Contents

Prologue

  1. The Slashes

  2. “My Hopes Were More than Realized”

  3. “Puppyism”

  4. The Hawk and the Gambler

  5. Uncompromising Compromiser

  6. “I Injured Both Him and Myself”

  Photo Insert 1

  7. A Thousand Cuts

  8. Losing the Bank, Saving the Union

  9. Whig

10. “I Had Rather Be Right than Be President”

11. Three Campaigns

Photo Insert 2

12. Four Letters

13. “Death, Ruthless Death”

14. The Last Gamble

15. “What Prodigies Arise”

16. “The Best & Almost Only True Friend”

Acknowledgments

Notes

Bibliography