"We have endured worst, and can learn important lessons from the cataclysms of the past, remembering that ultimately Providence and not humanity presides over the course of human affairs." -- IRD President Mark Tooley

Contact: Jeff Walton, Institute on Religion and Democracy, 202-682-4131, 202-413-5639 cell, jwalton@TheIRD.org

WASHINGTON, July 23, 2015 /Christian Newswire/ -- As many Americans ponder the legacy of the Confederacy, slavery and Civil War, IRD President Mark Tooley has published a new book on the last major effort to avert the Civil War.

The Peace That Almost Was: The Forgotten Story of the 1861 Washington Peace Conference and the Final Attempt to Avert the Civil War, published in July 2015 by Thomas Nelson, recounts the momentous but now often forgotten gathering of northern and southern statesman at Washington, D.C.'s Willard Hotel that desperately struggled for national compromise in the tense weeks leading to President Abraham Lincoln's inauguration. The Washington Peace Conference, presided over by former U.S. President John Tyler, for a month gave a platform to the major arguments for and against slavery and secession versus Union. Concluding by meeting with newly arrived President-elect Lincoln, the delegates by narrow majorities proposed constitutional amendments to safeguard slavery forever to forestall disunion and war.

Tooley's book, the first on this conference in over 50 years, gives special attention to the religious influences at the conference, including the prominent D.C. clergy who delivered invocations and the divisions in the major denominations over slavery. Tooley's book is especially timely for addressing the reasons behind the Confederacy, the dangers of national political gridlock, and the perpetual importance of religion in nearly all important American political debates.

IRD President Mark Tooley commented:

"My book reminds us that culture war and polarization are not unique to our own time but perennial in American democracy.

"It also warns Americans, especially Christians, not to exaggerate national decline or fatalistically succumb to despair. We have endured worst, and can learn important lessons from the cataclysms of the past, remembering that ultimately Providence and not humanity presides over the course of human affairs."

www.peacethatalmostwas.com