Quotes from Jay Winik

Does the world not recognize that we are destined to be a great power?

Lincoln dumped his bland second-in-command, Hannibal Hamlin, for Johnson

But, by the same token, there are also moments that can act as catalysts for peace.

Without having planned it—and without any official sanction—Chamberlain suddenly gave the order for Union soldiers to "carry arms" as a sign of their deepest mark of military respect. A bugle call instantly rang out. All along the road, Union soldiers raised their muskets to their shoulders, the salute of honor.

the country sat at a defining crossroads, ready to veer in one direction, but just as able to choose another, it

sansculottes

to his everlasting credit, as he fought "that enemy" who, in his words, repeatedly demonstrated "Herculean deeds of valor

he swept into Auschwitz in an open black Mercedes, driven by a chauffeur

peripatetic

compound, the American Secret Service agents

At Lincoln's second inaugural, a drunken Johnson, who had had one too many whiskeys that morning, plunged into a long, rambling, incoherent discourse, shouting about his humble origins and lecturing the assembled dignitaries from the Supreme Court and the diplomatic corps ("With all your fine feathers and gew-gaws") that they were merely "creatures of the people." Then, as he took his oath, Johnson visibly and audibly slobbered upon the Bible.

Thus the cerebral footings were laid. Voltaire preferred intellectual liberty and enlightened despotism. Montesquieu wanted limited monarchy and a separation of political powers. Rousseau dreamed of an ideal republican commonwealth.