Nichola D. Gutgold

Through his extraordinary gift of speech and interpersonal communication, Abraham Lincoln went from being a little known one-term congressman and rural lawyer to one of the most important Presidents in American history. Doris Kearns Goodwin reveals his ability to best three better-born, better-educated rivals, each of whom had challenged Lincoln for the 1860 Republican nomination. The three were New York senator William H. Seward, who became secretary of state; Ohio senator Salmon P. Chase, who signed on as secretary of the treasury and later was nominated by Lincoln to be chief justice of the Supreme Court; and Missouri's "distinguished elder statesman" Edward Bates, who served as attorney general. Lincoln, who is mostly described as "melancholy" came alive through his vivid oratory, a major factor in shaping his success.