Kate Chase and William Sprague

The marriage of Kate Chase to William Sprague inaugurated the most publicized union and divorce of the Civil War era. Katherine 'Kate' Chase was the daughter of Salmon P. Chase, a leading antislavery politician and member of Abraham Lincoln's cabinet. Motherless from an early age, she became her father's official hostess during the Civil War and Reconstruction years as well as his unofficial campaign manager. At the opening of the Civil War, her husband, William Sprague, was a wealthy industrialist, the 'boy governor' of Rhode Island, a dashing military figure, and an alcoholic. After looking at the lives of Chase and Sprague before they met, Peg A. Lamphier analyzes their courtship, their marriage, Chase's role as her father's campaign manager, Sprague's marital infidelities, Chase's affair with Roscoe Conkling, Sprague's abusiveness, Chase and Sprague's divorce and the issues of child custody it evoked. Pushing the boundaries of power and gender, Chase showed her ability to play politics in both public and private forums and to regain her independence as a woman in an arena dominated by men. "Kate Chase and William Sprague" delves into the social history of a nineteenth-century marriage and provides important insight about how gender played a central role in the political history of the time. Peg A. Lamphier is an adjunct professor of history at Chaffey College, California State Polytechnic, Pomona, and Mt. San Antonio College in California.

ISBN 080322947X   Pages 368 ISBN13 9780803229471 (What's this?)   Volumes 1 Publisher University of Nebraska Press   Weight (grammes) 617 Imprint University of Nebraska Press   Published in Lincoln Format Hardback   Height (mm) 241 Publication date 15 Feb 2004   Width (mm) 156 Library of Congress 2003002466   Spine width (mm) 30 DEWEY 306.89097309034   Academic level Professional / Scholarly DEWEY edition DC21

		List of Illustrations
		Acknowledgments
		Introduction		1
1		Before They Met: Family Life in the Mid-Nineteenth Century, 1830-1861		11
2		"My Former Self Has Lost Its Identity": The Courtship and Wedding, 1861-1863		43
3		No Future Brighter: Braving the Perils of Marriage and Reconstruction Politics, 1863-1868		67
4		"Argument and Pertinacity": The Difficult Years, 1868-1873		106
5		The Beginning of the End: Domestic Infidelities and Family Life, 1874-1878		131
6		"Whiskey, Economy and Disregarded Wishes": The Naragansett Affair, Domestic Abuse, and State Politics, 1879		157
7		"Extreme Cruelty and Gross Misbehavior": Divorce and Politics, 1800		184
8		"Baleful Grief and Bitter Bread": Surviving Divorce in the Gilded Age, 1881-1915		211
		Afterword		249
App. A		Katherine Chase Sprague Divorce Petition		253
App. B		William Sprague Divorce Petition		257
		Notes		259
		Index		309

"An intriguing biography of the marriage of Kate Chase, the belle of Washington, ' and William Sprague, the Rhode Island governor and senator."-Journal of Southern History

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