People keep saying that we're the most divided since the 1850's, the decade leading up to the Civil War. Allow me to point out that in one way, the Civil War generation was considerably less divided.

During the war Abraham Lincoln, the first Republican president, named Democrats to senior posts. Secretary of War Edwin Stanton was a Democrat who once had insulted Lincoln. General James Shields was a Democrat and political opponent who nearly fought a duel with Lincoln in 1842.

Lincoln had no partisan litmus test. No cult-of-personality test. Didn't even have a near-duel test or an all-around-jerk test. He asked how citizens could help save the country from people who took up arms against it. That was how Republicans viewed Democrats then.