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excellent
Beautifully presented cataloge of Chase's work for this period.Stunningly faithful reproductionbs of his work in all their rich color and texture.I loved that the title inclluded specific subject matter and also specfic period.Wonderful book! ... Read more

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Loving Chase
As a landscape painter who does a lot of work on eastern LI, I found this book extremely helpful and have copied many of the paintings shown in this book.Of course, I would have liked the images to be larger, but the comprehensive collection of images is impressive and outways any deficiencies.

For the non-painter interested in Chase, I would say this is a great introduction as well as a survey course on WM Chase's landscape paintings. ... Read more

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The Chief Justice presents a dramatic account of two precedent-setting impeachment cases that strengthened the concept of separation of powers and further defined the institutions of American government.Amazon.com Review
With Supreme Court Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist playinga front-and-center role as the presiding officer in President BillClinton's impeachment trial, it's no wonder that his 1992 study of thetwo most important previous impeachments in United States history wasbrought back into print. But anyone looking for political commentarywill probably be disappointed--Grand Inquests is astraightforward, and surprisingly readable, narrative account,top-heavy with historical details.

Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase was impeached in 1805 both for hispolitical views and as a result of his demeanor as a judge. Rehnquistacknowledges that Chase was "impatient, overbearing, and arrogant,"but asserts that his behavior falls far short of the grounds forimpeachment: high crimes and misdemeanors. He further argues that theacquittal of Chase helped safeguard the independence of the SupremeCourt, preventing future Congresses from removing judges "whose viewsthey considered to be unwise or out of keeping with the times." Theacquittal of President Andrew Johnson in his 1868 trial was a similarvictory for the executive branch, permitting future chief executivesto govern as they see fit ... even if that runs counter to the desiresof Congress.

Rehnquist makes it clear that he believes the impeachments of bothChase and Johnson were politically motivated, and that it was a goodthing for the United States that neither was convicted. He says arelaxed standard of impeachment would have been like "a sword ofDamocles, designed not to fall but to hang" over the head of futurepresidents who would fear removal from office if they did not go alongwith Congress. --Linda Killian ... Read more

Customer Reviews (13)

A Jewel of a Book
This book is much more than an account of the two major impeachments in U.S. history. The bulk of the book consists of a remarkably well-written history lesson covering the period of 1775 to the 1868 Johnson impeachment trial. The last part of the book then discusses the lessons to be learned from these two impeachment efforts.

The 1805 impeachment trial of Justice Chase, a Federalist judge, involved his (mis)handling of 3 cases as a circuit rider judge (in those days Supreme Court justices actually spent most of their time riding circuit). The best the Republicans could do was a 19-15 vote for conviction on one of the Articles, still 4 votes short of the 2/3 needed to remove Chase from office. The effort failed because 6 Republicans defected and voted for acquittal, realizing the impeachment effort was partisan in nature and contrary to what the founding fathers intended.

The 1868 impeachment effort against Johnson similarly failed when 7 Republicans voted against removal. (Terminology here can be confusing; in 1805 Jefferson's party was called "Republican", and later came to be called "Democratic". In 1868 "Republican" was used for the new party formed in the 1850's.) These 7 Republicans can now be seen as the true constitutional heroes that they are. Had the radical Republicans succeeded in removing Johnson, it would mean that from then on the President would serve at the pleasure of the Senate, and the true purpose of the impeachment provision in the Constitution would have been obliterated in a sea of partisanship.

Rehnquist concludes that "The importance of these two acquittals in our constitutional history can hardly be overstated....These two "cases"--decided not by the courts but by the United States Senate--surely contributed as much to the maintenance of our tripartite federal system of government as any case decided by any court." He is right, and he has contributed enormously to our understanding of this issue by his articulate discussion of it contained in this book.

A Grand Piece of Writing
Who knew that the late Chief Justice William H. Rehnquist, leader of the conservative counter revolution against the legacy of the Warren Court, wrote so well?

You would not guess that from his opinions penned over a generation. His court writing is exact but dry, a great contrast to the colorful rhetoric of his conservative colleague, Antonin Scalia.

But in "Grand Inquests," a telling of the impeachment trials of Supreme Court Justice Samuel Chase and President Andrew Johnson, Rehnquist demonstrates a compelling narrative style and the novelist's keen eye for detail. Rehnquist also demonstrates the good novelist's ability to describe the important details at considerable length while limiting the lesser facts in length.

The important details of these two impeachments surround the personalities of the major players that brought about the impeachment instead of ascribing the trials to historical circumstances, as if the impeachments were forced by mysterious forces instead of angry human beings. Rehnquist paints vivid portraits of Andrew Johnson, a one-time tailor and self-made politician, the ambitious and independent Edwin Stanton, whose refusal to give up his post as Secretary of War set the impeachment proceedings in motion, and the Radical Republicans who were furious with Johnson for obstructing Reconstruction, Thaddeus Stevens, Ben Wade, George Boutwell, Charles Sumner, and Ben Butler.

Rehnquist makes a convincing argument that men make their own destiny by their choices when he implies, quite correctly in my view, that Justice Chase would not have been impeached if he were not abrasive and heavy handed in court, and President Johnson would not have been impeached if he had been more even tempered in his disagreement about Reconstruction and presidential appointment power with the opposition Republicans. Johnson, for example, referred to Radical Republican leaders Thaddeus Stevens and Charles Sumner as "traitors."

Both impeachment proceedings occurred in the wake of highly charged political times, Rehnquist observes. Chase was impeached shortly after President John Adams had packed the federal government with appointees of his Federalist Party in the final hours of his presidency. And Adams had also tried to stifle dissent by his political opponents, incited by his idelogical adversary, Thomas Jefferson, with the repressive alien and sedition acts. Johnson faced impeachment during the difficult aftermath of the Civil War. Brave Senators such as Bradley of Vermont and Gaillard of South Carolina risked their political careers to acquit Chase. Likewise, Senators Edmund Ross of Kansas and Lyman Trumbull of Illinois defied the public hysteria against Johnson.

Rehnquist brilliantly cuts through the emotions of the times to show that Chase basically faced impeachment because of biased instructions to a grand jury and questionable instructions to a jury in a criminal trial involving sedition. Johnson was impeached for opposing Reconstruction and firing Secretary of War Edwin Stanton.In firing Stanton, Johnson's political enemies asserted that he was in violation of a congressional act, The Tenure of Office Act, which called for Senate approval of presidential firings. Clinton, of course, whose trial Rehnquist presided over, was impeached for engaging in oral sex in a bathroom near the Oval Office.

Presidential powers became more firmly defined by Supreme Court decisions in the 20th century, Rehnquist notes. A President's sole authority to hire and fire executive department political appointees was not as clear in 1866 as it is in 2006. Indeed the rule of law on presidential power to fire at will political appointees was not decided until "Humphrey's Executor v. United States" in 1935. The Court then held that President Franklin D. Roosevelt had the power to fire Federal Trade Commissioner William E. Humphrey on political grounds. Today we would laugh at the idea that a President would have to seek permission from Congress to fire an executive branch official who was not a career public employee.

Rehnquist has written the best book on impeachment. Read it and enjoy it.

[Hansen Alexander is an attorney who lives and works in New York City. He is the author, most recently, of the introductory legal text "A Tort is Not a Pastry."]

A pedestrian examination of two pivotal impeachments.
There really isn't much to say about Chief Justice Rehnquist's book. _Grand Inquests_ is an inquiry into the impeachments of Justice Chase and President Johnson but the inquiry is done without any real depth or serious historical research. It's a bland recounting of basic facts of the cases that, as Richard Bernstein has already pointed out, ignores most of the relevant studies of this subject. Basically Rehnquist presents a great deal of the immediate detail but fails to place the events firmly in the context of the times. Also he regularly adds in completely irrelevant material, such as in the discussion of Chase's actions as a trial judge he cites his experience in litigation during the 1950s and 60s, which can have practically no bearing on the subject of the trial procedures of 1800. If you're looking for a long winded presentation of the details of individual charges and descriptions of testimony heard by the Senate during these trials than you may enjoy this book. Otherwise any competent constitutional history can provide just as good a discussion in only about ten pages.

Review of Grand Inquests
What I'd hoped for was a historical perspective on the impeachment process as a primer to further reading on the Clinton impeachment proceedings.The historical context provided is, at best truncated--the history reads like an early draft compiled from a chronologically ordered fact list.Hence, the reader is to often required to make the connections between historical precedent and subsequent results. Also troubling were some typographical errors.For example, my paperback edition has James Buchanan being elected president in 1865.When a nonhistorian catches errors like this, doubts begin arising about other listed facts.

I thought too that the book is not especially well written.I ran across too many paragraphs whose thoughts seemed to have been morphed in with insufficient attention to their contributions to context.As one who believes fuzzy writing to be symptomatic of fuzzy thinking, alarm bells went off each time.

In the end, I wasn't confident that I had gotten a good primer for the follow up reading I'd planned.

Good summary of the issues surrounding impeachment
Rehnquist is obviously alot more thoughtful than the "liberal" community, in which I often count myself, has been led to believe.He provides a good summary of the issues that surrounded the impeachments ofChase & Johnson, the constitutional questions these events raised &helped to settle, and their long-term implications.Rehnquist is not, inthis book anyhow, the best stylist in the world, but he also doesn'tdescend into so much legal mumbo-jumbo that non-lawyers would be turnedoff.Also, his sections of background history are just OK.History buffsmay find some factual, emphasis or interpretative points to dispute inthose sections. ... Read more

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Insight Into a Significant, Yet Obscure, Hostess
I was inspired to learm more about Kate Chase after reading Doris Kearns Goodwin's "Team of Rivals".This biography more than satisfied me.It is well written and provides good insight into this Washington Hostess of the Lincoln era and beyond.The reader learns that Kate Chase was QUITE A LADY.I recommend this book highly for the knowledge available into this relatively obscure, yet important, person.

Kate Chase and William Sprague: Politics and Gender
An excellent book!The author really knows her subject and makes this history book as readable as a romance novel.An amazing amount of history that a lot of us might have skipped over in another book.Once I started this book I couldn't put it down.

Outstanding
I've read every biography on Kate Chase Sprague that's around today, and this one, by far, is the best.Peg Lamphier combines the historical background with the characters of Kate and William, and masterfully brings both of them to life in a way I have yet to see in other books.I was so impressed that I've read this book more than once, and each time I find something that makes me remember, Kate was a real person, and a "glorious girl", and what happened to her could happen to anyone.

Kate's life is one that makes me want to go back in time and shake her, but then, we all have to live our lives and do the best that we can with our choices and paths we take.

This biography is well-written, well-researched, and extremely interesting.The author comes across as being much more sympathetic towards Kate than some I've read do, but that's okay.It fits in this book.This is definitely not a novel and not easy reading at times, but I highly recommend it for any serious student of Kate Chase, her marriage to William Sprague, and for those curious about gender and gender differences during the Victorian Era.

Cindy Obermier

Well Researched and Illuminating
This is at least the 5th biography of the Civil War Northern Belle, Kate Chase (daughter of Lincoln's Treasury Secretary), and it takes good advantage of material not available to prior researchers.It continues the revisionist trend from the last bio ("Kate Chase for the Defense", by Sokoloff) of trying to humanize this ambitious woman and portrary her in a more sympathetic light than the first several books.The author makes as good a case as one can for her point of view, and candidly admits to favoritism (she announces in the prologue that she will ever be a Kate supporter, and discloses an unmitigated hatred of Kate's husband William Sprague). But the gender politics angle grows tiresome after a while and detracts from the story. One wishes the book were told in a more dramatic manner; there is certainly more than enough raw material for that.

The best new stuff here concerns the hitherto unknown extent to which the Roscoe Conkling-Kate Chase relationship continued well after the famous "shotgun" incident in which the cuckolded Sprague threatened to blow Conkling's head off, setting off a national scandal.I was particularly intrigued by materials indicating that Kate continued to press the case for Conkling to President Chester Alan Arthur, urging Arthur to give her lover a high-level position in his administration at a time when it should have been obvious that this was not in the cards.Indeed, much of the new research material merely bolsters the picture of Kate Chase as a ceaselessly calculating individual, almost oblivious to what others thought of her. The author is not averse to calling her subject on a number of things, particularly her public prevarication following the shotgun incident, but the sense is that Kate is let off a bit too lightly on this and other matters. And the effort to explain much of Kate's behavior as stemming from a serious, substantive concern for liberal Republican values is not terribly convincing; there is little hard evidence that Kate's political activity was based on anything other than a desire to see her and her loved ones (her father, Conkling, even Sprague) attain positions of personal and political power. That is how virtually all of her contemporaries who knew her saw her (even friends such as John Hay), and the modern biographer bears a heavy burden in trying to impeach that conventional view. (the one vignette I wish the author had included is Hay's diary account of how Kate virtually pleaded with him to dine with her and Conkling a few years after the scandal; Hay made up an excuse for declining).

While early biographers went too far in painting Kate Chase as a cold, ambitious, cutthroat personality, this book tilts a bit too far in the other direction.We could now use a full-bodied, objective bio of this fascinating woman which makes use of the wealth of new material that seems to keep turning up and does not lose sight of the powerful drama that attended her life and times. ... Read more

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An introduction to William Merritt Chase
Author Barbara Gallati has compiled a nice biography of one of America's talented impressionist artists.The story is well written but seeing only 44 color illustrations of the 103 shown is disappointing. Presenting the "Blue Kimono" in color on the cover and in black and white is quite a comparison. I kept looking for information on the number of pieces Chase painted in his career but that was not listed. This 143 page book is a little small for my personal taste.

What is presented however are many portraits of the artist's beautiful family members and well known pictures of Central Park in New York and Prospect Park in Brooklyn. There aren't a lot of books available on William Merrit Chase but this one is good. ... Read more

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Hailed early on as a genius destined to transform American art, William Merritt Chase (1849-1916) put his innovative stamp on American painting during a five-year span when he suddenly changed his technique and subject matter and began producing gorgeous, sun-dappled Impressionist views of New York parks and coastlines-the first Impressionist works ever painted of American landscapes.

This volume-which accompanies an exhibition of Chase's urban landscapes at the Brooklyn Museum of Art-is the first in-depth study of this pivotal period in Chase's career. Armed with new discoveries about the life of the man who became known as "the artistic interpreter of Central Park and Prospect Park," the author shows how Chase turned to his urban scenes to heed the nationalist call of his critics. With splendid illustrations that evoke nostalgia for a now-gone era, this is an impressive work of scholarship-and a book of great appeal for art lovers.

124 photographs, 54 in full color, 9 1/2 x 11"

BARBARA DAYER GALLATI is curator of American painting and sculpture at the Brooklyn Museum of Art. She also teaches art history at the School of Visual Arts in New York City, and is the author of numerous articles, essays, and books on American art. She lives in Brooklyn, New York.

EXHIBITION SCHEDULEBrooklyn Museum of Art, New YorkMay 26-Aug. 13, 2000The Art Institute of ChicagoSept. 7-Nov. 26, 2000The Museum of Fine Arts, HoustonDec. 13, 2000-Mar. 11, 2001 ... Read more

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Customer Reviews (3)

Artist Monographs Should Have Better Plates
I recommend this book, but with some hesitation.There are some incredible pieces of artwork in this volume, most notably Chase's portrait sketches, many of which I had never seen before.However, this printing brings up the question "for whom are art books intended ?"I always want the largest, clearest plates with the best colors, but in this book by Pisano, it seems it was more important to list them all, rather than to represent them pictorially in the best light.There are photocopies OF photocopies of some images, and full-page images which are blurry, and yet you still find wonderful little treasures scattered throughout, but printed at only four times the size of a postage stamp.

Why then do I give it 5 stars?The artwork is still wonderful (despite being small and too often B & W), and there is nothing else like it on the market.

I do hope this book on Chase leads to more, and that the next might be made up entirely of larger plates of his color portrait studies;I would pay the same for a volume of 25 of those as I did for this catalog raisonné .

A Beautiful Book!
This has to be one of my MOST favourite art books ive ever bought, and i own a few hundred! :O)
The Text, Reproductions and Layout is Superb!, If you are even remotely interested in Painting this has to be a MUST buy!
Being an artist myself, i can say that it is a treat to see WM Chases Portrait sketches which are always left with lovely unfinished brush strokes scattered around the canvas. Something which we dont see enough of, and being a life long student of painting is a pleasure to witness from a time we can now only dream about.
Buy this book and study the gorgeous paintings you will spend a lifetime learning from the Master!

William Merritt Chase: volume 2 of The Catalogue Raisonnee by Ronald G. Pisano & D. Fred Baker
This book is truly a work of painstaking research resulting in beautiful reproductions of works by William Merritt Chase one of Americas leading most brilliant artists of his day. It is the second volume in the Catalogue Raisonnee. His influence is seen in the works of many other leading artists who were his students. William Merritt Chase: Portraits in Oil (Complete Catalogue of Known and Documented Work by William Merritt Chase (1849 - 1916) has 2 more volumes yet to be published by Yale University Press. The artist is my grandfather. ... Read more

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This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishing's Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the world's literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more

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This volume is produced from digital images created through the University of Michigan University Library's large-scale digitization efforts. The Library seeks to preserve the intellectual content of items in a manner that facilitates and promotes a variety of uses. The digital reformatting process results in an electronic version of the original text that can be both accessed online and used to create new print copies. The Library also understands and values the usefulness of print and makes reprints available to the public whenever possible. This book and hundreds of thousands of others can be found in the HathiTrust, an archive of the digitized collections of many great research libraries. For access to the University of Michigan Library's digital collections, please see http://www.lib.umich.edu and for information about the HathiTrust, please visit http://www.hathitrust.org ... Read more

Product Description
This scarce antiquarian book is a selection from Kessinger Publishings Legacy Reprint Series. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment to protecting, preserving, and promoting the worlds literature. Kessinger Publishing is the place to find hundreds of thousands of rare and hard-to-find books with something of interest for everyone! ... Read more