Lincoln and the Border States: Preserving the Union

Faced with a divided nation, Abraham Lincoln deemed the loyalty of the border slave states of Delaware, Maryland, Kentucky, and Missouri crucial to the preservation of the Union. But while most scholars contend that these states were secure by the end of 1861, the author argues that Confederate campaigns and guerrilla activities kept the border region in constant turmoil- and that those states preoccupied Lincoln at every turning point of the war. This first history of Lincoln's border-state policies in more than eighty years offers a fresh and comprehensive perspective on how he negotiated, sometimes falteringly, the complex politics attached to such divisive issues as emancipation and suspension of habeas corpus.