IRB Media Summary of Roger Lowenstein's Ways and Means

Annotation

Please note: This is a companion version & not the original book. Book Preview: #1 Lincoln had chosen William Seward, his closest rival for the Republican nomination, for the State Department. He wanted to appoint Chase to be the next Treasury secretary. The country was suffering a financial crisis, and investors were losing faith in government securities.#2 Financial pressure was being applied to the South to keep them in the Union. The North did not have the funds to pay off the debt they had accumulated from the war, and they were starting to default on their loans.#3 Lincoln named Chase the Treasury secretary, and the two became good friends. However, Chase was very religious, and Lincoln was not. Lincoln tended to see things as being a mixture of good and bad, while Chase saw them as either good or bad.#4 Lincoln and Chase had very different economic philosophies, but they both recognized the importance of promoting prosperity. Lincoln was a supporter of a federal bank to modernize the financial system and provide the people with a usable currency.