Salmon P. Chase

“Chase has the biography he deserves.” – Claremont Review of Books “Stahr has… provided the reader with a gift.” – Washington Independent Review of Books “Eloquently written [and] impeccably researched… as powerful and moving a political biography as I have read.” – The Wall Street Journal “Revelatory… Walter Stahr presents readers with a far more textured and complicated Salmon P. Chase than in previous biographies, showing him as a shrewd figure who fought a long battle for a variety of progressive causes, including defending those who escaped slavery in court.” – The Christian Science Monitor“Well-researched… Despite countless books about Lincoln and those in his orbit, Chase is an important figure who merits this capable study.” – Kirkus Reviews“Long viewed as either a pretentious thorn in Lincoln’s side or the beneficiary of Lincoln’s generosity, Salmon P. Chase has long deserved a full, fresh, fair reappraisal. With this sweeping, meticulously researched, and convincingly argued biography, Walter Stahr has produced just such a study.” – Harold Holzer, Gilder Lehrman Prize-winning author of Lincoln and the Power of the Press“Magisterial. A fascinating character study of a man who Knew He Was Right even when wrong, and yet whose financial and judicial legacies continue to this day.” – Amanda Foreman, New York Times bestselling author of A World on Fire“Salmon P. Chase may well have been the most consequential political radical in American history. Walter Stahr’s new book illuminates his enduring importance with scholarly thoroughness, shrewd interpretation, and dramatic immediacy.” – Sean Wilentz, Bancroft Prize-winning author of No Property in Man“This superb book more than fills the need for a modern biography of Salmon Chase, a leader of the antislavery movement, founder of the Republican Party, advocate of racial justice, Secretary of the Treasury who transformed the American monetary structure in the process of financing the Civil War, and Chief Justice of the United States whose opinions are still cited by the Supreme Court. Chase fully deserves Walter Stahr’s encomium as ‘one of the great Americans of his generation.’” – James McPherson, Pulitzer Prize-winning author of Battle Cry of Freedom“Walter Stahr breathes new life into Salmon Chase and his long quest to end slavery and secure black rights in America.” – Brad Meltzer, New York Times bestselling author of The Lincoln Conspiracy

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.