Review - " Lincoln and California: The President, the War, and the Golden State " by Brian McGinty

[Lincoln and California: The President, the War, and the Golden State by Brian McGinty (Potomac Books, 2023). Hardcover, photos, illustrations, chronology, notes, bibliography, index. Pages main/total:xviii,185/264. ISBN:978-1-64012-606-0. $34.95]

Given that Abraham Lincoln was a westerner himself and the first president from a new political party dedicated in large part to halting the introduction of slavery to the emerging states and territories of the Great Plains, Mountain West, Far West, and Desert Southwest regions of the country, it should come as no great surprise that he developed a deep interest in California's affairs. Indeed, a range of intertwining connections between president and state, both personal and political, are the focus of Brian McGinty's latest book Lincoln and California: The President, the War, and the Golden State.

Lincoln never visited California, but, of course, many of his associates and other contemporaries did emigrate there for the opportunities the new state offered in the areas of economic advancement and realization of political aspirations. The book highlights a number of friends, acquaintances, and like-minded individuals who helped Lincoln become president and expand fledgling Republican party influence and power in the American West. Many of those men also supported the administration's war aims throughout the conflict along with the president re-election in 1864. A common thread in the book is Lincoln's mutually beneficial personal friendship with Edward Baker, who, although he would be a U.S. Senator from Oregon, did much to promote the Union cause and Lincoln himself in California. Baker's battlefield death in 1862 was a heavy blow to Lincoln. As another example, an entire chapter demonstrates how the steady stream of wartime dispatches from journalist Noah Brooks, the Washington correspondent for the influential Sacramento Daily Union, buttressed the Union cause in California by effectively raising awareness of vital national issues and persuasively promoting Lincoln, Republican policies, and the war itself. McGinty also recounts Lincoln's utilization of his presidential power to appoint ideologically aligned federal judges. More generally, Lincoln's patronage appointments were used to gain the loyalty and trust of leading citizens and essentially reshape the political landscape of California (which was heavily Democratic prior to Lincoln's presidency).

McGinty clearly shows that Lincoln, though consumed by running the war effort closer to home, still kept his ear to the ground when it came to California issues that needed to be addressed at the executive level. He eagerly signed a bill introduced by California ally John Conness that offered permanent protection to the Yosemite Valley and involved his administration in land grant matters. Lincoln clearly recognized the economic importance of California's extractable mineral wealth and intervened in land and rights disputes that he felt vital to the country's interests.

The text also offers readers a solid general appreciation of California's substantial contributions to winning the Civil War. The state's gold mines and mineral processing played a major part in financing the conflict with the Confederate South. Additionally, California's Union Army volunteers shielded those critical activities and kept potential native and pro-Confederate uprisings in check. While the book duly notes the role of the famed "California Column" in repelling Confederate incursions in the Desert Southwest and permanently securing U.S. interests there, more emphasis could have been placed on the full scale of the protective mantle assumed by the state's volunteer regiments. In the U.S. Army's absence during the Civil War years, California regiments were parceled out to key posts in the Pacific Northwest and Mountain West, and they conducted offensive operations against tribal enemies deemed most dangerous to settlers, overland communications, and burgeoning emigrant trails.

While McGinty's presentation is largely celebratory, issues surrounding Indian policy and Lincoln's historical place in it do give the author significant pause. Opinions expressed in the literature vary, but it might be fair to conclude that McGinty's views on the matter are largely compatible with those summarized most recently by Michael Green in the latter's 2021 book Lincoln and Native Americans. Ultimately, we can all agree that we'll never know whether Lincoln, with a second term (if he had lived to fulfill it) undoubtedly consumed with Reconstruction issues and concerns, would have followed through with his solemn promise to profoundly reform the government's involvement in Indian affairs.

McGinty ends the book with a concise survey of Lincoln remembrance in the state, which included statuary, attachment of Lincoln's name to public institutions, and the creation of the impressive Lincoln Memorial Shrine in Redlands. The other end of the spectrum is addressed with brief mention of recent (2018 and beyond) misguided iconoclastic upswells that the author rates as satisfactorily met and defeated.

Written in a style appealing to popular audiences while also possessing the full trappings of modern historical scholarship, Brian McGinty's informative survey of the many Civil War-era connections between the Golden State and the nation's 16th president effectively combines content and approachability. Along the way, Lincoln and California also appropriately highlights more generally the state's significant contributions to Union victory.