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.
Salmon Chase Liberty Man’s Creed
In a prior post I quoted from the Liberty Man’s Creed, first published by Chase in 1844. In this post I want to put up the whole document, because I find it so interesting, and because it has not been mentioned in prior biographies.
Here it is, from the Cincinnati Weekly Herald and Philanthropist of September 11, 1844:
I believe all men created equal; that they are endowed by their Creator with certain inalienable rights, among which are life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.
I believe that every laborer is entitled to fair wages for honest work.
Chase on Adams, Jackson and Democracy
Anyone who has read any of my books knows that I believe in quoting the subject. If you want to know about William Henry Seward, the best sources are Seward’s letters and speeches and memoirs. One must also find material about Seward, of course, to provide third-party perspective. But in my view a biography should allow the reader to hear the subject not just the biographer.
Clarence Thompson 1900-1925
My grandmother, Dudley Casteel Thompson Stahr, 1902-1986, was married twice, first in 1922 to Clarence Thompson, 1900-1925, and then in 1930 to my grandfather, Roland Stahr, 1901-1969. I knew vaguely that my grandmother had been “married before her marriage” but did not know much about Clarence Thompson until the past few days.
George Edwin Rogers 1872 to 1959
My family is donating its family papers to Chapman University. These are not just papers of my mother, my father and myself. They are papers of my grandparents: Burgess Dempster, Nell McBroom Dempster, Roland Stahr, and Dudley Casteel Stahr. And they are in some cases papers of my great-grandparents, including my namesake Walter Casteel and my adoptive great-grandfather George Edwin Rogers. There are some letters from others in the Rogers family, notably his father, George E. Rogers, born about 1853 and died about 1936. And there are letters from many many others: friends, family, in some cases total strangers.
Chase on Democracy
From time to time, in the course of my research, I find something that Chase wrote that no prior scholar has found. often these are rather routine letters, but sometimes they are really interesting and important. Today, thanks to my researcher at Brown University, Molly McCarthy, I found such a source: a Fourth of July speech from 1829. Chase did not give it as a speech—the event was rained out—but he printed it as an essay in a local paper—the Washington Chronicle for July 11, 1829. I will quote some bits in the relevant chapter, but the whole thing is interesting, and I wanted to share it. Here it is, with some notes and comments after the text.
Haleakela
For years my brother and I had talked about the possibility of cycling in Maui, where one can cycle from sea level to more than 10,000 feet in less than 40 miles. At some point in 2014, we said “you know, if we are ever going to do that, we should perhaps get going.” In August 2015, we did it. It was a great day, perhaps the greatest athletic day of my life. For some reason I have not posted about it here. So I am taking an email that I sent a few days after the event, editing it lightly, and posting it now.
Antislavery and Homelessness
Last night I heard Kathy Izard speak about her book, The Hundred Story Home, and her quest to end homelessness.
The book, in a sense, starts with another book, Same Kind of Different as Me, by Ron Hall and Denver Moore. That book describes how Ron Hall befriended Denver Moore, took him into his home, and thus helped him change from a homeless person to a normal person. Izard invited Hall and Moore to her hometown of Charlotte, North Carolina, to speak at a fundraiser for their soup kitchen ministry. Izard gave Moore a tour of the soup kitchen, but he was not impressed, asking at the end of the tour “where are the beds?” When she started to explain that they were a soup kitchen, not a homeless shelter, he asked her whether it made sense to help people during the day and then lock them out at night. And he challenged her to dosomething about the problem.