Salmon P. Chase

{{Short description|Chief Justice of the United States from 1864 to 1873}}

{{Infobox officeholder

| name = Salmon P. Chase

| image = File:CJ-SPC.jpg

| caption = Portrait by Mathew Brady {{circa|1870}}

| order = 6th

| office = Chief Justice of the United States

| nominator = Abraham Lincoln

| term_start = December 15, 1864

| term_end = May 7, 1873{{cite web |title=Justices 1789 to Present |url=https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/members_text.aspx |website=www.supremecourt.gov |publisher=Supreme Court of the United States |location=Washington, D.C. |access-date=January 19, 2019 |archive-date=April 15, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100415034624/https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/members_text.aspx |url-status=live}}

| predecessor = Roger B. Taney

| successor = Morrison Waite

| order2 = 25th

| office2 = United States Secretary of the Treasury

| president2 = Abraham Lincoln

| term_start2 = March 7, 1861

| term_end2 = June 30, 1864

| predecessor2 = John Adams Dix

| successor2 = William P. Fessenden

| jr/sr3 = United States Senator

| state3 = Ohio

| term_start4 = March 4, 1849

| term_end4 = March 3, 1855

| predecessor4 = William Allen

| successor4 = George Pugh

| term_start3 = March 4, 1861

| term_end3 = March 6, 1861

| predecessor3 = George Pugh

| successor3 = John Sherman

| order5 = 23rd

| office5 = Governor of Ohio

| lieutenant5 = {{unbulleted list|Thomas Ford|Martin Welker}}

| term_start5 = January 14, 1856

| term_end5 = January 9, 1860

| predecessor5 = William Medill

| successor5 = William Dennison

| birth_name = Salmon Portland Chase

| birth_date = {{birth date|1808|1|13}}

| birth_place = Cornish, New Hampshire, U.S.

| death_date = {{death date and age|1873|5|7|1808|1|13}}

| death_place = New York City, U.S.

| party = {{unbulleted list|Whig (before 1841)|Liberty (1841–1848)|Free Soil (1848–1854)|Republican (1854–1868)|Democratic (1868–1872)

|Liberal Republican (1872-1873)}}

| spouse = {{unbulleted list|{{marriage|Katherine Garmiss|March 4, 1834|1835|end=d}}|{{marriage|Eliza Ann Smith|September 26, 1839||end=d}}|{{marriage|Sarah Dunlop Ludlow||end=d}}}}

| children = Kate and Janet ("Nettie")

| relatives = Chase family

| education = Dartmouth College (BA)

| signature = Salmon P Chase Signature.svg

| signature_alt = Cursive signature in ink

| resting_place = Spring Grove Cemetery

}}

Salmon Portland Chase (January 13, 1808{{spaced ndash}}May 7, 1873) was an American politician and jurist who served as the sixth chief justice of the United States from 1864 to his death in 1873. Chase served as the 23rd governor of Ohio from 1856 to 1860, represented Ohio in the United States Senate from 1849 to 1855 and again in 1861, and served as the 25th United States secretary of the treasury from 1861 to 1864 during the administration of Abraham Lincoln. Chase is therefore one of the few American politicians who have held constitutional office in all three branches of the federal government, in addition to serving in the highest state-level office. Prior to his Supreme Court appointment, Chase was widely seen as a potential president.

Born in Cornish, New Hampshire, Chase studied law under Attorney General William Wirt before establishing a legal practice in Cincinnati. He became an anti-slavery activist and frequently defended fugitive slaves in court. Chase left the Whig Party in 1841 to become the leader of Ohio's Liberty Party. In 1848, he helped establish the Free Soil Party and recruited former President Martin Van Buren to serve as the party's presidential nominee. Chase won election to the Senate the following year, and he opposed the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas–Nebraska Act. In the aftermath of the Kansas–Nebraska Act, Chase helped establish the Republican Party, which opposed the extension of slavery into the territories. After leaving the Senate, Chase served as the governor of Ohio from 1856 to 1860.

Chase sought the Republican nomination for president in the 1860 presidential election, but the party chose Abraham Lincoln at its National Convention. After Lincoln won the election, he asked Chase to serve as Secretary of the Treasury. Chase served in that position from 1861 to 1864, working hard to ensure the Union was well-financed during the Civil War. Chase resigned from the Cabinet in June 1864, but retained support among the Radical Republicans. Partly to appease the Radical Republicans, Lincoln nominated Chase to fill the Supreme Court vacancy that arose following Chief Justice Roger Taney's death.

Chase served as Chief Justice from 1864 to his death in 1873. He presided over the Senate trial of President Andrew Johnson during the impeachment proceedings of 1868. Despite his nomination to the court, Chase continued to pursue the presidency. He unsuccessfully sought the Democratic presidential nomination in 1868 and the Liberal Republican nomination in 1872.

Early years

File:SALMON P. CHASE BIRTHPLACE.jpg in Cornish, New Hampshire]]

Chase was born in Cornish, New Hampshire, on January 13, 1808,{{sfnp|EB|1878}} to Janette Ralston and Ithamar Chase, who died in 1817 when Salmon was nine years old. His paternal immigrant ancestor was Aquila Chase from Cornwall, England, a ship-master who settled in Newbury, Massachusetts, about 1640, while his maternal grandparents Alexander Ralston and Janette Balloch were Scottish, originally from Falkirk.{{Cite book|last=McCabe|first=James Dabney|url=http://archive.org/details/bub_gb__ZJTAAAAYAAJ/page/n665|title=The centennial book of American biography|date=1876|page=619|location=Philadelphia and Chicago|publisher= P. W. Ziegler & co.}}{{Cite book|last=Schuckers|first=Jacob|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=yCYsloITgzEC&q=salmon%2520portland%2520chase%2520falkirk%2520scotland&pg=PA3|title=The Life and Public Services of Salmon Portland Chase|date=April 2009|publisher=Applewood Books|isbn=978-1-4290-1965-1|language=en}}{{cite web|url=http://www.ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Salmon_P._Chase|title=Salmon P. Chase|access-date=September 20, 2015|archive-date=May 11, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200511085538/https://ohiohistorycentral.org/w/Salmon_P._Chase|url-status=live}} His mother was left with ten children and few resources, and so Salmon lived from 1820 to 1824 in Ohio with his uncle, Bishop Philander Chase, a leading figure in the Protestant Episcopal Church in the West and the founder of Kenyon College. U.S. Senator Dudley Chase of Vermont was another uncle.{{Cite book|last=Blue|first=Frederick J.|url=http://archive.org/details/salmonpchaselife0000blue|title=Salmon P. Chase : a life in politics|date=1987|publisher=Kent State University Press|location=Kent, Ohio|isbn=978-0-87338-340-0|page=8}}

He studied in the common schools of Windsor, Vermont, and Worthington, Ohio, and at Cincinnati College before entering the junior class at Dartmouth College. He was a member of the Alpha Delta Phi fraternity and Phi Beta Kappa, and graduated from Dartmouth with distinction in 1826.{{sfnp|EB|1878}} While at Dartmouth, he taught at the Royalton Academy in Royalton, Vermont. Chase then moved to the District of Columbia, where he opened a classical school while reading law under U.S. Attorney General William Wirt.{{sfnp|EB|1878}} He was admitted to the bar in 1829.

Chase married his first wife Katherine Jane Garniss on March 4, 1834. She died the following year after the birth of a girl who died a few years later. He married his second wife Eliza Ann Smith on September 26, 1839, who died from consumption years later. Chase married his third wife, Sarah Bella Dunlop Ludlow who also died from consumption. After her death, he did not remarry.{{Cite journal |last=Zarefsky |first=David |date=June 1996 |title=John Niven. Salmon P. Chase: A Biography. New York: Oxford University Press. 1995. Pp. xii, 546. $30.00 |url=https://academic.oup.com/ahr/article-abstract/101/3/918/119391?redirectedFrom=fulltext |url-access=subscription |journal=The American Historical Review |volume=101 |issue=3 |page=918 |doi=10.1086/ahr/101.3.918 |issn=1937-5239}}

The Salmon P. Chase Birthplace and childhood home still stands in Cornish, New Hampshire.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

Legal and political career

Chase moved to a country home near Loveland, Ohio,{{cite book|title=The Bench and Bar of Cincinnati: Commemorating the Building of the New Court House|editor-first1=William W.|editor-last1=Morris|editor-first2=E. B.|editor-last2=Krieger|location=Cincinnati|publisher=New Court House Publishing Company|year=1921|page=16|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=X50jAQAAMAAJ|quote=It is a coincidence that his county home near Loveland, later came into the possession, for a few years, of Judge Charles J. Hunt, during the years the latter occupied the local Common Pleas Court bench.|access-date=November 13, 2019|archive-date=April 1, 2019|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20190401123915/https://books.google.com/books?id=X50jAQAAMAAJ|url-status=live}} and practiced law in Cincinnati from 1830.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=955}} He rose to prominence for his authoritative compilation of the state's statutes,{{sfnp|EB|1878}} which long remained the standard work on the topic.

From the beginning, despite the risk to his livelihood,{{sfnp|EB|1878}} he defended people who had escaped slavery and those who were tried for assisting them, notably the Matilda Case in 1837.{{sfnp|EB|1878}}{{cite web|last=Ross, Ph.D.|first=Kelley L.|title=Six Kinds of United States Paper Currency|url=http://www.friesian.com/notes.htm|access-date=May 26, 2014|archive-date=May 1, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200501063630/https://www.friesian.com/notes.htm|url-status=live}} He became particularly devoted to the abolition of slavery after the death of his first wife, Katherine Jane Garmiss, in 1835, shortly after their March 1834 wedding. This event was a spiritual reawakening for him. He worked initially with the American Sunday School Union. At a time when public opinion in Cincinnati was dominated by Southern business connections, Chase, influenced by local events, including the attack on the press of James G. Birney during the Cincinnati riots of 1836, associated himself with the anti-slavery movement. Chase was also a member of the literary Semi-Colon Club; its members included Harriet Beecher Stowe and Calvin Ellis Stowe.Gates, Henry Louis, Jr; and Hollis Robbins. The Annotated Uncle Tom's Cabin. WW. Norton, p. xxxii Chase became the leader of the political reformers, as opposed to the Garrisonian abolitionist movement.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

For his defense of people arrested in Ohio under the Fugitive Slave Act of 1793, Chase was dubbed the "Attorney General for Fugitive Slaves."{{Cite web|url=https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47dd-ffb2-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99|title=Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio, known as 'attorney-general for fugitive slaves,' on account of his frequent appearance as counsel in fugitive slave cases. |date=July 26, 2016|access-date=February 26, 2018|url-status=live|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160726123932/https://digitalcollections.nypl.org/items/510d47dd-ffb2-a3d9-e040-e00a18064a99|archive-date=July 26, 2016 |publisher=NYPL Digital Collections}} His argument in the case of Jones v. Van Zandt on the constitutionality of fugitive slave laws before the U.S. Supreme Court attracted particular attention. Chase contended that slavery was local, not national, and that it could exist only by virtue of positive state law. He argued that the federal government was not empowered by the Constitution to create slavery anywhere and that when an enslaved person leaves the jurisdiction of a state where slavery is legal, he ceases to be a slave; he continues to be a man and leaves behind the law that made him a slave. In this and similar cases, the court ruled against him, and the judgment against John Van Zandt was upheld.{{Cite web|title=Jones v. Van Zandt, 46 U.S. 215 (1847)|url=https://supreme.justia.com/cases/federal/us/46/215/|website=Justia Law|language=en}}

Though elected as a Whig to a one-year term on the Cincinnati City Council in 1840,{{cite book |last=Niven |first=John |date=1995 |title=Salmon P. Chase: A Biography |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PGnmCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA58 |location=New York |publisher=Oxford University Press |page=58 |isbn=978-0-1950-4653-3 |via=Google Books |access-date=August 10, 2019 |archive-date=August 19, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200819172854/https://books.google.com/books?id=PGnmCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA58 |url-status=live }}{{cite book |last=Gruber |first=Robert Henry |date=1969 |title=Salmon P. Chase and the Politics of Reform |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=PC8aAQAAIAAJ&q=%22salmon+p.+chase%22+%22cincinnati%22+%22city+council%22 |location=College Park, MD |publisher=University of Maryland |page=61 |via=Google Books}} Chase left that party the next year. In the 1840s, he helped to form the Liberty Party.Randy E. Barnett (2013)

[https://scholarlycommons.law.case.edu/cgi/viewcontent.cgi?referer=&httpsredir=1&article=1212&context=caselrev From Antisla om Antislavery Lawyer to Chief Justice: The Remarkable but o Chief Justice: The Remarkable but Forgotten Career of Salmon P. Chase] law.case.edu For seven years, Chase was the leader of the Liberty Party in Ohio. He helped balance its idealism with his pragmatic approach and political thought. Chase was skillful in drafting platforms and addresses, and he prepared the national Liberty platform of 1843 and the Liberty address of 1845. Building the Liberty Party was slow going. By 1848, Chase was the leader in the effort to combine the Liberty Party with the Barnburners or Van Buren Democrats of New York to form the Free Soil Party.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

Chase drafted the Free-Soil platform,{{cite book|last=Foner|first=Eric|title=Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party Before the Civil War|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1995|location=Oxford|edition=Second|page=83}} and it was chiefly through his influence that Van Buren was their nominee for president in 1848.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}} In 1849, Chase was elected to the U.S. Senate from Ohio on the Free Soil ticket. Chase's goal, however, was not to establish a permanent new party organization, but to bring pressure to bear upon Northern Democrats to force them to oppose the extension of slavery.{{citation needed|date=April 2022}} During his associations with the Liberty and Free Soil parties, Chase considered himself an "Independent Democrat" or a "Free Democrat".

File:Salmon P. Chase Portrait by Carpenter Wide Trim.jpg {{circa}} 1855]]

While serving in the Senate (1849–1855), Chase was an anti-slavery champion. He argued against the Compromise of 1850{{cite web|url=http://www.mrlincolnandfreedom.org/inside.asp?ID=68&subjectID=4|access-date=September 10, 2015|title=Salmon P. Chase|archive-date=March 3, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303233405/http://www.mrlincolnandfreedom.org/inside.asp?ID=68&subjectID=4|url-status=live}} and the Kansas–Nebraska Act of 1854.Foner (1995), p. 94. After the passage of the Kansas-Nebraska legislation and the subsequent violence in Kansas, Chase helped form the Republican Party with former Whigs and anti-slavery members of the American Party.{{Cite web|url=https://www.libertarianism.org/everything-wrong-presidents/everything-wrong-buchanan-administration|title=Everything Wrong with the Buchanan Administration|last=Kelly|first=Ellen|website=Libertarianism.org|language=en|access-date=January 27, 2020|archive-date=January 27, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200127192122/https://www.libertarianism.org/everything-wrong-presidents/everything-wrong-buchanan-administration|url-status=live}} The "Appeal of the Independent Democrats in Congress to the People of the United States", written by Chase and Giddings, and published in The New York Times on January 24, 1854, may be regarded as the earliest draft of the Republican party creed. In 1855, Chase was elected the first Republican governor of Ohio. During his time in office, from 1856 to 1860, he supported improved property rights for women, changes to public education, and prison reform.

In 1860, Chase sought the Republican nomination for president, with Massachusetts Governor Nathaniel Banks as his running mate.{{cite news|title=For President in 1860|newspaper=Herald of Freedom|location=Lawrence, Kansas|date=December 3, 1859|page=2|via=newspapers.com|url=https://www.newspapers.com/clip/64539878/salmon-chase-seeks-republican/|access-date=December 3, 2020|archive-date=March 1, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210301135043/https://www.newspapers.com/clip/64539878/salmon-chase-seeks-republican/|url-status=live}} With the exception of William H. Seward, Chase was the most prominent Republican in the country and had done more to end slavery than any other Republican. However, he opposed a "protective tariff," favored by most other Republicans, and his record of collaboration with Democrats annoyed the many Republicans who were former Whigs. At the 1860 Republican National Convention, he got 49 votes on the first ballot,{{cite book|last1=Tarbell|first1=Ida M.|title=The Life of Abraham Lincoln Volumes 1 & 2|date=1998|publisher=Digital Scanning Inc|isbn=978-1-58218-124-0|page=148|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=DwSYCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA148|access-date=October 2, 2017|language=en|archive-date=November 8, 2021|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211108184733/https://books.google.com/books?id=DwSYCwAAQBAJ&pg=PA148|url-status=live}} but he had little support outside of Ohio. Abraham Lincoln won the nomination, and Chase supported him.

Chase was elected as a Republican to the U.S. Senate from Ohio in 1860. However, he resigned shortly after taking his seat in order to become Secretary of the Treasury under Lincoln. This was despite no prior financial experience; rather obtained through Chase's nomination of Lincoln.Tarnoff,

Ben|

7/16/2011|

The Man Who Financed The Civil War|

The New York Times|

https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/07/16/the-man-who-financed-the-civil-war/ |

He was also a participant in the February 1861 Peace Conference in Washington, D.C., a meeting of leading American politicians held in an effort to resolve the burgeoning secession crisis and to preserve the Union on the eve of the Civil War.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

Secretary of the Treasury

File:Sec. of Tres. S.P. Chase LOC cwpb.05619 Trim.jpg]]

During the Civil War, Chase served as Secretary of the Treasury in President Lincoln's cabinet from 1861 to 1864. In that period of crisis, there were two great changes in American financial policy: the establishment of a national banking system and the issue of paper currency. The former was Chase's own particular measure. He suggested the idea, worked out the important principles and many of the details, and induced the Congress to approve them. It secured an immediate market for government bonds and provided a permanent, uniform, and stable national currency. Chase ensured that the Union could sell debt to pay for the war effort. He worked with Jay Cooke & Company to successfully manage the sale of $500 million (~${{Format price|{{Inflation|index=US-GDP|value=500000000|start_year=1862}}}} in {{Inflation/year|US-GDP}}) in government war bonds (known as 5/20s) in 1862.{{cite book|last=Geisst|first=Charles R.|title=Wall Street|publisher=Oxford University Press|year=1999|page=[https://archive.org/details/wallstreethistor00geis/page/54 54]|isbn=978-0-19-511512-3|url=https://archive.org/details/wallstreethistor00geis/page/54}}

File:US-$1-LT-1862-Fr-16c.jpg in 1862 as legal tender, featuring Chase]]

The first U.S. federal currency, the greenback demand note, was printed in 1861–1862 during Chase's tenure as Secretary of the Treasury, and it was his responsibility to design the notes. In an effort to increase the public's recognition of him, Chase put his own face on a variety of U.S. paper currency, starting with the $1 bill, possibly to further his political career.{{cite web |last1=Cote |first1=Richard |title=Salmon-Chase-Photo |url=https://home.treasury.gov/about/history/collection/prints-and-drawings/salmon-chase-photo |website=treasury.gov |publisher=U.S. Department of the Treasury |access-date=March 26, 2021 |archive-date=March 19, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210319090745/https://home.treasury.gov/about/history/collection/prints-and-drawings/salmon-chase-photo |url-status=live }} It was engraved by Joseph Prosper Ourdan.

On May 5, 1862, Chase accompanied President Lincoln, Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton, and Brigadier General Egbert Ludovicus Viele in what would become a pivotal week for Union forces. The presidential party left the Washington Navy Yard aboard a five-gun Treasury cutter, Miami,{{cite web |url=http://coastguard.dodlive.mil/2016/01/the-long-blue-line-cutter-miami-abraham-lincoln-and-the-destruction-of-css-virginia/ |title=The Long Blue Line: Cutter Miami, Abraham Lincoln and the destruction of CSS Virginia |last=Honings |first=Diana |access-date=May 10, 2017 |archive-date=May 8, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170508035936/http://coastguard.dodlive.mil/2016/01/the-long-blue-line-cutter-miami-abraham-lincoln-and-the-destruction-of-css-virginia/ |url-status=live }}{{cite web |url=http://www.clydeships.co.uk/view.php?ref=21936 |title=The Clyde Built Ships: Lady Le Marchant |publisher=Caledonian Maritime Research Trust |access-date=May 10, 2017 |archive-date=February 27, 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20210227184336/http://www.clydeships.co.uk/view.php?ref=21936 |url-status=live }} bound for Fort Monroe "to ascertain by personal observation whether some further vigilance and vigor might not be infused into the operations of the army and navy at that point" to determine whether Norfolk could be captured. After a 27-hour trip, the Miami reached Fort Monroe on the night of May 6. Chase went with Major General John E. Wool, in command of the Federals at Fort Monroe, to inspect beach locations for a potential troop landing and relayed to Lincoln that he and General Wool had found "a good and convenient landing place" on the south shore, safely away from the Confederates' ironclad, the CSS Virginia.{{cite web |url=http://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=2629 |title=Landing of Wool and Surrender of Norfolk |publisher=Historical Marker Database |access-date=May 10, 2017 |archive-date=August 23, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170823120325/https://www.hmdb.org/marker.asp?marker=2629 |url-status=live }} Chase's participation in the reconnaissance ended with the surrender of Norfolk and the destruction of the Virginia.{{cite journal |last=Symonds |first=Craig L. |date=2008 |title=Lincoln and the Navy |volume=58 |issue=6 |url=http://www.americanheritage.com/content/lincoln-and-navy?page=show |journal=American Heritage |location=Rockville, MD |publisher=American Heritage Publishing |access-date=May 10, 2017 |archive-date=April 23, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170423215157/http://www.americanheritage.com/content/lincoln-and-navy?page=show |url-status=live }}

File:Chase to Pollock 1863-12-09 motto only.png" in a December 9, 1863, letter to James Pollock, Director of the Philadelphia Mint.{{cite book|last=Chase|first=Salmon P|title=Letter to James Pollock|publisher=National Archives and Records Administration|id=Document # RG 104_UD 87-A_Folder In God We Trust 1861_Part1|page=11|date=December 9, 1863}}]]

On October 10, 1862, Secretary of the Navy Gideon Welles wrote that "a scheme for permits, special favors, Treasury agents, and improper management" existed and was arranged by Treasury Secretary Chase for General John A. Dix. The motive of Chase appeared to be for political influence and not for financial gain.pp. 166, 175, 177, 227, 318, Welles, Gideon. Diary of Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy Under Lincoln and Johnson, Vol. I, 1861 – March 30, 1864. Boston and New York: Houghton Mifflin Company, 1911.

Perhaps Chase's chief defect was an insatiable desire for high office.{{sfn|Chisholm|1911|p=956}} Throughout his term as Treasury Secretary, Chase exploited his position to build up political support for another run at the presidency in 1864. Benjamin Wade, a Republican commented: "Chase is a good man but his theology is unsound. He thinks there is a fourth person in the Trinity."{{Cite journal |last=Blue |first=Frederick J. |date=2011 |title=The Moral Journey of a Political Abolitionist: Salmon P. Chase and His Critics |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.1353/cwh.2011.0035 |journal=Civil War History |volume=57 |issue=3 |pages=210–233 |doi=10.1353/cwh.2011.0035 |s2cid=144252999 |issn=1533-6271|url-access=subscription }}

He also tried to pressure Lincoln by repeatedly threatening resignation,{{Cite web |last=Beard |first=Rick |date=July 2, 2014 |title=The Rise and Fall (and Rise) of Salmon P. Chase |url=https://archive.nytimes.com/opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com/2014/07/02/the-rise-and-fall-and-rise-of-salmon-p-chase/ |department=The Opinionator (blog) |access-date=August 9, 2022 |website=The New York Times |language=en}} which he knew would cause Lincoln difficulties with the Radical Republicans.

To honor Chase for introducing the modern system of banknotes, he was depicted on the $10,000 bill printed from 1928 to 1946. Chase was instrumental in placing the phrase "In God We Trust" on United States coins in 1864.{{cite web|title=History of 'In God We Trust'|url=http://www.treasury.gov/about/education/Pages/in-god-we-trust.aspx|publisher=US Department of the Treasury|access-date=December 11, 2011|archive-date=April 17, 2015|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20150417182551/http://www.treasury.gov/about/education/Pages/in-god-we-trust.aspx|url-status=live}}

Chief Justice

File:Supreme Court of the United States - Chase Court - c.1867 - (1865-1867).jpg {{circa}} 1867]]

In June 1864, Lincoln surprised Chase by accepting his fourth offer of resignation as Treasury Secretary. The Republican Party had at that point already nominated Lincoln as its presidential candidate and the Treasury was in solid shape, so Lincoln no longer needed to keep Chase in the cabinet to forestall a challenge for the presidential nomination.McPherson, James. Battle Cry of Freedom. Oxford: 1988., p. 841n. Print. But to placate the party's Radical wing, Lincoln mentioned Chase as a potential Supreme Court nominee.

When Chief Justice Roger B. Taney died in October 1864, Lincoln named Chase to succeed him. Nominated on December 6, 1864, and confirmed by the U.S. Senate on the same day,{{Cite web| url=https://www.senate.gov/legislative/nominations/SupremeCourtNominations1789present.htm| title=Supreme Court Nominations: 1789-present| publisher=Office of the Secretary, United States Senate| location=Washington, D.C.| access-date=January 20, 2019| archive-date=October 16, 2020| archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20201016160426/https://www.senate.gov/legislative/nominations/SupremeCourtNominations1789present.htm| url-status=live}} he was sworn into office on December 15, 1864, and served until his death on May 7, 1873. One of Chase's first acts as Chief Justice was to admit John Rock to the Supreme Court Bar, making him the first African-American attorney eligible to argue cases before the Supreme Court.{{cite web |url=http://www.impeach-andrewjohnson.com/11BiographiesKeyIndividuals/SalmonPChase.htm |title=The Impeachment of Andrew Johnson: Salmon Portland Chase |publisher=Impeach-andrewjohnson.com |access-date=December 11, 2011 |archive-date=November 24, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20111124083333/http://www.impeach-andrewjohnson.com/11BiographiesKeyIndividuals/SalmonPChase.htm |url-status=live }}Brooks, Christopher, "Senator Charles Sumner and the Admission of John S. Rock to

the Supreme Court Bar", Journal of Supreme Court History, vol. 48, no. 2, 2023, pp. 139-147.

Among his more significant decisions while on the Court were:

Texas v. White, 74 U.S. 700 (1869), in which he asserted that the Constitution provided for a permanent union, composed of indestructible states, while allowing some possibility of divisibility "through revolution, or through consent of the States";{{Cite book|last1=Pavković|first1=Aleksandar|last2=Radan|first2=Peter|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=-IjHbPvp1W0C|title=Creating New States: Theory and Practice of Secession|date=2007|publisher=Ashgate Publishing, Ltd.|isbn=978-0-7546-7163-3|language=en|page=222}}[https://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0074_0700_ZO.html Texas v. White] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131209074541/http://www.law.cornell.edu/supct/html/historics/USSC_CR_0074_0700_ZO.html |date=December 9, 2013 }}, 74 U.S. 700 (1868) at Cornell University Law School Supreme Court collection.
Veazie Bank v. Fenno, 75 U.S. 533 (1869), upholding banking legislation of the Civil War that imposed a 10% tax on state banknotes; and
Hepburn v. Griswold, 75 U.S. 603 (1870), which declared certain parts of the legal tender acts to be unconstitutional. When the legal tender decision was reversed after the appointment of new justices, in 1871 and 1872 (Legal Tender Cases, 79 U.S. 457), Chase dissented.

As Chief Justice, Chase also presided at the impeachment trial of U.S. President Andrew Johnson in 1868. As the justice responsible for the 4th Circuit, Chase also would have been one of two judges at the trial of Jefferson Davis (who was imprisoned at Fort Monroe in Virginia), because trial for major crimes such as treason required two judges. However, Davis's best defense would be that he forfeited U.S. citizenship upon secession, and therefore could not have committed treason. Convicting Davis could also interfere with Chase's presidential ambitions, described below. After the passage of the Fourteenth Amendment in 1868, Chase invited Davis's lawyer to meet with him privately, and explained his theory that Section 3 of the new Amendment prohibited imposing further punishment on former Confederates. When Davis's lawyer repeated this argument in open court, Chase dismissed the case, over the objection of his colleague, U.S. District Judge John Curtiss Underwood, and the government chose not to appeal the dismissal to the U.S. Supreme Court.{{Cite web|url=http://www.scotusblog.com/2017/10/chief-justice-salmon-chase-permanency-union-cynthia-nicoletti-chases-political-ambitions/|title=Chief Justice Salmon Chase on the permanency of the Union, and Cynthia Nicoletti on Chase's political ambitions|date=October 20, 2017|access-date=October 23, 2017|archive-date=October 23, 2017|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20171023061947/http://www.scotusblog.com/2017/10/chief-justice-salmon-chase-permanency-union-cynthia-nicoletti-chases-political-ambitions/|url-status=live}}

File:Judge Nelson Administering the Oath to Chief Justice Chase, as Presiding Officer of the Court of Impeachment, in the Senate Chamber, Washington, D.C., on the 5th March (1).jpg Samuel Nelson (left) administers oath to Chief Justice Chase for the impeachment trial of Andrew Johnson]]

Chase made an unsuccessful effort to secure the Democratic nomination for the presidency in 1868. He "was passed over because of his stance in favor of voting rights for black men." In 1871, the New Departure policy of Ohio Democrat Clement Vallandigham was endorsed by Chase.p. 446, Vallandigham, James L. A Life of Clement L. Vallandigham. Baltimore, MD: Turnbull Brothers, 1872. He helped found the Liberal Republican Party in 1872, unsuccessfully seeking its presidential nomination. Chase was also a Freemason,{{Cite web |title=Salmon Portland Chase |url=https://dev.foundagrave.com/grave/salmon-portland-chase/ |access-date=August 9, 2022 |website=Found a Grave |language=en-US}} active in the lodges of Midwestern society. He collaborated with John Purdue, the founder of Lafayette Bank and Purdue University. Eventually, JP Morgan Chase & Co. would purchase Purdue National Corporation of Lafayette, Indiana, in 1984.{{Cite web |last=Shah |first=Sumit |date=November 2012 |title=A Report on J.P Morgan & Chase Company |url=https://www.academia.edu/10308896 |access-date=28 December 2022}}

As early as 1868, Chase concluded that:

{{blockquote|Congress was right in not limiting, by its reconstruction acts, the right of suffrage to whites; but wrong in the exclusion from suffrage of certain classes of citizens and all unable to take its prescribed retrospective oath, and wrong also in the establishment of despotic military governments for the States and in authorizing military commissions for the trial of civilians in time of peace. There should have been as little military government as possible; no military commissions; no classes excluded from suffrage; and no oath except one of faithful obedience and support to the Constitution and laws, and of sincere attachment to the constitutional Government of the United States.J. W. Schuckers, The Life and Public Services of Salmon Portland Chase, (1874)., p. 585; letter of May 30, 1993, to August Belmont}}

A few months before his death, Chase found himself in the minority of a 5–4 ruling in the Slaughter-House Cases, which greatly limited the scope of the powers given the federal government under the Fourteenth Amendment to protect Americans from state violations of their civil rights. With the other dissenters, Chase joined the dissent of Justice Stephen J. Field that the majority opinion effectively rendered the Fourteenth Amendment a "vain and idle enactment."{{cite book |last= Graham |first= Howard Jay |title= Everyman's Constitution |page= 132}}{{full citation needed|date=November 2015}}{{cite book|last1=Foner|first1=Eric|author-link1=Eric Foner|title=A Short History of Reconstruction (1863–1877)|date=1990|publisher=HarperCollins|location=New York|isbn=978-0060551827|page=529|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=pPwrSSx44GYC|access-date=June 17, 2020|archive-date=May 11, 2011|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110511173302/http://books.google.com/books?id=pPwrSSx44GYC|url-status=live}}

On October 23, 1873, in formally announcing the death of Chief Justice Chase in the Supreme Court and conveying the resolutions submitted by the bar, Attorney General George Henry Williams highlighted Chase's "early, continued and effectual labours for the universal freedom of man."Williams, George H. (1895). Occasional Addresses. Portland, Oregon: F.W. Baltes and Company, p. 44.

Death

File:SalmonChaseGrave - cropped.jpg; a docent is dressed in period clothing.]]

Chase died of a stroke in New York City on May 7, 1873.{{sfnp|EB|1878}} His remains were first interred in Oak Hill Cemetery in Washington, D.C., then re-interred in October 1886 in Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati, Ohio.{{cite news|title=Chief Justice Chase's Remains|newspaper=The Evening Star|date=October 11, 1886|page=3}}{{cite web |url=http://www.supremecourthistory.org/04_library/subs_volumes/04_c20_e.html |title=Christensen, George A. (1983) Here Lies the Supreme Court: Gravesites of the Justices, Yearbook |access-date=September 3, 2005 |url-status=dead |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20050903032026/http://www.supremecourthistory.org/04_library/subs_volumes/04_c20_e.html |archive-date=September 3, 2005 }} Supreme Court Historical Society at Internet Archive.See also, Christensen, George A., Here Lies the Supreme Court: Revisited, Journal of Supreme Court History, Volume 33 Issue 1, Pages 17–41 (February 19, 2008), University of Alabama. Chase had been an active member of St. Paul Episcopal Cathedral, Cincinnati. Chase's birthplace in New Hampshire was declared a National Historic Landmark in 1975.

Legacy

File:CHASE, Samuel P-Treasury (BEP engraved portrait).jpg portrait of Chase as Secretary of the Treasury]]

After Chase's death in 1873, the Supreme Court established a tradition that a newly deceased Justice's chair and the front of the bench where the Justice sat will be draped with black wool crêpe, with black crêpe hung over the Court's entrance.{{cite web|url=https://abcnews.go.com/Politics/antonin-scalia-supreme-court-chair-bench-draped-black/story?id=36969588|access-date=February 16, 2016|date=February 16, 2016|work=ABC News|publisher=ABC|first=Jordyn|last=Phelps|title=Antonin Scalia's Supreme Court Chair and Bench Draped in Black|archive-date=February 17, 2016|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160217053321/http://abcnews.go.com/Politics/antonin-scalia-supreme-court-chair-bench-draped-black/story?id=36969588|url-status=live}}

The Chase National Bank, a predecessor of Chase Manhattan Bank which is now JPMorgan Chase, was named in his honor, though he had no affiliation with it, financial or otherwise.{{Citation needed|date=January 2023}}

In 1845, Chase was presented with a silver pitcher by black leaders in the city of Cincinnati. Engraved on the pitcher were the words “A testimonial of gratitude to Salmon P. Chase from the Colored People of Cincinnati for his various public services in behalf of the oppressed.{{Cite journal |date=2003 |title=Among the Chief Justices of the United States, Salmon P. Chase Stands out as a Dedicated Protector of the Rights of African Americans |url=http://dx.doi.org/10.2307/3134028 |journal=The Journal of Blacks in Higher Education |issue=40 |pages=48–51 |doi=10.2307/3134028 |jstor=3134028 |issn=1077-3711|url-access=subscription }}

In May 1865, Chase was elected a 3rd class companion of the Military Order of the Loyal Legion of the United States (MOLLUS). MOLLUS was an organization of Union officers who had served in the Civil War which allowed distinguished civilians who had supported the Union cause to join as 3rd class companions. Chase was one of the first to receive this honor and was assigned MOLLUS insignia number 46.{{citation needed|date=January 2023}}

File:US-$10000-GC-1934-Fr.2412.jpg]]

Chase's portrait appears on the United States $10,000 bill, the largest denomination of U.S. currency to publicly circulate. The bill was last printed in 1945. In 1969, the Federal Reserve began withdrawing high-denomination bills from circulation, and as of 2009, only 336 $10,000 bills had not been returned for destruction.{{cite web |last1=Palmer |first1=Brian |url=http://www.slate.com/id/2223484/ |title=Somebody Call Officer Crumb!: How much cash can a corrupt politician cram into a cereal box? |publisher=Slate.com |date=July 24, 2009 |access-date=July 24, 2012 |archive-date=September 7, 2011 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110907092635/http://www.slate.com/id/2223484 |url-status=live }}

Chase County, Kansas, Chase City, Virginia, and towns named "Chaseville" in Florida, Massachusetts, North Carolina (from 1868 to 1871), New York, Ohio, and Tennessee were named in his honor. Camp Chase in Columbus, Ohio, and Chase Hall, the main barracks and dormitory at the United States Coast Guard Academy, are named for Chase in honor of his service as Secretary of the Treasury, and the United States Coast Guard cutter Chase (WHEC 718) is named for him, as are Chase Hall at the Harvard Business School, Chase House at the Tuck School of Business at Dartmouth College, and the Salmon P. Chase College of Law at Northern Kentucky University. He is featured on a New Hampshire historical marker (number 76) along New Hampshire Route 12A in Cornish.{{cite web |url=https://www.nh.gov/nhdhr/markers/documents/markers_bynumber.pdf |title=List of Markers by Marker Number |website=nh.gov |publisher=New Hampshire Division of Historical Resources |date=November 2, 2018 |access-date=July 5, 2019 |archive-date=January 27, 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20130127063523/https://www.nh.gov/nhdhr/markers/documents/markers_bynumber.pdf |url-status=live }}

In popular culture

Although not referred to by name, Chase was portrayed by Montagu Love in the 1942 film Tennessee Johnson and appears during Andrew Johnson's impeachment scenes. Chase was also portrayed by Josh Stamberg in the 2013 movie Saving Lincoln.{{Cite web|title=Saving Lincoln (2013) - IMDb|url=http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2034098/fullcredits|access-date=January 13, 2021|archive-date=October 18, 2013|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131018081140/http://www.imdb.com/title/tt2034098/fullcredits|url-status=live |publisher=IMDb}}

Chase was portrayed by Mark Rand in the 2024 Apple TV+ miniseries series Manhunt.

References

= Citations =

=Primary sources=

[https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23043578 Niven, John, et al. eds. ed. The Salmon P. Chase Papers Volume: 2, 1823–57 (1993)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110810170936/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=23043578 |date=August 10, 2011 }} vol 1–5 have coverage to 1873
[https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=10424543 Niven, John, et al. eds. ed. The Salmon P. Chase Papers Volume: 3, 1858–63 (1993)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110824041710/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=10424543 |date=August 24, 2011 }}
[https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=10261520 Donald, David ed. Inside Lincoln's Cabinet: The Civil War Diaries of Salmon P. Chase (1954)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110810170757/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=10261520 |date=August 10, 2011 }}

=Secondary sources=

{{FJC Bio|414|nid=1379026|name=Salmon Portland Chase}}
{{cite EB9 |mode=cs2 |wstitle=Salmon Portland Chase |volume=5 |ref={{harvid|EB|1878}} |page=435 }}
{{cite EB1911 |mode=cs2 |wstitle=Salmon Portland Chase |volume=5 |pages=955–956 }}
[https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=22807164 Blue, Frederick J. Salmon P. Chase: A Life in Politics (1987)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110810171023/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=22807164 |date=August 10, 2011 }}
Flanders, Henry. [https://books.google.com/books?id=ozPVAAAAMAAJ The Lives and Times of the Chief Justices of the United States Supreme Court] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160604011400/https://books.google.com/books?id=ozPVAAAAMAAJ&printsec=frontcover&dq=inauthor:%22Henry+Flanders%22&cd=7 |date=June 4, 2016 }}. Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott & Co., 1874 at Google Books.
[https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98855862 Friedman, Leon. "Salmon P. Chase" in The Justices of the United States Supreme Court: Their Lives and Major Opinions. Volume 2. (1997)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110822013803/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=98855862 |date=August 22, 2011 }} pp 552–67.
[https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=90104191 Foner, Eric. Free Soil, Free Labor, Free Men: The Ideology of the Republican Party before the Civil War (1970)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120728073920/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=90104191 |date=July 28, 2012 }}
Goodwin, Doris Kearns. Team of Rivals: The Political Genius of Abraham Lincoln (2005) on Lincoln's cabinet.
[https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=790159 Hendrick, Burton J. Lincoln's War Cabinet (1946)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120529073307/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=790159 |date=May 29, 2012 }}
Niven, John. Salmon P. Chase: A Biography (1995).
{{cite DAB|title=Chase, Salmon Portland|volume=4|pages=27–34 |last=Randall |first=James G.}}
[https://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=101573920 Richardson, Heather Cox. The Greatest Nation of the Earth: Republican Economic Policies during the Civil War (1997)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120525081544/http://www.questia.com/PM.qst?a=o&d=101573920 |date=May 25, 2012 }}
J. W. Schuckers, The Life and Public Services of Salmon Portland Chase, (1874).
{{cite book|url=https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19165|author=William M. Evarts|title=Eulogy on Chief-Justice Chase|year=1874|access-date=August 28, 2020|archive-date=February 2, 2020|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20200202072206/http://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19165|url-status=live}}
{{cite book|title=Lincoln|url=https://archive.org/details/lincolnnove00vida|url-access=registration|author=Gore Vidal|year=1984|publisher=Random House |isbn=9780394528953|author-link=Gore Vidal}} Salmon Chase is one of the major figures in this extensively researched historical novel.

External links

[https://web.archive.org/web/20091023004356/http://geocities.com/CapitolHill/Lobby/6109/salmon1.htm The Life of Salmon P. Chase, Attorney General of Fugitive Slaves.], at WebCitation.org
The [http://www2.hsp.org/collections/manuscripts/c/Chase0121.html Salmon P. Chase papers], including correspondence and a myriad of biographical materials spanning the years 1820–1884, are available for research use at the Historical Society of Pennsylvania.
[https://web.archive.org/web/20061231131605/http://www.tulane.edu/~latner/Chase.html Salmon P. Chase] at Tulane University Law School.
[http://www.mlwh.org/inside.asp?ID=86&subjectID=2 Biography] at "Mr. Lincoln's White House"
[http://www.mrlincolnandfreedom.org/inside.asp?ID=68&subjectID=4 Biography] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160303233405/http://www.mrlincolnandfreedom.org/inside.asp?ID=68&subjectID=4 |date=March 3, 2016 }} at "Mr. Lincoln and Freedom: Salmon P. Chase"
[https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/19165 Eulogy on Chief-Justice Chase], delivered by William M. Evarts, 1874, at Project Gutenberg
[https://web.archive.org/web/20090118212717/http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/lib_hist/Courts/supreme/judges/chase/spc-bio.html Biography], [https://web.archive.org/web/20090118212645/http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/lib_hist/Courts/supreme/judges/chase/spc-bib.html Bibliography], and [https://web.archive.org/web/20090118212623/http://www.ca6.uscourts.gov/lib_hist/Courts/supreme/judges/chase/spc-lop.html Location of Papers], via U.S. Court of Appeals for the Sixth Circuit
[https://www.c-span.org/video/?64314-1/salmon-p-chase-biography Interview with John Niven on Salmon P. Chase: A Biography, May 28, 1995.] at Booknotes
[https://archives-manuscripts.dartmouth.edu/repositories/2/resources/1574 Salmon P. Chase Letters] at Dartmouth College Library
[https://www.professorbuzzkill.com/piece-of-sht-saturday-salmon-p-chase/ "Salmon P. Chase."]—Heather Cox Richardson interview on The Professor Buzzkill History Podcast, July 16, 2022.