I am fortunate that most of what I do, researching and writing about Chase, I can do from home, while we are quasi-quarantined here because of the coronavirus. One thing that I cannot do is go to a library to check a letter, so I am having to make some educated guesses about what letters say. When this is all over I will have to spend some time at the Huntington, or Stanford, or the Library of Congress, or all of the above.
Seward in the Grand Canyon
My wife Masami and I are just back from four great days in the Grand Canyon. We joined an REI Adventures group, two guides and seven guests, walking down to the bottom of the Canyon, spending two nights at the Phantom Ranch, then walking back up on the fourth day. My wife Masami, once again, proved that she is tough; the last day is a ten-mile uphill hike, and she made it in good time and good spirits. The only part she found difficult was the ice on the last mile and half; fortunately the guides provided us with traction devices, sort of chains for our boots, and with those and the hiking poles we were fine. We had good weather, good company, good food. We learned a lot from the guides, about geology, history, hydrology, biology, native peoples.
Lincoln’s Birthday
Today is the birthday of our greatest president, Abraham Lincoln. A few thoughts on the day.
Often, in my books, I “chip away” at bits of the Lincoln legend. For example, in early December 1861, Lincoln was surprised when the report of Simon Cameron, his secretary of war, argued for using the former slaves as Union soldiers. Lincoln should not have been surprised. Cameron had given a widely-reported speech in which he advocated making solders of the former slaves. The New York Tribune predicted that Cameron would provide historical and other arguments in the imminent report for arming the former slaves. So if Lincoln had been paying attention, he would have asked Cameron for a draft version of his report, and if he disagreed, he would have forced Cameron to make changes.
Chase and McDowell
It is a truth universally acknowledged that Secretary Chase was responsible for placing General Irvin McDowell in command of the Union forces in northern Virginia in 1861. Even Wikipedia accepts this. The Wikipedia page for McDowell states that he “was promoted to brigadier general in the regular army on May 14, 1861, and was given command of the Army of Northeastern Virginia on May 27. The promotion was partly because of the influence of his mentor, Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase.” I am not sure, however, how true this truth really is.
Chase DV
A brief progress report on my biography of Salmon Chase.
I have now completed thirteen chapters, about 113,000 words.
I just finished 1859, so I have only a few years left, until his death in 1873.
But the next few years, the Civil War, were busy ones, so those chapters will be longer than the chapters so far.
I estimate that I will finish the book more or less when it is due at the publisher, by this time next year.
Which means that the book will probably be in bookstores by the end of 2021.
Chase on Immigration
It is hard to remember, but the Republican Party, back in the days of Lincoln and Chase, was IN FAVOR of immigration. Not every Republican; there were anti-immigrants, former Know Nothings, who wanted to limit immigration, or deny voting rights to those who had recently become citizens. But not my man Chase; he often talked about the contributions of immigrants.
I am reading this morning a great little speech which Chase gave in August 1859, at the laying of the cornerstone of the Pilgrim Monument in Plymouth, Massachusetts. Chase of course praised the Pilgrims, and he talked about Ohio as the child of New England, founded by men and women who left New England not long after the American Revolution. Here is a long quote:
Springfield Report
I am just back from a few days of research at the Abraham Lincoln Presidential Library in Springfield, Illinois.
My main purpose in going was to look at newspapers from Illinois from October 1854 and October 1858. In both of those months, Chase campaigned for Republicans in Illinois. 1854 was the anti-Nebraska election, when the North rose up in outrage over the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska Act and elected new members of Congress who called themselves anti-Nebraska or Fusion or in some cases Republican. The Republican party grew out of that election. 1858 was the great Lincoln-Douglas election, in which the Republican Abraham Lincoln challenged the Democrat Stephen Douglas and debated Douglas seven times around the state.
Seward’s Folly
I am speaking next Tuesday to the LA Civil War Roundtable about William Henry Seward. As I wrote the speech, I revisited the question of “Seward’s Folly.” In the book, which I published seven years ago, I said that although there were some critics of the Alaska purchase in 1867, none of them used the phrase “Seward’s folly.” In other words, I argued that it was a myth that that phrase was pinned to the purchase of Alaska from day one, that that phrase was created later.
Details, Details
As I write the Chase biography, I continue research, and interesting details emerge. I am working today on the chapter about 1856. I knew that Chase had dinner with Francis Blair and others in Washington on December 29, 1855, and I knew that Chase gave his inaugural address as governor in Columbus on January 14, 1856. But where was he in between? Did he hasten home to Columbus to get ready to become governor? Or did he remain in Washington, perhaps having quiet conversations about the Republican presidential nomination?
Salmon Chase Bank Lawyer
Many claim that, when he became secretary of the treasury, Chase did not know much about banks and banking. This is not true.
From 1832 through 1843, Chase served as the solicitor in Cincinnati for the Second Bank of the United States. At the outset of this period, the Bank was the largest financial institution in the United States; by the end of this time, after Andrew Jackson refused to renew the Bank’s federal charter, and pulled the federal deposits out of the Bank, the Bank was in liquidation. Most of Chase’s work for the Second Bank was collecting debts, or reviewing files to determine whether the Bank could collect on a particular debt.