Salmon P. Chase: A Biography (review)

72CIVIL WAR HISTORY Henry's autobiography provides an excellent firsthand description of the difficulties ofbeing a black preacher in the American South in the decades prior to the Civil War. Reverend Henry had to worry about being mistaken for an escaped slave, making sure he obeyed the laws governing those conditions under which free African Americans could be ministered to, whether or not he would be paid by his Conference, and where he would be able to preach. Often Henry had to help build the church or assist the congregation in raising funds to buy the buildings where they worshiped. It clearly was an arduous Ufe. Despite his conservative philosophy, Henry was recommended to John Brown as a possible supporter. In the historical essay that foUows the autobiography , Libby details the unsuccessful attempt by John Brown to meet with Henry. After the attack on Harpers Ferry, the authorities found Henry's name on a Ust ofpeople to be contacted, prompting him to leave for Pennsylvania, where he waited out the war years. After the Civil War he returned to Maryland to continue his ministry. Both the introduction and historical essay are helpful in understanding the historical circumstances of the Ufe ofReverend Henry. The only problem I have with either is Libby's description ofthis autobiography as "Afrocentric." It may have to do with definitions, but clearly the center of Henry's world was God, and African Americans were simply the vessels through which Henry did His work. Given the opportunity, Henry would also minister to white parishioners with the same fervor he employed for African Americans. But this is a minor flaw. For those interested in knowing more about the early A.M.E. Church in the South and its ministers, I would recommend the Reverend Henry's autobiography . Kenneth W. Goings University of Memphis Salmon P. Chase: A Biography. By John Niven. (New York: Oxford University Press, 1995. Pp. xü, 546. $35.00.) For years American historians complained that there was no modern biography of Salmon P. Chase, the antislavery politician who became Abraham Lincoln's secretary of the treasury in 1 861 and chiefjustice of the United States Supreme Court in 1864. There were two laudatory contemporary biographies and a scholarly biography published by Albert Bushneil Hart in 1 899. There were also articles on various aspects of Chase's career and accounts of Chase in studies devoted to other subjects. But for most of the twentieth-century, biographers avoided Chase. They were daunted by the task of mastering the extensive collections ofhis papers. They were repulsed by perceptions ofhis personaUty. Chase appeared to have been an insufferable but bumbling egoist who mouthed moral platitudes while seeking to advance himself poUtically at the expense of wiser men. BOOK REVIEWS73 Lack of interest in Chase no longer exists. Since 1970, when Eric Foner recognized Chase's pivotal role in formulating the antebellum Republican party's antislavery interpretation of the Constitution, Chase has enjoyed a renaissance among American historians. In 1978 Peter F. Walker included a biographical sketch of Chase in his study of how individual Americans made the risky choice to advocate the aboUtion of slavery. In 1987 Frederick J. Blue published the first biography—albeit a strictly pohtical biography—ofChase in nearly ninety years, and in 1993 John Niven began publishing a multivolume edition of Chase's papers. Now there is Niven's Salmon P. Chase, which is by far the most detailed account of Chase's life yet written. Niven is an experienced biographer of nineteenth-century American politicians . As editor of Chase's papers, he has achieved an extraordinary grasp of primary sources of information about Chase. Niven does especially well in describing Chase's private life. He presents the events of Chase's youth and early manhood in New Hampshire, Ohio, and Washington, D.C. He develops Chase's often-tragic relations with his family and wives—all of the latter died within a few years of their marriage—was well as with his friends and associates . These accounts help to humanize a figure that Niven himself regards as pompous and distant. Niven's is also by far the most expansive treatment of Chase's...