Washington Brotherhood: Politics, Social Life, and the Coming of the Civil War
By Rachel A. Shelden, University of North Carolina Press, 2014, $34.95
This is a charming, superbly crafted examination of Washington, D.C., during the years when the slavery issue rose to prominence in American politics and then tore the country apart. Contrary to the popular image of a capital in which rigid allegiances to party and section created a hotbed of tension and conflict, Rachel Shelden makes a persuasive case that comity, rather than conflict, was the distinguishing characteristic of how the men who served in Washington interacted with each other. It was not, she argues, a “blundering generation” of Washington politicians, but the rest of the country that provided the destructive impulses that tore apart the union.
Shelden’s research effort is impressive. She devotes each chapter to a key event in the emerging sectional conflict and uses that event as the touchstone to examine how Washington officials lived and worked. Even as the slavery issue moved to the center of debate in a turbulent political environment, men like William Seward, Stephen Douglas and Howell Cobb forged warm personal relationships that crossed party and sectional lines. Shelden makes a pretty good case that it was almost impossible for anyone to function in the capital without engaging socially with politicians from other parties and sections.
This study will not only appeal to students of 19th-century America and the sectional conflict, but also to those dismayed by the tone of modern political discourse—for it provides a compelling illustration of the adage that people can disagree without being disagreeable.
Originally published in the September 2014 issue of America’s Civil War. To subscribe, click here.
