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Learn more at Vonage.com. Welcome to Radio Atlantic, the Radio Atlantic, the first podcast from the Atlantic magazine.

I'm Jeffrey Goldberg, the editor-in-chief of the Atlantic.

In a few minutes, I'll introduce you to my co-host for this podcast, Matt Thompson and

Alex Wagner.

We'll talk about what this podcast is going to be, or what we think it's going to be at least,

and we'll also sit down with our colleagues David Fromman and Molly Ball to talk about one of this magazine's

main preoccupations, the health of American democracy.

First, though, I'd like to tell you a very short story about a crucial moment in the history of the

Atlantic and of this country.

Stay with this, it's going to be worth it. So it's November 1861.

50,000 Union troops are masked outside Washington.

President Lincoln and his entire cabinet are reviewing this newly organized army and so is a 42 year old

woman from Boston named Julia Ward Howe. She's a militant abolitionist and she's come to Washington

to see and bless the army that is ready to wage a sacred struggle against human

bondage. At one point the road becomes clogged with troops and house carriage

comes to a halt. She listens as the troops around her sing a song and praise of

...