Booknotes: Holding the Political Center in Illinois

New Arrival:

• Holding the Political Center in Illinois: Conservatism and Union on the Brink of the Civil War by Ian T. Iverson (Kent St UP, 2024).

In order to bring the Civil War to a successful conclusion, it was vital that the Lincoln administration retain the support of the country's conservative leaders and voters. Much of the recent literature concentrates on Lincoln's frequently fraught relationships with Border State conservatives who were unconditional in their support for restoring the Union even though most disagreed with the president on numerous matters of military and social policy.

Even more recently, scholars have redirected their efforts toward examining the role and impact of northern conservatives. Published in 2024, Jack Furniss's Between Extremes: Seeking the Political Center in the Civil War North surveyed gubernatorial politics across five northern states and Kentucky, demonstrating how a cross-party conservative consensus, unwavering in it support for the war, was critical to Union victory. Ian Iverson's Holding the Political Center in Illinois: Conservatism and Union on the Brink of the Civil War uses Lincoln's home state as a laboratory for highlighting the ways in which northern moderates confronted the increasingly extremist politics of the half-decade leading up to the outbreak of the Civil War.

From the description: Holding the Political Center in Illinois "charts the political trajectory of Illinois from the introduction of the Kansas-Nebraska Act in 1854 through the firing on Fort Sumter in 1861. Throughout, Iverson focuses on the significance of political moderation in this era of partisan extremes, one in which the very label of “conservative” was contested. Most often framed through the biography of Abraham Lincoln, the turbulence of antebellum-era and political realignment in Illinois has been widely misunderstood, yet the Prairie State’s geographic, economic, and demographic diversity makes it an especially fascinating microcosm through which to examine the politics of self-identified conservatives leading up to the Civil War."

Iverson's study seeks to reshape our understanding of the meaning of conservatism and its core appeal during the late-antebellum years. More from the description: "Most politicians and voters in this period claimed to be conservative and stood opposed to radical secessionists and abolitionists. By positioning “conservatism” as a disposition rather than an ideology, Ian. T. Iverson explores how mainstream politicians in the Democratic, Republican, and Know-Nothing Parties employed a shared interpretation of American liberty, history, and institutions to court voters throughout the sectional crisis."

In Illinois, "this united reaction against secession, which propelled Lincoln and Stephen A. Douglas to rally together behind the Union’s banner in April 1861, rose from an unconditional centrist commitment to the Union―the core value defining conservatism." In that way, both Furniss and Iverson agree that upholding the Union over all other considerations was the single-most important unifying factor in defining conservatism.