Salmon Portland Chase was Secretary of the Treasury during the Lincoln administration, and after that he became Chief Justice of the United States and presided over Andrew Johnson's impeachment proceedings. This book gave a good overview of his life and the forces that shaped him both personally and politically. This was a little on the long side, but I think it had to be, as it is the biography of a man who was a lawyer, senator, cabinet member, and chief justice. ( )

3567. Salmon P. Chase A Biography by John Niven (read 10 Apr 2002) Though I was less than admiratory of Niven's biography of Martin Van Buren, (which I read 15 Sep 1983) I decided to read this book. Chase was born in Cornish, NH, on Jan 13, 1808, attended Dartmouth, went to Cincinnati, never went to law school but in June 1830 was admitted to the bar. In 1849, though he was not a Democrat, the Democrats in Ohio elected him U.S. Senator and he served one term. He was elected Governor of Ohio and served two terms. He sought the Republican nomination for President in 1860, and Lincoln selected him as his Treasury Secretary in 1861. He resigned as such in 1864 and when Taney died Lincoln named Chase Chief Justice. The book is very interesting in all its parts except the account of the time as Treasury Secretary did not enthrall. Niven is not a felicitous writer, and the book is good only because the subject matter is so interesting. There are oodles of notes--76 pages of them--but they are largely citations to letters. There is no bibliography, though the notes mention many books which intrigue. The Chase home was at 6th and E Sts in Washington, which is very near where I lived when I attended Georgetown Law School (as I recall my address was 421 6th St. N.W.). ( )