 1861 Detention of Maryland’s Legislators
In the anxious months following the...
Snooping in Mobtown: David S. Bookstaver, Secret Cabals, and the Baltimore Assassination Plot of 1861
By February 1861, as President-elect Abraham...
Particular Feelings and Scruples: William Herndon, Zebina Eastman, and the Abolitionist Investigation of Abraham Lincoln
In the winter of 1854, the...
The Silent City: Abraham Lincoln, Elihu B. Washburne, and the December 1854 Mission to Probe Chicago’s Sentiments
In the late fall of 1854,...
Shadows over the Land Office: The Clandestine Suppression of Lincoln’s Endorsements and the Ewing Investigation
The battle for federal patronage during...
Shadows on the Prairie: The Illinois State Register’s Crusade Against the Secret Deliberations of the Whig Junto
During the early 1840s, the political...
Benjamin Harrison, the Billion-Dollar Congress, and the Activist Executive
In The Education of Henry Adams,...
Chester A. Arthur, the Spoils System, and the Redemption of the Machine
To understand the modern wars over...
James A. Garfield, the Spoils System, and the Lethal Cost of Institutional Hubris
To understand the most alarming vulnerabilities...