Of a review that i can hope to receive in a few months. I want to thank everyone here just anmade my stay absolute delight. It is my first time on the stage. If i appear a little nervous, i really am. This is a real stage. [laughter] and it is not just any stage. I want to thank the staff and michelle and the board for inviting me. Absolutely delighted to be here. I can take a probably the least lincoln scholar here given the illustrious crew you have assembled and the people who are part of your institute. I am not halfs, of professor harriss age, but im certainly envious of his productivity. I confess, too, that bob was going to bring out the book to hold up, but he confessed he would drop it which is a testament to the fact that i come from the Michael Burlingame school of writing history. A shout out to michael who i have read for many years and many of the scholars here today i have read all of your works and just a great fan and are their works. A tremendous pleasure to be here. [indiscernible] thank you. Thank you, michael. Its interesting. This project had its origins in germany in 1996. Ahad a conversation with professor visiting as a scholar and we became great friends over the couple weeks he was there and he and i talked a lot about civil war and reconstruction. He was there doing a paper on a war. For the road to total he was with a number of scholars. And i would like to talk about what he called federal history. Oldfashioned federal history. No one was doing oldfashioned federal history, and now i know why. I begin this project in 1996 and it has taken me almost 20 years to bring to the light of day what has been a labor of love for more than two decades. One of the things that i thought i needed to do to acquaint myself with federal history was not only visit all of the statehouses and read all of the of thers letter books governors of 23 Northern States, but i came to recognize that statehouses and state governors were caused was between the national and the local. Threedecided to read newspapers for every one of those 23 Northern States for every day of the war. Through that i am asked several hundred pages of testimony about how central the statehouse became during the american civil war. Began to reflect on putting pen to paper, i kept coming up with the same theme, saying opening scenes for what is a continuing work in progress, our democratic ideal and our selfgovernment. So, imagine this scene in april 1861. Its april 17. It is wednesday. William vancouver is an iowa state congressman who receives a telegram in davenport, iowa from Abraham Lincoln, asking for men to be put into federal service. The governor of the state is sam kirkwood. He is a republican. He is on his farm in iowa city. Because there is no telegraph service between these towns, vandiver decides to ride on horseback to tell the governor the news. He finds governor kirkwood in his overalls, his boots, rake in hand, tending his stocks. Kirkwood reads the dispatch, looks at vancouver, and responded you mean the president was a whole regiment of men . Do you suppose i can raise that many . How many are in iowa . [laughter] first, the governor had no idea how big his population was and he had no the size of a regiment. After all, more than 70,000 iowans would serve in the civil war. The means by which kirkwood would receive the call was not typical, it revealed the the nation,ss of and gave me the title for the gathering to save a nation. Historians grapple over how and north restored the union. It provides a model of how fragile the union was in the 19th century. It inspired loyal political leaders to demonstrate that states had more rights in the union than outside of the union. This revelation motivated loyal state leaders to unite in the hopes of vindicating democracy. The ensuing war ironically forced a powerful nationstate alliance that produced a Northern StateArmy Powerful enough to defeat the confederates. Scholars have expanded investigations to include the character of governors, northern and southerners, as contributors to the factors of this victory. The unions defense of 1861 revealed intense nationalist dealings, but marshaling the resources required extraordinary coordination between nation and state. Organized, itey rested on the partnership between Abraham Lincoln and his loyal state governors. Thehaped to the ways that should federal power in pursuit of union. It was a new nation that lincoln referred to at gettysburg. Thehe 150 years since conflict, only lincoln and the war governors has been preserved as a seminal work on this important relationship. Lincoln as a master manipulator of Public Opinion and political opinion and conflicts with governors over mobilization. He argued that the president was , doing what was needed despite the governors. The victory of nationalism over over states rights was, in the last analysis, the victory of keener intellect over men of lesser minds. As much as scholars credit lincoln with engineering victory, he also benefited from governors selective efforts. Hardly did he regard his chief executives as men of lesser minds or dismiss them as spectators watching the were watching the war unfold from state capitals. Quite the contrary. Loyal governors demonstrated considerable influence by collaborating with the president , partnering with him to mobilize for war, and at times, pushing him toward Greater National efforts. Governors experience the same that lincolnwer experienced during the war. Governors Held Extraordinary power in wartime. The partnership between lincoln was maintained most rheumatic in the area of national mobilization. Lincoln understood their importance far better than the rider allowed. Yes, they had disagreements, but lincoln was not trying to ruinower them politically, their prestige, or dominate their state affairs. Rather, he regarded these as essential parts of the whole, as essential fors of the whole maintaining democracy and selfgovernance. Without the willingness of local governors who agreed independently to marshall state resources and cooperate in establishing and national army, lincoln would have been hardpressed to preserve the union. Harris takes this up lincoln and the republican governors. Respects their Constitutional Authority and worked with them to maintain a unified war effort. He emphasizes the junta fusion is that lincoln he rep he emphasizes the contribution of the governors in the war. On a practical level, this took shape as unionists mobilized for war. Effort, cooperative loyal governors exercised important powers. Citizens looked to them for leadership. Their partnerships offer impressive examples of federal, state, and local cooperation that not only resulted in Union Victory they had been regionally driven as a decentralized the system. They themselves stayed within decentralized federal systems. As much as northerners accepted states rights, they rejected the promotion of state sovereignty over national sovereignty. The war in for site is the this is the war in the ability of states to express citizenship and union first, even ones that contain slavery. Governors functioned as agents of a National Coalition that activism, that emphasize the United States as a single nation. As such, preserving the union gave the appearance of nationalism. ,y answering lincolns call northerners chose to emphasize the same rights that southerners did in leaving the union. Only they used it to cooperate with lincoln. In doing so, they placed nation above state and realized and relied on the union for national authority. That was an alliance between lincoln and the governors and it reinforced the union. But it did not mean that they lessened their commitment to local government. On the contrary. They kept popular sovereignty and pitted agrarian and industrial resistance against each other. The fusion oftood state politics and nationalist state governors compromised union. Levelsl and state navigated the shoals of nationally sure in and conscription. When lincoln expanded his aims to assist governors in maintaining support for the war, it tested popular sovereigntys limits. The secretary of the navy addicted as much early in the war. The government will doubtless be stronger after the conflict is over then it has ever been, he confided to his wife, and there will be less liberty, but perhaps with greater security. State executives clung to a wide range of powers that prior to the war had existed independent of one another. Spiriting the volunteer despite jealousies and competing ambitions as well as cooperate with the national government. The governors were as worried about the expansion of National Powers as the conduct during the war. Unity was important for northerners to achieve victory. Yet they debated the nature of the union they were preserving. Governors were party spokesman, policy formulators. Yet in times of peas, they served as figureheads. Toislators delegated governors limited powers suited for the times. They had to do powers executive and administrative. They had two powers, executive and administrative. Typically, state constitutions relegated them to be commanders in chief of the state militias, granting them power to convene the legislature, create and submit touches, fill vacancies in state offices, and granted them some appointed powers. But constitutions limited their often qualifying the governors veto power and restricting oversight of elected officers. Before the war, the governors cabinets are small and included typically a lieutenant governor, and auditor of public accounts, a superintendent of approvals, and attorney general. In many regions, these were elected, rather than appointed, thus minimizing control by the governor. But with the assistance of executive secretary and one or two clerks, they supervise the matters of state government, including institutions for the insane, prisons, public schools, public works, and the office of the adjutant general. They recommended changes to improve their citizens economic and social conditions. But the exigencies of war turned them into powerful politicians and voters carefully monitored , also inendancy maintaining a balance between local and national priorities. Maintaining the armies and worked with legislatures to accommodate the changes of the war. They made advances and relied on. Gents citizens kept them accountable for their decisions. It may governments all the more answerable to the electorate. California, illinois, iowa, kansas, new york, ohio, West Virginia missed the wholes by any them. Delaware, indiana, kentucky, oregon allow their governors foryour terms. Most importantly, with their authority as commanders in chief , they were allowed to take emergency actions. But their formal powers did not equip them with the powers for leadership and they relied on to offerbetter suited assistance. Many chief executives came into office having one popularity and credibility thanks to their legal acumen or previous political service. Some were lifelong democrats. Some had been whigs. Of thewrote the tide Political Movement over kansas statehood that helped engineer the rebuttal can party. They established a sectional activity dedicated to preserving the union. With the war outbreak, they forged a stronger relationship a National Spirit that tied them to the cause. They mobilized voters and maintained alliances at home. Strongly remained republican throughout the war. The most prominent republican governors throughout the war included janet john andrew, William Buckingham of connecticut, Samuel Kirkwood of edwinedwin Morgan Morgan only two years in new israel washburn, and richard gates of illinois. The task of preserving the union also fell on local loyal democratic governors who nonetheless supported the union war effort. Thomas bramlett of kentucky, john downey of california, Jewell Parker of new jersey, david todd of ohio, whitaker of oregon. Remained loyal to support lincoln at the first and revealed the complex interplay of loyalty and locality. Governors were forced to choose between economic ties and the conservatism that associated them with small government and hostility toward fugitive slaves. Those governors with democratic in 1863 and 1864, the military situation turned in the unions favor. Still, governors suffered with intractable state legislate legislatures. Hostility led to tension as whileors struggled maintaining support at home. In short, they served as the main springs of nationalism, the represent a vast and diverse constituency that left them unprotected by washington bureaucracy. Lincoln understood this accountability. He began the struggle aiming only to bring the old union back together, and as the conflict , he marshaled forces opposite to Jefferson Davis, making the federal system work, rely on governors, encouraging their best efforts, and through them securing most of the support necessary from the state legislatures. Unusual humility, study and purposeful, a quality that Harriet Beecher stowe once described as peculiar. It is not aggressive so much as passive, she described, and it the stone buttress, but the wire cable. It yields on the side and on that to popular needs, and yet tenaciously and inflexibly bound to carry its great in. Its great and. Lincoln needed the governors and people believed the president needed them as well. There was no better example of followingin the weeks the second bull run. When northern people called on the governors to exercise their ability to influence the president , whether he needed it or not to make war. They had a hand in a hand in expanding war aims, what ever form it may take. Lincoln waited for the opportunity to act publicly to minimize political fallout. He knew many citizens were conservative when it came to racial matters, but they might thatlling to accept emancipation could weaken the confederacy. The decision weight on him, as northern governors. He stood behind his emancipation venture, but it was time to go public, he thought, with a move against the confederates and abandon a conciliatory approach. Perhaps we are doing as well as other states, one governor but itout to lincoln, nearly drives me mad when i see the American Army is running before a generation of scandal some american liberty almost prostrate. God only knows if the president will ever burst his bonds of border stages of, but the people are somehow blessed with an instinct of faith, before whom, i believe, mountains will move. Move mountains, but he yielded to rhode island governor william sprague, who suggested that new england. Overnors meet to discuss war i amote to andrew heartily sick and tired of any double policies, he declared to a war meeting in newport. No white glove handling will do this, he claimed. We must strike the enemy and his vital parts, wherever those were. [laughter] wanted to sprague stir the governors. It is time for the states to stir the federal government, he wrote andrew. We will have nothing but victories, remove incompetent and unfaithful generals, and emancipate and employ the slaves. We live with the south and slavery after all that has happened . The president should be awoke at last, he argued. To awaken the administration, he published the proceedings of a Union Meeting in that city, recommending the loyal governors to devisehe president a plan that they may be effective in rescuing the union from its current peril. The governors of the loyal states, wrote the editor, know the sentiments of the People Better than the president. Body of wise and patriotic men and might be able to point out the radical defects in the present mode of conducting the war and propose some plan giving at reasonable promise of success. If lincoln trusts the people, as occasions,ar on many then it was wise to offer them a stratagem to declare their opinions. We think it is the duty of the state executives to hold such consultations immediately. Residents sent a letter to all of the governors entitled to the governors of intentiontates. Her was to reinforce the sentiment of Horace Greeleys tribune article that appeared on august 20, entitled the prayer of 20 urged thewhich are president to liberate slaves. Yet many northerners had seen few signs of new war aims. The governorsto to take action to end slavery. Sovereignvernors of states have a right in we beseech you to enforce it, to demand of the president when he calls for men to tell you what he wants with them. We feel it is your duty to demand of him to tell and in plains which words which he intends shall live, slavery or freedom . slavery or freedom . To be sure, governors were conscious of the powers. The northern populace had come to lean on them. During the political talk of and Union Leadership found justified away for the union to preserve the union while accepting emancipation as a necessary part of the war. Consequently, the union ultimately prevailed because loyal governors stood by lincolns war aims and encouraged him to take measures necessary to win. , the United States that southerners had succumbed to have fundamentally changed from the one of years earlier. They claimed new powers and responsibilities. Slaveryionalism and gave way to governmental power. In the postwar, the struggle that characterize the new environment. Industrializations accelerated pace, activist intervention in the economy came under the watchful eyes of legislatures. Stay government shrank in the years following piece, as did the roles of governors, and the depression of the 1870s, combined with growing democratic majorities further added to state development with a hostility to government and a desire to challenge state activism. Legislatures continue to pass legislation, they soon gave way to local control. The passing year distanced war from the cause that governors wanted to find. Although a few went on to some distinguished political careers in congress, most return to obscurity, many to poverty, and faded from historical memory. The New York Times wrote that one governors depart