At the dawn of the 19th century the stakes for American expansion were incalculably high. Even after the purchase of the Louisiana Territory, Spain coveted that land and sought to retain it. With war expected at any moment, Jefferson played a game of strategy, putting on the ground the only Americans he could: a cadre of explorers who finally annexed it through courageous exploration. President Jefferson most famously recruited Meriwether Lewis and William Clark, but at the same time other teams did the same work in places where it was even more crucial. William Dunbar, George Hunter, Thomas Freeman, Peter Custis, and Zebulon Pike were all dispatched on urgent missions to map the frontier and keep a steady correspondence with Washington about their findings. They weren’t always well-matched-with each other and certainly not with a Spanish army of a thousand soldiers or more. These tensions threatened to undermine Jefferson’s goals for the country, leaving the United States in danger of losing its foothold in the West. Jefferson’s America#160;rediscovers the robust and often harrowing action from these seminal expeditions and illuminates the president’s vision for a continental America.

In 1856, Abraham Lincoln was at a difficult point, personally. Depressed, edgy, and often despondent, he had grown bored with his work as a lawyer. He saw himself as a former congressman with little future in politics. Then in May of 1856, he became drawn to the case of the gruesome murder of a blacksmith named George Anderson. Lincoln was asked to take part in the case, and he did so with zeal. The Anderson case reflected a dark world hidden within the optimism and innocence of the young Illinois city of Springfield. With the Anderson murder, Lincoln’s legal skills were challenged as never before, and it became the case that defined his legal career.

This book takes one from the mystery of the Anderson case, as investigated by Abraham Lincoln, to the mystery of Lincoln, as investigated by the author.