Published by EH.Net (June 2022).

Walter Stahr. *Salmon P. Chase: Lincoln’s Vital Rival*. New York: Simon &
Schuster, 2021. x + 836 pp. $35 (hardcover), ISBN 978-1-5011-9923-3.

Reviewed for EH.Net by Jane Flaherty, retired Visiting Lecturer, Texas A&M
University, and Instructor, Blinn College.



Of all the members of President Abraham Lincoln’s “Team of Rivals”’ few
have been criticized as much as Treasury Secretary Salmon P. Chase. Earlier
biographers and chroniclers of the time suggested he was “inordinately
ambitious” (Niven, 190), “cold and aloof” (Blue, 322), having “no
experience in finance,” and therefore “a tremendous liability” (Thomson,
24). Walter Stahr, an attorney and the author of four historical
biographies, provides a needed corrective to these interpretations of a
pivotal person in American economic history.

Chase was born in New Hampshire in 1808. His family joined the waves of
migrants who left New England for western opportunities, settling in
Cincinnati. Chase “found his life work” in 1841 as an anti-slavery
political leader who dedicated his career to uplifting African Americans,
first as runaway slaves and then as free citizens (86). “Freedom is
national; slavery is local and sectional,” Chase stated in 1850, the
sentiment that became the foundation of the Republican Party (157). Chase
served as a U.S. Senator representing Ohio as a Free Soil-Democrat
(1849-1855); Governor of Ohio (1855-1860); Treasury Secretary in President
Lincoln’s administration (1861-1864); then Chief Justice of the United
States (from 1864 until his death in 1873).

Chase has long puzzled historians. His multiple party affiliations have
been attributed to his ambition to become president (he was thwarted in
1860, 1864, and 1868). Stahr, however, shows that Chase helped create three
different political parties (the Liberty Party, the Free-Soil Party, and
the Republican Party), all with the primary focus on opposition to the
expansion of slavery (not abolition). Although young Chase “imbibed some
federalist ideas – especially about banks and commerce” (9), “revered
Jefferson” (28), declared himself a Whig in his political youth, and was a
strong critic of President Andrew Jackson, Chase later embraced many of the
tenets of Jacksonian political economy: currency reform, skepticism of
state banks, and tariffs for revenue, not protection. As governor of Ohio,
Chase called for creation of a state railroad regulation commission, an
idea far ahead of its time. Chase advocated frugality in governance; as
part of this effort, he and Francis Spinner hired women to work in the
Treasury Department as a way to keep personnel costs down.  This helped
open “white collar” work for women. Stahr ably argues that as a legal
representative, then director, of the Lafayette Bank, combined with his
role as governor of Ohio, Chase had far more experience in fiscal policy
than most antebellum Treasury secretaries.

Chase’s actions during and after the Civil War seem to contradict his
earlier economic beliefs. Although frugal and averse to protective tariffs,
Chase oversaw the largest expansion of the federal budget and rise in
tariff rates in U.S. history at that time, the growth of an unprecedented
federal debt, the introduction of “Greenbacks” (fiat currency), and the
launch of the internal revenue system that remains in place to this day.
Hiring Jay Cooke to market over $1 billion in war bonds raised questions of
corruption and a congressional inquiry. Cooke and Chase developed an
intimate relationship. Cooke gave personal loans to Chase and frequently
served as a host for Chase’s daughters when they traveled. Cooke also gave
expensive gifts, though not direct bribes, to Chase and his family. Yet
Chase considered himself very principled and never broke the ethical rules
of the time. Chase’s successor in the Treasury Department, William P.
Fessenden, rehired Cooke to market bonds because Cooke’s efforts were
cost-effective.

In another incongruity, Chase established the national banking system that,
by the end of the nineteenth century, concentrated power in the New York
banking community. Stahr skillfully shows how these developments occurred,
yet unfortunately shies from considering the considerable impact of these
changes.

Chase ended his career as Chief Justice of the United States. Two Supreme
Court cases in particular demonstrate the contradictions of Chase’s legacy.
In *Hepburn v. Griswold* (1870), “Old Greenbacks” wrote the majority
opinion declaring that debts taken before the Civil War could not be paid
with legal tender notes created during the war (this decision was later
reversed). On the other hand, in *Veazie Bank v. Fenno* (1869) Chase wrote
the majority opinion upholding a 10 percent tax on state banknotes. “… if a
particular tax bears heavily upon a corporation, or a class of
corporations, it cannot … be pronounced contrary to the Constitution.”
(618) Here Chase vigorously defended his actions as Treasury Secretary. As
with many Republican politicians, the exigencies of war created demands
that forced Chase to moderate his economic beliefs for the greater goals of
prosecuting the war and ending slavery.

Stahr portrays a more humane Chase who was deeply religious, but not
sanctimonious; a man who suffered multiple personal tragedies. By the age
of 56, he had buried four children, nine siblings and his parents (467). He
was devoted to his surviving daughters, Kate and Nettie. They brought him
joy and sorrow (both married unfaithful alcoholics). During the Civil War,
Kate emerged as a Washington, D.C. socialite whose unstable marriage,
expensive tastes, and political ambitions often vexed Chase.

Although EH.Net readers might wish for more structural economic analysis,
Stahr’s book provides an important addition to the literature on the
political and economic history of the Civil War era. It should be read for
a fuller understanding of this dedicated political and intellectual leader
in the anti-slavery and early civil rights advocacy.

References

Blue, Frederick J. *Salmon P. Chase: A Life in Politics*. Kent: Kent State
University Press, 1987.

Kearns Goodwin, Doris. *Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham
Lincoln*. New York: Simon & Schuster (paperback edition), 2006.

Niven, John. *Salmon P. Chase: A Biography*. New York: Oxford University
Press, 1995.

Thomson, David K. *Bonds of War: How Civil War Financial Agents Sold the
World on The Union*. Chapel Hill: University of North Carolina Press, 2022.



Jane Flaherty ([log in to unmask]) is a retired Visiting Lecturer at Texas
A&M University, and an Instructor at Blinn College. She is currently
working on a study of Justin S. Morrill and the fiscal changes that
occurred during the Civil War.

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