Under normal circumstances, Thomas Jefferson would have had more than two months to prepare for his presidency. However, since the House of Representatives finally settled a tied electoral vote only on 17 February 1801, he had two weeks. This book, which covers the two-and-a-half-month period from that day through April 30, is the first of some twenty volumes that will document Jefferson's two terms as President of the United States.

Here, Jefferson drafts his Inaugural Address, one of the landmark documents of American history. In this famous speech, delivered before a packed...

"As a single volume this work is overwhelmingly impressive. Its meticulous scholarship and its intellectual breadth are stunning. Chase's importance, his quotability, his human social outlook, his many perceptive comments, and all the editors' notes make this work a highly desirable volume for 19th-century historians. Of all the publications of presidents' and politicans' papers, volume I of the Chase Papers is in a class by itself and is the most useful first volume of any similar collection."--The North Carolina Historical Review

Transcriptions of Chase's most important letters to the prominent political figures of his day, including Martin and John Van Buren, Gamaliel Bailey, Frederick Douglass, Joshua Giddings, John P. Hale, William H. Seward and Charles Sumner, are among those collected in this first ever published edition of his correspondence. Besides offering valuable insight into Chase's character, private life, and cultural affairs, this collection contributes to an understanding of mid-19th-century public policy, particularly antislavery reform politics.

The third volume of The Salmon P. Chase Papers documents Chase's career from early 1868--the beginning of his second terms as the governor of Ohio--through the pivotal election of 1860 and the first two years of his service as secretary of the Treasury in Abraham Lincoln's wartime cabinet. Now for the first time there is ready access to a crucial record of the nation's descent into civil war. The National Historical Publications and Records Commission provides financial support for the publication of The Salmon P. Chase Papers.

This volume covers the last fifteen months of Chase's tenure as Treasury secretary and concludes with his nomination as Chief Justice of the United States. Of particular interest are letters that document Chase's increasing alienation from the Lincoln administration and his unsuccessful bid for the presidential nomination of the Republican-Union party in 1864. The National Historical Publications and Records Commission, the NEH, and the Claremont Graduate School provide support for the edition.