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Although Salmon P. Chase of Ohio never achieved his ambition to become President, he exerted an important impact on American history as United States Senator, Secretary of the Treasury during the Civil War, and as the Sixth Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court.
A life-long opponent of slavery, he enthusiastically supported the Emancipation Proclamation while serving as a member of the Cabinet of President Lincoln. As Secretary of the Treasury, he maintained the national credit and raised the money to carry on the Civil War. As Chief Justice, he led the Supreme Court through the difficult years of the Reconstruction Era.
Salmon Portland Chase, the ninth of eleven children, was born to Ithmar and Janet (Ralston) Chase, on January 13, 1808, near the banks of the Connecticut River in Cornish, New Hampshire. His early education began in 1816 in Kenne, New Hampshire, then he attended school in Windsor, Vermont. Chase first came to Ohio as a boy of twelve to live with his uncle, Bishop Philander Chase, who was appointed President of Cincinnati College in 1822. At fifteen, Chase was admitted to Cincinnati College as a sophomore.
After graduating from Dartmouth, he studied law under Attorney General William Wirt and entered private law practice at Cincinnati in 1830. He was well on his way toward a successful and lucrative law practice when he became involved in the anti-slavery movement. He was known as the "Attorney General for runaway slaves", and was one of the attorneys in Jones v. Van Zandt 46 U.S. (5 How.) 215, 221-22 (1847). In 1849, Chase was elected United States Senator from Ohio where he opposed the extension of slavery into the new territories and led the opposition to the Kansas-Nebraska Act.
He served two terms as Governor of Ohio from 1855 to 1859, and in 1860 returned to the Senate. He aspired for the presidential nomination in 1856, 1860, 1864 and again in 1868. The prestige of the Supreme Court in the aftermath of the Dred Scott decision was never at a lower point than when Salmon P. Chase became Chief Justice in 1864. Bills were introduced in Congress to strip the Court of all appellate jurisdiction. In 1866, Congress reduced the number of justices from nine to seven. Upon the shoulders of the new Chief Justice fell the responsibility of leading the Court back to its proper role in the constitutional system of checks and balances. Thoroughly schooled in the political process by a broad background of experience, he proved equal to the task. At a time when Congress was dominated by radical leadership that came within one vote of removing President Andrew Johnson from office, it required courage to nullify a federal statute and skill to avert congressional recrimination.
Chief Justice Chase demonstrated both courage and that requisite skill. Before 1865, only two acts of Congress had ever been declared unconstitutional. A total of ten acts of Congress were nullified by Supreme Court decisions during Chase's eight and one-half years on the bench. He presided over the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson. Although he considered the trial to be impolitic and unjust, he performed his duties with calmness and good judgment. Volumes 69 to 82 of the United States Reports show that Chief Justice Chase wrote more opinions than any other member of the Court in every term except when he was presiding at the impeachment trial.
Among his leading opinions were Ex Parte McCardle, 74 U.S. (7 Wall.) 506 (1869); Texas v. White, 74 U.S. (7 Wall.) 700 (1869); and Hepburn v. Griswold, 75 U.S. (8 Wall.) 603 (1870). He dissented in the Slaughter-House Cases, 83 U.S. (16 Wall.) 36, 111 (1873).
He died May 7, 1873, following a paralytic stroke. |
