Matthew Pinsker, Boss Lincoln: The Partisan Life of Abraham Lincoln. W.W. Norton, 2026; 564 pp., notes, index, illustrations. $39.99.
Many of the thousands of books about Abraham Lincoln are specialized to some degree, rather than full biographies. Topics may be very narrow or quite broad, but still are focused on some specific aspect of Lincoln’s life and actions.
Matthew Pinsker’s new book, Boss Lincoln: The Partisan Life of Abraham Lincoln, is one of these topical studies. Most Lincoln books deal with his political career to some extent. But Pinsker has a different angle – Lincoln was not merely a politician but a dedicated partisan organizer. He worked behind the scenes first for the Whigs, then the Republicans, and, finally, for the Union Party.
Pinsker is already known in the Lincoln community for his excellent book Lincoln’s Sanctuary: Abraham Lincoln and the Soldiers’ Home (2003), a study of the cottage on the outskirts of Washington, D.C., where the Lincoln family spent the summers of 1862-1864. Pinsker has spoken in Springfield a number of times. While here, he discussed the topic of Boss Lincoln at the Abraham Lincoln Association symposium at the Old State Capitol in February 2019. At that time, he expected the book to be out late that year – which obviously did not happen. Nevertheless, it is a good book, which was worth the wait.
Persons who have already read a good deal about Lincoln’s life will notice many familiar incidents in Pinsker’s new book. However, the interpretation is different. For example, the book opens with a stagecoach journey made by Lincoln and Robert Smith, a Democrat and Illinois congressman from Alton. They were returning home from the 1847 national River and Harbor Convention in Chicago. Lincoln’s attendance at this convention is usually mentioned as a result of his longstanding interest in and boosting of “internal improvements” such as various kinds of transportation, in this case better dredging of waterways. This motivation is certainly true, but the convention itself is usually given short shrift.
Joseph H. Buckingham, a Boston newspaper reporter and fellow passenger, was not especially impressed by Lincoln, and complained that he was always interacting with locals at the stage stops. As Pinsker explains, there was more to Lincoln’s attendance than merely his interest in waterways. In fact, some have wondered why Lincoln went to that convention rather than the state constitutional convention that was meeting in Springfield at the same time. According to Pinsker, Lincoln attended the national rather than the state convention because he was essentially the leader of the Illinois Whigs, a fairly weak minority party in the state at the time, and he recently had been elected the state’s only Whig congressman (out of seven).
While most authors writing about Lincoln and politics concentrate on his election campaigns and address his skills as a writer, debater and orator, Pinsker believes that Lincoln’s focus was on more than simply being elected to office himself. He sees Lincoln’s “life’s work” as being “party organization,” to build up party strength more broadly in order to enable the party to elect its candidates.
Evidence of this includes correspondence with many politicians, as well as his calculations of partisan support in various counties for local and state elections, and statewide for national elections. Pinsker also points out how Lincoln, as president and before, used carriage rides as a means to consult with or influence his passenger(s) for partisan purposes.
There were two important perspectives on party building at the time. Those with an “ultra” viewpoint were devoted to cultivating party basics. The “fusionists,” however, were willing to ally with persons of other parties to promote a particular principle. This was the case with the formation of the Republicans, a fusion party of anti-slavery Whigs, Democrats and members of minor anti-slavery parties, who allied in opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act and the possibility of slavery expansion in the territories.
Lincoln was an advocate of both ultra and fusionist perspectives at various times, as Pinsker illustrates. But when it came to fusion, Lincoln would only go so far. He refused to “fuse” with Stephen A. Douglas in 1858, as Douglas feuded with President James Buchanan (a Democrat like Douglas). Some of the eastern Republicans urged co-opting Douglas into the Republican Party, but Lincoln opposed it as a betrayal of Republicans in Illinois (including himself) whose outlook differed drastically from that of Douglas.
Lincoln’s “Team of Rivals” cabinet while president was also an instance of fusion as he sought to include representatives of both the former Whig and former Democrat-Republicans parties. The formation of the Union Party during 1863-1864 was an effort to include War Democrats who would be opposed to voting for candidates labeled Republican, but did not want to vote for Peace Democrats who opposed fighting the Civil War to victory.
Boss Lincoln is a worthwhile read for anyone who is interested in an innovative perspective on Lincoln’s political activities.
Springfield historian Glenna R. Schroeder-Lein, a former manuscripts librarian and documentary editor, is the author of several books, including Lincoln and Medicine. She is an occasional book reviewer for Illinois Times.
This article appears in Summerguide 2026.
