How are Mary Todd Lincoln's various suitors handled in the novel? Might she have been better off, choosing another?

How are Kate Chase's various suitors handle in the novel? To what extent is she responsible for her own unhappiness and to what extent manipulated by her father and husband?

Lincoln claims that events act on him. Do you accept this? To what extent is Lincoln passive and to what extent active?

How does the election of 1862 depict political corruption? What is the Army's part in it? What is Lincoln's?

Lincoln dreams about seeing himself laid out dead in the White House and Hay believes that he wills his death as atonement for the war. How do you view the mystical elements in this novel?

How do political "dirty tricks" in the 1860s compare with those in modern times? Pick one of the tricks that...