Chapman was born in Omega,
Halifax County, Virginia, to James Jackson Chapman, a Virginia farmer, and his wife, Rosa Archer Blunt. He started taking night classes at the
University of Denver, spent the 1927–1928 school year at the
University of New Mexico, before eventually receiving his LLB from the
law school of
Westminster University (now a part of the University of Denver) in 1929. During World War I, Chapman served in the
United States Navy Medical Corps, from 1918 to 1920. Chapman was manager of
Edward P. Costigan's Senate campaign in 1930, and the
Alva B. Adams Senate campaign in 1932. After helping with
Franklin Roosevelt's election in 1932, he was appointed Assistant Secretary of the
Department of the Interior. , (December 21, 1950). In 1939, Chapman was an early victim of the
House Committee on Un-American Activities, as then-chairman
Martin Dies, Jr. published a list of the government employees who were members of a Communist-controlled organization (Chapman was considered a member because there was a record that he had contributed two dollars to the
American League for Peace and Democracy, which was raising money for the loyalists during the
Spanish Civil War). At the
1944 Democratic National Convention, Chapman was impressed by Truman sticking to his early agreement to support the current Vice-President
Henry A. Wallace. He was promoted to serve as the Under-Secretary by President
Harry S. Truman in 1946. Chapman was one of Truman's advisers supporting the decision to recognize the state of
Israel in May 1948 over the objections of the State Department. Chapman worked to promote Truman in
1948 election, and late in 1949, was promoted to serve as
Secretary of the Interior, replacing to
Julius A. Krug, who had not supported Truman's campaign. In 1951, Chapman denied a government loan to the
Harvey Aluminum Company, because of a scandal that Harvey had sold artillery shells to the Navy during
World War II that were dangerously out of specification. After end of his service in the
Department of the Interior, he practiced law in the firm of Chapman, Duff, and Paul. == Personal life and family ==