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Salmon P. Chase: Lincoln's Vital Rival - Hardcover | Diverse Reads

Salmon P. Chase: Lincoln's Vital Rival

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An NPR Best Book of 2022

From an acclaimed New York Times bestselling biographer, an “eloquently written, impeccably researched, and intensely moving” (The Wall Street Journal) reassessment of Abraham Lincoln’s indispensable Secretary of the Treasury: a leading proponent for black rights during his years in cabinet and later as Chief Justice of the United States.

Salmon P. Chase is best remembered as a rival of Lincoln’s for the Republican nomination in 1860—but there would not have been a national Republican Party, and Lincoln could not have won the presidency, were it not for the groundwork Chase laid over the previous two decades. Starting in the early 1840s, long before Lincoln was speaking out against slavery, Chase was forming and leading antislavery parties. He represented fugitive slaves so often in his law practice that he was known as the attorney general for runaway negroes.

Tapped by Lincoln to become Secretary of the Treasury, Chase would soon prove vital to the Civil War effort, raising the billions of dollars that allowed the Union to win the war while also pressing the president to recognize black rights. When Lincoln had the chance to appoint a chief justice in 1864, he chose his faithful rival because he was sure Chase would make the right decisions on the difficult racial, political, and economic issues the Supreme Court would confront during Reconstruction.

Drawing on previously overlooked sources, Walter Stahr offers a “revelatory” (The Christian Science Monitor) new look at the pivotal events of the Civil War and its aftermath, and a “superb” (James McPherson), “magisterial” (Amanda Foreman) account of a complex forgotten man at the center of the fight for racial justice in 19th century America.

ISBN-13: 9781501199233

Media Type: Hardcover

Publisher: Simon & Schuster

Publication Date: 02-22-2022

Pages: 848

Product Dimensions: 6.10(w) x 9.00(h) x 1.90(d)

Walter Stahr is the New York Times bestselling author of Seward: Lincoln’s Indispensable Man, Stanton: Lincoln’s War Secretary, and John Jay: Founding Father. A two-time winner of the Seward Award for Excellence in Civil War Biography, Stahr practiced law in Washington and Asia for more than two decades. He is an honors graduate of Stanford University and Harvard Law School.

Table of Contents

Introduction 1

Chapter 1 "He Called Me Yankee," 1808-26 7

Chapter 2 "Metropolis of the Nation," 1826-30 21

Chapter 3 "First in Cincinnati," 1830-35 41

Chapter 4 "Some Great Scheme," 1836-41 61

Chapter 5 "To Limit and Localize … Slavery," 1841-48 87

Chapter 6 "Ambitious as Julius Caesar," 1848-49 127

Chapter 7 "Freedom Is National," 1849-50 143

Chapter 8 "The Question Is Not Settled," 1850-53 169

Chapter 9 "The Nebraska Iniquity," 1854 191

Chapter 10 "Our Victory Is Glorious," 1855 209

Chapter 11 "Avowed and Determined," 1856-57 229

Chapter 12 "Your Noble Lincoln," 1858-59 261

Chapter 13 "The Interests of the Cause," 1860 289

Chapter 14 "Inauguration First, Adjustment Afterwards," 1860-61 311

Chapter 15 "We Have the War upon Us," 1861 329

Chapter 16 "Slavery Must Go," Early 1862 369

Chapter 17 "A New Era," Late 1862 397

Chapter 18 "My Fixed Faith," Early 1863 429

Chapter 19 "Bringing to a Second Birth This Same Mighty Nation," Late 1863 449

Chapter 20 "The Salmon Is a Queer Fish," Early 1864 471

Chapter 21 "So Help Me God," Late 1864 493

Chapter 22 "Universal Suffrage," 1864-65 511

Chapter 23 "The Most Dangerous Man," 1866-67 543

Chapter 24 "Mad with the Presidential Fever," 1868 571

Chapter 25 "Indestructible Union … Indestructible States," 1869-70 601

Chapter 26 "Quite Content," 1871-73 627

Conclusion 651

Acknowledgments 661

Notes 663

Illustration Credits 799

Index 801