Team of Rivals

by Doris Kearns Goodwin

  dinner at Frank Blair’s home: Entry of April 27, 1859, in The Diary of Edward Bates, 1859–1866, p. 11; Reinhard H. Luthin, The First Lincoln Campaign (Cambridge, Mass.: Harvard University Press, 1944; Gloucester, Mass.: Peter Smith, 1964), pp. 54–55.

  Blair family details: See Elbert B. Smith, Francis Preston Blair (New York: Free Press/Macmillan Publishing Co., 1980), pp. 172–73; William Ernest Smith, The Francis Preston Blair Family in Politics, Vol. I (New York: The Macmillan Company, 1933), pp. 185–88, 189–91; Hendrick, Lincoln’s War Cabinet, pp. 61–69, 388; Washington Post, September 14, 1906; Star, September 14, 1906; Virginia Jeans Laas, ed., Wartime Washington: The Civil War Letters of Elizabeth Blair Lee (Chicago: University of Illinois Press, 1991), pp. 1, 2; William E. Parrish, Frank Blair: Lincoln’s Conservative (Columbia, Mo., and London: University of Missouri Press, 1998). Francis P. Blair, owner, slave schedule for 5th District, Montgomery County, Maryland, Eighth Census of the United States, 1860 (National Archives Microfilm Publication M653, reel 485), Records of the Bureau of the Census, Record Group [RG] 29, National Archives and Records Administration, Washington, D.C. [hereafter DNA]. Blair owned fifteen slaves in 1860.

  had settled on the widely respected judge: Lincoln’s Attorney General, pp. 84–86, 91–92; Primm, Lion of the Valley, p. 230; Smith, Francis Preston Blair, p. 257; Smith, The Francis Preston Blair Family in Politics, Vol. I, pp. 461–62.

  “I feel…of character”: Entry of July 5, 1859, in The Diary of Edward Bates, 1859–1866, pp. 29–30.

  “a mere seat…member”: EB to Julia Coalter Bates, November 7, 1827, Bates Papers, ViHi.

  “the mania…heretofore done”: FB, quoted in Parrish, Frank Blair, p. 81.

  “My nomination…in vain”: Entry of January 9, 1860, in The Diary of Edward Bates, 1859–1866, pp. 89–90.

  days were increasingly…first ballot victory: Cain, Lincoln’s Attorney General, pp. 93, 94, 107.

  “I have many strong…in New York, Pa.”: Entry of December 1, 1859, in The Diary of Edward Bates, 1859–1866, pp. 71–72.

  pockets of opposition…German-Americans: Cain, Lincoln’s Attorney General, pp. 103, 106.

  “There is no question…conservative antecedents”: NYTrib, May 15, 1860.

  Bates would triumph in Chicago: Cain, Lincoln’s Attorney General, p. 110.

  “some of the most moderate and patriotic”: EB, Letter of Hon. Edward Bates, of Missouri, Indorsing Mr. Lincoln, and Giving His Reasons for Supporting the Chicago Nominees (Washington, D.C.: Printed at the Congressional Globe Office, 1860).

  “would tend to soften…in the border States”: Ibid.

  CHAPTER 2: THE “LONGING TO RISE”

  “We find ourselves…times tells us”: AL, “Address Before the Young Men’s Lyceum of Springfield, Illinois,” January 27, 1838, in CW, I, p. 108.

  “When both the…universal feeling”: Alexis de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, ed. J. P. Mayer, trans. George Lawrence (New York: Harper & Row, 1966; 1988), p. 629.

  “any man’s son…any other man’s son”: Frances M. Trollope, Domestic Manners of the Americans (London: Whittaker, Treacher, & Co., 1832; Barre, Mass.: Imprint Society, 1969), p. 93.

  thousands of young men to break away: Joyce Appleby, Inheriting the Revolution: The First Generation of Americans (Cambridge, Mass., and London: Belknap Press of Harvard University Press, 2000), p. 88.

  the Louisiana Purchase: See Robert Wiebe, The Opening of American Society: From the Adoption of the Constitution to the Eve of Disunion (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1984), pp. 131–32; “Louisiana Purchase,” in The Reader’s Companion to American History, ed. Eric Foner and John A. Garraty (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1991), p. 682.

  “Americans are always moving…the mountainside”: Stephen Vincent Benét, Western Star (New York: Farrar & Rinehart, 1943), pp. 3, 7–8.

  In the South…thriving cities: Thomas Dublin, “Internal Migration,” in The Reader’s Companion to American History, ed. Foner and Garraty, pp. 564–65.

  “Every American…to rise”: de Tocqueville, Democracy in America, ed. Mayer, p. 627.

  born on May 16, 1801: Van Deusen, William Henry Seward, p. 3.

  Samuel Seward: Seward, An Autobiography, pp. 19–20; Bancroft, The Life of William H. Seward, Vol. I, pp. 1–2; Taylor, William Henry Seward, p. 12.

  “a considerable…destined preferment”: Seward, An Autobiography, pp. 20, 21.

  Seward’s early education: Ibid., pp. 20, 22; “Biographical Memoir of William H. Seward,” The Works of William H. Seward, Vol. I, ed. George E. Baker (5 vols., New York: J. S. Redfield, 1853; New York: AMS Press, 1972), pp. xvi–xvii.

  “at five in the morning…politics or religion!”: Seward, An Autobiography, pp. 21, 22.

  Seward slaves: Ibid., p. 27. The Sewards still owned seven slaves in 1820. See entry for Samuel S. Seward, Warwick, Orange County, N.Y., Fourth Census of the United States, 1820 (National Archives Microfilm Publication M33, reel 64), RG 29, DNA.

  “loquacious”…to fight against slavery: Seward, An Autobiography, pp. 27–28.

  status of slavery in the North after the Revolution: Winthrop D. Jordan, White Over Black: American Attitudes Toward the Negro, 1550–1812 (New York: W. W. Norton & Co., 1977), p. 345; Leon F. Litwack, North of Slavery: The Negro in the Free States, 1790–1860 (Chicago and London: University of Chicago Press, 1961), pp. 3, 6.

  slavery eliminated in New York by 1827: Taylor, William Henry Seward, p. 14.

  enrolled in…Union College: Van Deusen, William Henry Seward, p. 4.

  “a magnificent…so imposing”: Seward, An Autobiography, p. 29.

  “I cherished…of my class”: Ibid., p. 31.

  “had determined…at Union College”: Ibid., p. 35.

  “all the eminent…a broken heart”: Ibid., pp. 35, 36–43.

  “Matters prosper…even his notice”: WHS to Daniel Jessup, Jr., January 24, 1820, reel 1, Seward Papers.

  “was received as a student…in Washington Hall”: Seward, An Autobiography, pp. 47–48.

  friendship with…David Berdan: “David Berdan,” Eulogy read before the Adelphic Society of Union College, July 21, 1828, and published in The Knickerbocker Magazine (December 1839), in The Works of William H. Seward, Vol. III, pp. 117–27; WHS to the President of the Adelphic Society, Union College, draft copy, September 3, 1827, reel 1, Seward Papers; Taylor, William Henry Seward, p. 18.

  “a genius of the highest order”…Seward was devastated: WHS to the President of the Adelphic Society, Union College, draft copy, September 3, 1827, reel 1, Seward Papers.

  “never again…in this world”: FAS to WHS, February 15, 1831, reel 113, Seward Papers.

  “a common feature”…passionate romances: E. Anthony Rotundo, American Manhood: Transformations in Masculinity from the Revolution to the Modern Era (New York: Basic Books/HarperCollins, 1993), pp. 3, 76 (quote), 86.

  Relationship with Judge Miller: “Biographical Memoir of William H. Seward,” Works of William H. Seward, Vol. I, p. xxi.

  marriage to Frances Miller…The judge insisted: Seward, An Autobiography, p. 62.

  Chase’s ancestors: Niven, Salmon P. Chase, pp. 5–7, 21; Schuckers, The Life and Public Services of Salmon Portland Chase, p. 3; Robert B. Warden, An Account of the Private Life and Public Services of Salmon Portland Chase (Cincinnati: Wilstach, Baldwin & Co., 1874), pp. 22–27.

  “the neighboring folk…in New England”: SPC to John T. Trowbridge, December 27, 1863, reel 30, Chase Papers.

  “a good man”: SPC to Trowbridge, January 19, 1864, reel 31, Chase Papers.

  “angry word…from his lips”: SPC to Trowbridge, December 27, 1863, reel 30, Chase Papers.

  Chase long remembered…“& kind looks”: SPC to Trowbridge, January 19, 1864, reel 31, Chase Papers.

  “I was…ambitious…of my class”: SPC to Trowbridge, December 27, 1863, reel 30, Chase Papers.

  taught by elder sister: Warden, Private Life and Public Services, p. 36.

  retreat to th
e garden…designated passages: SPC to Trowbridge, January 19, 1864, reel 31, Chase Papers.

  “once repeating…a single recitation”: Biographical sketch of Salmon P. Chase, quoted in Warden, Private Life and Public Services, p. 39.

  “for the entertainment they afforded”: Warden, Private Life and Public Services, p. 38.

  “quite a prodigy…and head down”: SPC to Trowbridge, January 21, 1864, reel 31, Chase Papers.

  “sliding down hill”…would swear: SPC to Trowbridge, December 27, 1863, reel 30, Chase Papers.

  made him abhor intemperance: Warden, Private Life and Public Services, p. 63.

  “face forward…sufficed to save”: SPC to Trowbridge, January 21, 1864, reel 31, Chase Papers.

  Ithamar’s glass venture and financial ruin: SPC to Trowbridge, January 19, 1864, reel 31, Chase Papers; Niven, Salmon P. Chase, pp. 7–8.

  Ithamar Chase’s fatal stroke: Niven, Salmon P. Chase, p. 8.

  “He lingered…our home”: SPC to Trowbridge, January 19, 1864, reel 31, Chase Papers.

  “almost to suffering”: SPC to Trowbridge, February 1, 1864, reel 31, Chase Papers.

  “ever lamented and deceased father”: Janette Ralston Chase to SPC, August 14, 1824, [filed as 1824–1825 correspondence], reel 4, Chase Papers.

  Salmon sent to Philander Chase: SPC to Trowbridge, January 21 and 31, 1864, reel 31, Chase Papers; Arthur Meier Schlesinger, “Salmon Portland Chase: Undergraduate and Pedagogue,” Ohio Archaeological and Historical Quarterly [hereafter OAHQ] 28 (April 1919), pp. 120–21.

  Salmon’s journey to Worthington: SPC to Trowbridge, January 23, 1864, reel 31, Chase Papers; Niven, Salmon P. Chase, pp. 9–11.

  “was not passive…quite tyrannical”: SPC to Trowbridge, January 25, 1864, reel 31, Chase Papers.

  “My memories…wish I had not”: SPC to Trowbridge, January 27, 1864, reel 31, Chase Papers.

  Cincinnati College…“gave it to reading”: SPC to Trowbridge, January 31, 1864, typescript copy, reel 31, Chase Papers.

  his “life might have been…more fun!”: Warden, Private Life and Public Services, p. 94.

  first teaching position…dismissed: Niven, Salmon P. Chase, p. 17.

  At Dartmouth: Ibid., pp. 18–19; Frederick J. Blue, Salmon P. Chase: A Life in Politics (Kent, Ohio, and London: Kent State University Press, 1987), pp. 6–7.

  two lifelong friendships: Niven, Salmon P. Chase, p. 97.

  “Especially do I…have been wasted”: SPC to Thomas Sparhawk, July 8, 1827, reel 4, Chase Papers.

  “the author is doubtless…vilest purposes”: Entry for September 22, 1829, SPC diary, reel 40, Chase Papers. The editors of the published edition of the Salmon P. Chase Papers identify the author of the novel as Edward Bulwer-Lytton. See note 65 for entry of September 22, 1829, The Salmon P. Chase Papers. Vol. I: Journals, 1829–1872, ed. John Niven (Kent, Ohio, and London: Kent State University Press, 1993), p. 24 [hereafter Chase Papers, Vol. I].

  established a successful school: SPC to Trowbridge, February 10, 1864, reel 31, Chase Papers; Schlesinger, “Salmon Portland Chase,” OAHQ (1919), pp. 132–33, 143.

  distinct classes of society…“utter contempt”: SPC to Hamilton Smith, May 31, 1827, reel 4, Chase Papers.

  “I have always thought…to achieve”: SPC to Hamilton Smith, April 7, 1829, reel 4, Chase Papers.

  “saw the novelty…poor and young”: Appleby, Inheriting the Revolution, p. 7.

  wrote to an older brother in 1825 for advice: Alexander R. Chase to SPC, November 4, 1825, reel 4, Chase Papers.

  Attorney General William Wirt: Warden, Private Life and Public Services, pp. 124–25, 175; Fidler, “Young Limbs of the Law,” pp. 245, 276. See also Michael L. Oberg, “Wirt, William,” American National Biography, Vol. XXIII, ed. John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, American Council of Learned Societies (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), pp. 675–76.

  Wirt welcomed: Entries of January 10, 29, 30, 1829; February 9, 1829; April 8, 20, 1829; Chase Papers, Vol. I, pp. 5–9, 13–14; Schuckers, The Life and Public Services of Salmon Portland Chase, p. 29.

  to read and study…his students: SPC to Trowbridge, February 13, 1864, reel 31, Chase Papers.

  “many happy hours…the stars”: SPC to Trowbridge, February 10, 1864, in The Salmon P. Chase Papers. Vol. IV: Correspondence, April 1863–1864, ed. John Niven (Kent, Ohio, and London: Kent State University Press, 1997), p. 283.

  the social gulf…discouraged: Elizabeth Goldsborough to Robert Warden, quoted in Warden, Private Life and Public Services, p. 126; Niven, Salmon P. Chase, pp. 23, 40.

  “thousands…universal scholar”: Alexander R. Chase to SPC, November 4, 1825, reel 4, Chase Papers.

  “Day and night…my labours”: Entry for March 1, 1830, Chase Papers, Vol. I, p. 45.

  “knowledge may yet…be mine”: Entry for January 13, 1829, ibid., p. 6.

  “You will be…in that walk”: William Wirt to SPC, May 4, 1829, reel 4, Chase Papers.

  “God [prospering]…your example”: SPC to William Wirt, June 16, 1829, reel 4, Chase Papers.

  self-designed course of preparation: Niven, Salmon P. Chase, pp. 23, 26.

  “his voice deep…of my toils”: Entry for February 14, 1829, diary, reel 1, Papers of Salmon P. Chase, Manuscript Division, Library of Congress [hereafter Chase Papers, DLC].

  “I feel humbled…of well-doing”: Entry for December 31, 1829, diary, reel 1, Chase Papers, LC.

  Chase before the bar, 1829: William Cranch, quoted in Niven, Salmon P. Chase, p. 27.

  “study another year”…sworn in at the bar: SPC, “Admission to the Bar,” June 30, 1853, reel 32, Chase Papers, DLC.

  “I would rather…wherever I may be”: SPC to Charles D. Cleveland, February 8, 1830, reel 4, Chase Papers.

  Cincinnati in 1830: Hart, Salmon P. Chase, pp. 13–16.

  “was covered by the primeval forest”: SPC, “On the Dedication of a New State House, January 6, 1857,” reel 41, Chase Papers.

  “a stranger and an adventurer”: Entry for September 1, 1830, Chase Papers, Vol. I, p. 53.

  shyness, speech defect: Niven, Salmon P. Chase, p. 31.

  “I wish I was…provide the remedy”: William Wirt to SPC, May 4, 1829, reel 4, Chase Papers.

  “awkward, fishy…little inconvenience”: SPC to Charles D. Cleveland, February 8, 1830, reel 4, Chase Papers.

  “I made this resolution…excel in all things”: Entry for April 29, 1831, Chase Papers, Vol. I, p. 57.

  “I was fully…a ‘crown of glory’”: Entry for March 1, 1830, ibid., p. 45.

  founded a popular lecture series…berated himself: Entry for February 8, 1834, diary, reel 40, Chase Papers; Niven, Salmon P. Chase, pp. 32, 34–38; Mary Merwin Phelps, Kate Chase, Dominant Daughter: The Life Story of a Brilliant Woman and Her Famous Father (New York: Thomas Y. Crowell, 1935), pp. 12, 35.

  “I confess…terminate in this life”: Abigail Chase Colby to SPC, April 21, 1832, reel 4, Chase Papers.

  death of Catherine Garniss Chase: Entries for November 21 and December 1, 1835, Chase Papers, Vol. I, pp. 87, 92–93.

  “so overwhelming…has been severed”: SPC to Charles D. Cleveland, April 6, 1836, reel 5, Chase Papers.

  “Oh how I accused…tempted me away”: Entry for December 25, 1835, Chase Papers, Vol. I, p. 94.

  “that death was within…left but clay”: Entry for December 1, 1835, ibid., pp. 93–94.

  “the dreadful calamity…care for her”: SPC to Charles D. Cleveland, April 6, 1836, reel 5, Chase Papers.

  doctors had bled her so profusely: Entry for December 26, 1835, Chase Papers, Vol. I, p. 96.

  he delved into textbooks: Entry for December 28, 1835, ibid., p. 99.

  “Oh if I had not…now she is gone”: Entry for December 27, 1835, ibid., pp. 97–98.

  “the bar of God…an accusing spirit”: Entry for December 28, 1835, ibid., p. 99.

  a “second conversion”: Stephen E. Maizlish, “Salmon P. Chase: The Roots of Ambition and the
Origins of Reform,” Journal of the Early Republic 18 (Spring 1998), p. 62.

  death of daughter Catherine: Blue, Salmon P. Chase, p. 35; Warden, Private Life and Public Services, p. 286; Niven, Salmon P. Chase, p. 72.

  “one of the…desolation of my heart”: SPC to Charles D. Cleveland, February 7, 1840, reel 5, Chase Papers.

  marriage to Eliza; birth of Kate: Blue, Salmon P. Chase, pp. 25–26; Warden, Private Life and Public Services, pp. 290–91, 295, 296, 301, 302.

  “I feel as if…we are desolate”: SPC to Charles D. Cleveland, October 1, 1845, reel 6, Chase Papers.

  Marriage to Belle; death of wife and daughter: Blue, Salmon P. Chase, p. 74; Warden, Private Life and Public Services, pp. 311–12.

  “What a vale…I rise & press on”: SPC to CS, January 28, 1850, reel 8, Chase Papers (quote); Niven, Salmon P. Chase, p. 135.

  “to go West and grow up with the country”: William F. Switzler, “Lincoln’s Attorney General: Edward Bates, One of Missouri’s Greatest Citizens—His Career as a Lawyer, Farmer and Statesman,” reprinted in Onward Bates, Bates, et al., of Virginia and Missouri (Chicago: P. F. Pettibone, 1914), p. 26.

  His father, Thomas Fleming Bates: For general information on Bates’s family and early years, see Cain, Lincoln’s Attorney General, pp. 1–3, 5; “Bates, Edward,” DAB, Vol. I, p. 48; James M. McPherson, “Bates, Edward,” American National Biography, Vol. II, ed. John A. Garraty and Mark C. Carnes, American Council of Learned Societies (New York and Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1999), p. 329; Introduction, The Diary of Edward Bates, 1859–1866, p. xi; Bates, Bates, et al., of Virginia and Missouri, p. 22; “Death of Edward Bates,” Missouri Republican, St. Louis, Mo., March 26, 1869; Elie Weeks, “Belmont,” Goochland County Historical Society Magazine 12 (1980), pp. 36–49; EB to C. I. Walker, February 10, 1859, reprinted in Collections of the Pioneer Society of the State of Michigan Together with Reports of County Pioneer Societies, Vol. VIII, 2nd edn. (1886; Lansing, Mich.: Wynkoop Hallenbeck Crawford Co., 1907), pp. 563–64.

  “as distinctly…Western Europe”: Charles Gibson, The Autobiography of Charles Gibson, ed. E. R. Gibson, 1899, Charles Gibson Papers, Missouri Historical Society, St. Louis, Mo. [hereafter Gibson Papers, MoSHi].