I'm John Bachelor. I welcome Professor Richard Cowardine, the author of Lincoln, A Life of Purpose and

Power. I look very much forward to speaking to the professor someday about, but the new book

is even more captivating. This is a story of the battle within the battle of the Civil War.

It is entitled Righteous Strife,

how warring religious nationalists forged Lincoln's Union.

I tell the professor that many years ago, reading about the Civil War,

I puzzled across Horace Greeley's remark right after the passing of the Kansas Nebraska Act, 1854, the driver for the

birth of the Republican Party, and Greeley wrote to the effect that the pulpits will not be

silent at this calumny. And I puzzled, what is he talking about? What pulpits? Well, here they are in Richard's

book. Richard, congratulations. Very, very good evening to you. Thank you very much for this

enormous amount of work. And we begin January 4th, 1861. The period between the election of 1860, Abraham Lincoln, coming through in a contested

election with four different directions, and the leaving of office of James Buchanan, the

President of the United States. James Buchanan names a fast day in the middle of December, and it's January 4th, 1861.

By this time, South Carolina has left the Union and other states that will quickly be known as the

Confederacy are contemplating leaving. What was a fast day? Why did Buchanan call it? What did it hope to achieve? Good evening to you, Professor.

Good evening, and thank you very much for inviting me on to your program. What is a fast day? Well, it was quite a contentious occasion insofar as fast days had been very common in the colonial period. They were

concentrated in New England. That's where the Puritan fast days at colonial level were

very common.

And they were called to recognize the sins of the community,

to repair the offenses of the community,

and to pray for the blessing of God.

There were fast days during the American Revolution for obvious reasons, and subsequently,

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