Salmon P. Chase: A Biography

Salmon P. Chase wanted to be President so bad that it hurt. His great ambition almost consumed him. From the 1850 on, as he became more and more prominent in politics, he planned, plotted and schemed unabashedly to get into the White House. He never got there, well not as President anyway. Chase hid his burning ambition behind an exterior of dull respectability, humourless piety, and lots of sanctimonious, pretentious pontificating. Yet Chase was also a man of great intelligence and enormous ability: he was an excellent Secretary of the Treasury from 1861 to 1864. He did a great job putting the Union war effort on a sound financial and fiscal basis. In doing so he undoubtedly made a powerful contribution to the Union victory. But he was ever ridden by the demon of his own ambition, even during the war, when he should have put his ambitions aside. But Chase never forgave Lincoln for becoming President in 1860 and in order to trip Lincoln up he stooped very low. He spread vicious stories about Mary Todd Lincoln and more than once tried to undermine the President's position. Lincoln, who had seen through Chase from the start, was convinced it would be better having him in the Cabinet p***ing out of the Administration, than having him in Congress p***ing in. He deftly avoided the traps Chase laid for him, but made sure Chase trod in quite a few that Lincoln set up for him. Powerless against Lincoln's wily political handiwork Chase resorted to huffiness and wounded pride and time and again offered to resign form the Cabinet. In the spring of 1864, when the country's finances were in fine order and the war effort assured, and Lincoln did no longer need Chase in Cabinet, he accepted Chase's umpteenth offer of resignation, to Chase's surprise and dismay. Then came a masterstroke: Lincoln appointed Chase to be Chief Justice of the Supreme Court. Chase had an excellent legal mind and was eminently qualified for the post, but his political ambitions were at once wrecked: the Chief Justice of the Supreme Court, the highest judge of the Republic, could of course not be actively involved in politics!! Lincoln had thus eliminated a contender for the republican nomination for the presidential election of 1864, while seemingly honouring and rewarding Chase for his services in the Cabinet with high and distinguished office. After that, nothing ever went right for Chase anymore: his role in the impeachment proceedings of Andrew Johnson was widely critiscized, and his repeated attempts to get nominated for presidential candidate were frowned at, he was after all the Chief Justice! For though Chase desperately wanted to be President, there were far too many people who did not want him to be. Chase never seemed to realise this: his ambitions had blinkered him too much. In the end it left him a lonely man: friendless, disappointed, embittered and widely distrusted. He had offered everything to his ambition: his self-respect, his reputation and his heal

Prof. Niven isn't the most exciting writer, yet he fearlessly approaches one of America's most important political figures of the 19th century. No small undertaking.Chase emerges as a deeply conflicted man whose inability to reconcile what he wanted for himself and what he knew to be right shaped not only his rising career as a politician, but his inability to find true happiness throughout his life, particularly as Lincoln's Treasury Secretary and, later, as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court.Whether one pities Chase or lauds his accomplishments --or both-- one cannot come away from this highly informative biography about one man's chosen path and where it led him -and America- in the crucial time of the American Civil War and its aftermath, including the impeachment of President Andrew Johnson and how Chase presided over that turbulent affair, without a greater understanding of American history and, perhaps, ourselves. Many readers will surely recognize some part of themselves in the complexities of Chase's thoughts, actions; his ability to rationalize, his pridefulness, and doubtless will admire the brilliant legal mind of a thoughtful yet driven man who was undone before his time (i.e., Chase was almost always his own worst enemy).Niven is not always thorough in exploring many of the events surrounding Chase's life decisions, decisions that forever shaped America, particularly on issues legal. In spite of this, one is afforded a look at the sincere humanity of a man who, in his own words, never felt at home "in this great Babylon," never quite at ease with himself, the world, or his place in it.Anyone desiring to enrich their knowledge of the man whose portrait graces the $10,000 bill, his life and times, will certainly find this a worthwhile read.Personally, the only thing I could have asked for from Prof. Niven was that he had included a bibliography to guide the interested reader down other paths of exploration, whether one wants to know about "greenbacks," the Johnson proceedings, and so forth.The gift of this book is an insight into the mind of a man, power and its influences on the subject's conscience and career, needless to say his personal life. Though Prof. Niven concludes that Salmon Portland Chase was a tragic figure, he is here rendered human and, for the most part, quite accessible.

I read John Niven's biography of Martin Van Buren, and thought it was often dull. This biography is some better, tho there are dull portions, especially some of the pages during the time Chase was Secretary of the Treasury. But the life and the period is so fascinating that I found when I had finished the book that I felt I had really learned a lot. There is no bibliography in the book, tho there are many pages of notes and with work one can deduce therefrom the books consulted. I sure wish the book had a bibliography, since the notes cite various interesting books I'd like to read.