The Belle Of The North

Katherine Jane Chase the daughter of the United States Secretary of the Treasury, married Rhode Island Governor William Sprague November 12^th 1863 at the Chase home in Washington, DC.

Katherine Jane Chase; always called Kate, was born August 13^th 1840 in Cincinnati, Ohio, the daughter of Salmon P and Eliza Ann (Smith) Chase.  She was sent to school in New York City to the Haines School, where she learned elocution, history, languages, music, and most importantly the social graces.  After being away at school for nine years Chase returned to Columbus, Ohio, a beautiful 18 year old, to serve as hostess for her widowed father, who had been newly elected Governor.  She was a beautiful, intelligent young woman who impressed her father’s many political friends.

Chase came to Washington, DC with her father, when he became President Abraham Lincoln’s Secretary of the Treasury in 1861.  She set up their home in Washington and continued to act as his hostess.  The parties she held were much sought after invitations, and she quickly became the “Belle of the North”.  Chase made a point of visiting the Union camps surrounding Washington, and making friends of Union General.  She was also out spoken on her views of how the war should be fought.

On November 12^th 1863 Chase married Rhode Island Governor William Sprague in her father’s home in Washington, DC.  It was the social event of the year.  The United States Marine Corps Band played a march composed by Thomas Mark Clark just for the occasion.  President Lincoln attended the ceremony, but his wife Mary, who didn’t like Chase, did not go.

Hers was not a happy marriage.  Both Chase and her husband apparently had affairs, and the marriage ended in divorce in 1882.  After the divorce she took back her maiden name.  Chase moved with three of her children to her late father’s estate “Edgewood” near Washington, DC.  She died there July 31^st 1899 in poverty of Bright’s disease.  She is buried beside her father in the Spring Grove Cemetery in Cincinnati, Ohio.

If you are interested in reading more, check out The Nuptials of Miss Kate Chase and Ex-Gov. Sprague

From Soldier To Leader

Union Lieutenant General Ulysses S Grant became United States President Ulysses S Grant on March 4^th 1869.

Union Lieutenant General Ulysses S Grant became the 18^th President of the United States on March 4^th 1869, the first of many Civil War veterans to hold that office.  His first inauguration was performed by Supreme Court Chief Justice Salmon P Chase on the East Portico of the White House.  President Andrew Johnson refused to attend the inaugural ceremonies it is believed because President elect Grant had refused to sit with him in his carriage on the ride to his inauguration.  Grant’s inaugural parade included eight divisions of Army, and his inaugural ball was held that night in the Treasury Building.

If you’re interested in reading   

Ulysses S. Grant's First Inaugural Address  this is a good place to start.

God And Money

The phrase “In God We Trust” was suggested by Reverend M R Watkinson November 13^th 1861 in a letter to United States Secretary of Treasury Salmon P Chase.

During the Civil War there was an increased religious feeling in the country.  The Reverend M R Watkinson of Ridleyville, Pennsylvania, wrote a letter November 13^th 1861 to US Treasury Secretary Salmon P Chase asking that a proclamation be placed on our money recognizing “Almighty God”.  Chase wrote soon after to the Director of the Philadelphia Mint, that no “nation can be strong except in the strength of God, or safe except in His defense. The trust of our people in God should be declared on our national coins"

Chase wouldn’t formally submit the motto to the treasury until December 9^th 1863.  The act ratified that the motto be placed on the one cent and a newly designed two cent piece on April 22^nd 1864.

The wording of the original letter from Reverend Watkinson is:

"Dear Sir: You are about to submit your annual report to the Congress respecting the affairs of the national finances.

One fact touching our currency has hitherto been seriously overlooked. I mean the recognition of the Almighty God in some form on our coins.

You are probably a Christian. What if our Republic were not shattered beyond reconstruction? Would not the antiquaries of succeeding centuries rightly reason from our past that we were a heathen nation? What I propose is that instead of the goddess of liberty we shall have next inside the 13 stars a ring inscribed with the words PERPETUAL UNION; within the ring the allseeing eye, crowned with a halo; beneath this eye the American flag, bearing in its field stars equal to the number of the States united; in the folds of the bars the words GOD, LIBERTY, LAW.

This would make a beautiful coin, to which no possible citizen could object. This would relieve us from the ignominy of heathenism. This would place us openly under the Divine protection we have personally claimed. From my hearth I have felt our national shame in disowning God as not the least of our present national disasters.

To you first I address a subject that must be agitated."

One Of Many Parties

The Liberty Party a minor United State political party held its first national convention April 1st 1840.


The Liberty Party was an early advocate of the abolitionist movement. It broke away from the American Anti-Slavery Society, under the belief that the United States Constitution was an anti-slavery document. Party members where abolitionists who tried to work with politics to get people to support their goals. The Liberty Party’s first gathering was November 1839 in Warsaw, New York, its first national convention was held on April 1st 1840.

The Parties nomination for President in 1840 and 1844 was James G Birney of Kentucky, a former slave owner. Birney didn’t get many votes in 1840, but in 1844 he received 62,103 votes. At their convention in Syracuse, New York in 1847 they endorsed John P Hale of New Hampshire. In August 1848 there was a meeting held in Buffalo, New York, where members from the Liberty Party, and some un-happy New York Democrats joined to form the Free Soil Party.

A member of the Liberty Party, who latter become a politically prominent Republican was Salmon P Chase. Besides Chase the Liberty Party produced 8 United States Senators, 18 Representatives, 2 Supreme Court Justices, and 5 Governors.

Two Hundred Seventy-One Words

President Abraham Lincoln gave his few appropriate remarks at the dedication of the Gettysburg National Cemetery November 19th 1863.


Four month after the Union victory at the Battle of Gettysburg, President Abraham Lincoln gave what is probably one of the best known speeches in history, to dedicated the Soldier‘s National Cemetery. Lincoln’s few remarks were given in just over two minutes on November 19th 1863. He arrived in Gettysburg Pennsylvania by train the day before. Lincoln spent the night in the David Will’s house, where he put the final touches on his speech. At 9:30 on the morning of November 19th Lincoln along with Secretary of State William H Seward and Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P Chase joined the procession traveling down Baltimore Street to the dedication.

It is estimated that 15,000 people attended the ceremony, including six sitting governors, and a Canadian politician William McDougall. The re-interment of Union bodies was only about half completed at the time of the ceremony. Following the featured speaker for the day, Edward Everett, Lincoln spoke for just a few short minutes, summing up the war in 271 words “The Gettysburg Address.”

“Four score and seven years ago our fathers brought forth on this continent, a new nation, conceived in Liberty, and dedicated to the proposition that all men are created equal.

Now we are engaged in a great civil war, testing whether that nation, or any nation so conceived and so dedicated, can long endure. We are met on a great battle-field of that war. We have come to dedicate a portion of that field, as a final resting place for those who here gave their lives that that nation might live. It is altogether fitting and proper that we should do this.

But, in a larger sense, we can not dedicate -- we can not consecrate -- we can not hallow -- this ground. The brave men, living and dead, who struggled here, have consecrated it, far above our poor power to add or detract. The world will little note, nor long remember what we say here, but it can never forget what they did here. It is for us the living, rather, to be dedicated here to the unfinished work which they who fought here have thus far so nobly advanced. It is rather for us to be here dedicated to the great task remaining before us -- that from these honored dead we take increased devotion to that cause for which they gave the last full measure of devotion -- that we here highly resolve that these dead shall not have died in vain -- that this nation, under God, shall have a new birth of freedom -- and that government of the people, by the people, for the people, shall not perish from the earth. “

The GOP Choice

United States Representative Abraham Lincoln was nominated at the National Republican Convention May 16th 1860.


At the second ever National Convention of the Republican Party held on May 16th 1860 at the Wigwam in Chicago Illinois, Abraham Lincoln was nominated for President of the United States. Senator Hannibal Hamlin of Maine was nominated for Vice President. This convention is notable as every person who was nominated would eventually become a member of Lincoln’s cabinet, including William H Seward of New York, Simon Cameron of Pennsylvania, Salmon P Chase of Ohio and Edward Bates of Missouri. It took three votes before Lincoln received enough votes to get the conformation, finally happening on May 18th 1860. The final count was 364 votes out of 466 votes cast.

The Lincoln / Hamlin ticket defeated three other tickets in 1860’s election.

Another good web site with more information about this subject
Mr Lincoln and New York

He Lost The First Battle

Brigadier General Irvin McDowell who was defeated at First Bull Run / First Manassas died May 4th 1885.


Irvin McDowell was born October 15th 1818 in Columbus Ohio. He started his college education in France at the College de Troyes, but then went on to graduate from West Point Military Academy in 1838. He was commissioned Second Lieutenant in the 1st United State Artillery. He was a tactics instructor at West Point. During the Mexican American War McDowell served as aide-de-camp to General John E Wool.

On May 14th 1861 McDowell was given a promotion to Brigadier General. He was placed in command of the Union Army of Northeastern Virginia through connection with Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P Chase. Even though he knew his troops were green and not ready for battle McDowell bent to the pressures of Washington and launched an offensive against the Confederates. His strategy for winning First Bull Run was complicated and his soldiers much to inexperienced, resulting in an humiliating Union loss.

After the loss at Bull Run, McDowell was replaced by Major General George B McClellan. McDowell was placed in command of the 1st Corps, which was placed in defense of Washington DC. Latter three of McDowell’s commands would be combined and moved into Major General John Pope’s Union Army of Virginia, where McDowell would lead the 3rd Corps. After another failure at Second Manassas, McDowell was exiled from leadership in the Army. He was placed in command of the Department of the Pacific.

Following the end of the Civil War McDowell commanded the Fourth Military district which included Arkansas and Louisiana during the years of Reconstruction. In 1872 he was promoted to Major General in the United States Regular Army. He retired from military service in 1882. McDowell died May 4th 1885 in San Francisco California, were he is buried in the Presidio.

In God We Trust

The United States Congress passed the Coinage Act of 1864 on April 22nd 1864, mandating the words “In God We Trust” to be placed on coins minted as US currency. Due to the increasing religious feeling resulting from the horrors of the Civil War, Secretary of the Treasury Salmon P Chase heard pleas from many Americans asking that God be recognized on US coins. The legislation passed on the 22nd authorized minting a two-cent piece, with the motto in the design.

Supreme Court and Slaves

Before the United State Supreme Court on February 1, 1847 is brought the case Jones v Van Zandt.

John Van Zandt was a farmer and abolitionist from Hamilton County, Ohio. On April 24th 1842,he concealed nine runway slaves from Boone County, Kentucky in his wagon. The of the slaves were owned by Wharton Jones. When slave catchers show up in Ohio, they took seven of the slaves and John Van Zandt back to Kentucky, where they were placed in jail, in Covington, Kentucky. Van Zandt was released, but charged with the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793. He was represented by Ohio attorney Salmon P Chase, but loosing in both the lower and appellate courts, they appeal the case to the Supreme Court. Before reaching the Supreme Court, New York Lawyer William Seward joined the case. The court under Chief Justice Roger B Taney found against Van Zandt, up holding as constitutional the Fugitive Slave Law.