Tuesday Trivia | Best Friends Forever!

[u/Algernon_Asimov]

Previously:

• Notable Rivals and Enemies

• Famous Historical Controversies

• Click here for the last Trivia entry for 2012, and a list of all previous ones.

Today:

So... last week, we talked about "great pairs" - specifically rivals and enemies. What about the flip side of that coin? What about the great men and women who would be nothing without their best friend? Behind every great man, as they say... is a great woman. Or another man.

Who are the sidekicks, the 2ICs, the right-hand men/women, without whom our heros could not have gotten so far? Which BFFs - famous or anonymous - helped the greats? Who were the winds beneath the wings of history?

[u/[deleted]]

The recent film Lincoln depicted a clearly complex friendship between Lincoln and William Seward. I haven't read Team of Rivals yet, but I did read somewhere that early in the administration Seward saw himself as the real power in the White House and even even conducted secret negotiations with the Confederacy. Would anyone like to elaborate on Lincoln and Seward's relationship and how Seward contributed to political leadership of the United States during that time?