New Web Site

As you will see, if you are here, I have a new web site. My friends at AuthorBytes urged me to update, so that the site works better for those viewing it through their phones. So I would be especially curious to hear from readers/viewers who are looking at the site in that way: does…

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Chase Previews Gettysburg

A month before Lincoln gave his great speech at Gettysburg, in November 1863, Chase gave a good speech, although much longer, at Indianapolis. Chase had traveled from Washington to Cincinnati, Ohio, to vote in the state election there, in favor of the Union ticket. On the day after the Ohio election, Chase went by train…

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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…

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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…

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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.”…

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Chase 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…

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Mea 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…

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Get Tested

I continue to recover from my prostate surgery. A couple days ago the doctor removed the catheter and removed the dressing on my incisions. I am now working, not very well so far, to regain control of my urination. I wanted to publish what I hope is implicit in my past two posts: get tested.…

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Sunday Services

It was an emotional Sunday for me at St. James Episcopal Church. I have prostate cancer, and on Monday I had surgery to remove my prostate. Any time you have cancer, any time you have major surgery, you think about life differently; you thank God for each new day with special fervor. And I am…

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Bishop Bruno Again

I have been spending time, in recent weeks, on Bishop Bruno again, helping to write the brief on appeal in the Bruno case. I realize, looking back at this blog, that I have not posted on some key developments in the case and in the life of our church. First, most important, we are back…

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