The interesting Englishman who is the latest biographer of
Lincoln says of Chase: "Unfortunately, this imposing person was a
sneak." But is Lord Charnwood justified in that surprising
characterization? He finds support in the testimony of Secretary
Welles, who calls Chase, "artful dodger, unstable, and
unreliable." And yet there is another side, for it is the
conventional thing in America to call him our greatest finance
minister since Hamilton, and even a conspicuous enemy said of
him, at a crucial moment, that his course established his
character "as an honest and frank man."
Taking these contradictory estimates as hints of a contradiction
in the man, we are forced to the conclusion that Chase was a
professional in politics and an amateur in finance. Perhaps
herein is the whole explanation of the two characteristics of his
financial policy--his reluctance to lay taxes, and his faith in
loans. His two eyes did not see things alike. One was really
trying to make out the orthodox path of finance; the other was
peering along the more devious road of popular caprice.
The opening of the war caught the Treasury, as it caught all
branches of the Government, utterly unprepared. Between April
and July, 1861, Chase had to borrow what he could.
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