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,…
Read MoreChase and the Press
My friend Harold Holzer has written a great book, Lincoln and the Press. I could write a book about Chase and the press, starting with how as a young boy he found and read a set of old Federalist newspapers, to teach himself politics. When Chase first arrived in Cincinnati, as a young lawyer, he…
Read MoreMea Culpa
A few years ago, in my Seward book, I wrote the following about the presidential campaign of 1860: “Some Republican leaders, such as Edward Bates of Missouri, refused to give speeches at all; others such as Salmon Chase of Ohio gave one or two speeches; but Seward traveled thousands of miles and gave dozens of…
Read MoreCrimes of Heliogabalus
I read a lot of history books for my research: I have on the kitchen table right now a volume of the history of the Supreme Court, about 1500 pages, not light reading. So, when I go upstairs in the evening, and read for pleasure, I often read historical fiction. Most often I read about…
Read MoreThree Days, Three Speeches
Next week I will be giving three speeches about three different men on three successive days. On Wednesday evening I will be at the Smiley Library in Redlands, California, to talk about William Henry Seward. I spoke with this group a few months back about Stanton, for some reason I never spoke with them about…
Read MoreChase on Seward
As I research the Chase book I come across items I wish I had seen for the Seward or Stanton books. For example, today I was reading a March 1847 letter from Salmon Chase to Lewis Tappan, one of the Liberty Party leaders in New York. Chase was commenting on the decision of the Supreme…
Read MoreOn Biography
One of Salmon Chase’s best friends was Charles Sumner, the antislavery leader from Massachusetts. They first met in the 1840s, mainly through the mail, and they served together in the United States Senate in the 1850s, when they were among the most ardent opponents of the Fugitive Slave Law and the Kansas-Nebraska Act. During the…
Read MoreProstate Cancer Update
A friend told me yesterday that he had looked, in vain, here on my website for an update on my prostate cancer. Here is an update. I am recovering well from my prostate cancer surgery on July 2. I am walking, running a bit, and could I think do some cycling, although Dr. B tells…
Read MoreCancer Books
I realize, now that I have cancer, that I have been reading about cancer for many years. Most of what I know about cancer I know from reading. That is, I suppose true of most topics; we learn about Brazil, or the French Revolution, or John Jay, by reading. I could go on and on…
Read MoreChase and Death
Among other things, I have been thinking about Salmon Chase, about the way in which he faced death over and over during his own life. I wanted to quote and comment on a few of his many letters about death. The first major death in Chase’s life was that of his father, who died in…
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