CHIRF JUSTICE CHASE.
IT is a circumstance worthy of being pondered, that in the great movement and struggle in America for the elevation of black and white labourers, whom slavery had degraded, the work has been chiefly done by men who had themselves won their way up from poverty and daily toil to position and fortune. President Johnson is, is was his predecessor, an embodiment of the social resurrection of the South. When lately William Lloyd Garrison stood in Charleston, where thirty years ago a price had been set upon his head, and received from the hands of negro children a wreath of flowers, a distinguished Judge and Congressman of Pennsylvania (Kelley), who addressed the assembled negroes after the impressive scene, dwelt with much force upon the accidental but significant fact that the leading white men present had them- selves climbed slowly by the path which the negroes saw opened before them. Mr. Garrison began life as a journeyman printer. Senator Wilson, of Massachusetts, Chairman of the Committee on Military Affairs, was a shoemaker. Judge Kelley had never seen the inside of a schoolroom after he was eleven years of age, though now a man of learning. Some weeks later—on May 12— Chief Justice Chase addressed a vast concourse of negroes in the same room where the negroes had given the wreath to the pioneer of Emancipation, and in the course of his remarks said, "I was a Western boy, and I know that labour must be the cardinal law of our lives. In a log cabin of the West we fared just as rough and hard as most of you have to fare, and we had very little of any kind of capital—nothing to go upon but our good-wills, patient hearts, and equal opportunities for education which every white boy, thank God ! has had in this country, and all black ones who want it can now have."
Though the parents of Mr. Chass were poor, they were edu- cated people, and the boy had unusual advantages in the way of education. Born in New Hampshire, 1838, he was taken at seven years of age to a rough settlement of Ohio, where, however, he was under the teaching of his uncle, Philander Chase, Bishop of Ohio, and author of a work embodying his " Reminiscences " of the West, which is one of the best contributions to the history of the early settlement of that wintry. Ha was prepared for a col- lege at_Cincinnati, and was afterwards transferred at the age of sixteen to the more important institution of Dartmouth College (in New Hampshire, founded in 1769), where he entered the junior clam. After his graduation (1826) he went to Washington, where be opened a school for boys, and had among his pupils sons of Henry Clay, William Wirt, and other eminent men of that day. Whilst keeping school he studied law under the guidance of William Wirt, who was at the head of the Bar at Washington. The four years which Mr. Chase passed at the capital at this time were of the utmost importance to him. General Jackson was then
President, and at the zenith of his popularity. John Randolph, of Virginia still remained to scathe and smite Northern men for their servility to slavery, though the coming man of the South was Mr.
Calhoun, of South Carolina, whose wonderful power as a debater was just beginning to be felt. The Barbours of Virginia, Philip and John S., were the reigning models of oratory. Edward Everett hal left the Unitarian pulpit of Boston, of which he was the chief ornament, and was beginning his political career by introducing into Congress the first tones of modern thought. Mr. Marshall, 80311 to be Chief Justice, was lifting the standard of pure and wise statesmanship. The debates of these men had no more attentive listener than the fair-headed and grave young mm, who passed each moment that he could spare from his school or his studies in the galleries of the halls of Congress. It is not wonderful that his ambition should have been kindled. It is creditable, how- ever, that he should have resolved to live thoroughly up to the position at which he aimed. He studied patiently, indeed toiled, and Mr. Wirt felt no hesitation in predicting his successful career. He was admitted to the Bar in Washington in 1829, and in the following year went to Cincinnati, Ohio, where he has resided ever since, except when called by official duties to the State or national capitals.
Mr. Chase was not a brilliant speaker, and the many smart rhetoricians of the Cincinnati Bar looked, with some contempt upon the new lawyer of few words. But they soon found that they were liable to be brought to a stand before some unsuspected fac t or principle of law calmly stated to the Court by the pupil of Wirt. The judges presently paid unusual attention to the opinion of Mr. Chase, who at length gained an excellent practice. Such a prodigious worker was he, that whilst engaged in an arduous prac- tice, for so young a lawyer, he collected and edited the Statutes of Ohio, with careful notes, in three large octavo volumes, with a good history of Ohio prefixed, an edition which has since that time been the recognized authority in the State. At this time also he mingled freely in social life. There was nearly thirty years ago a very interesting literary club in Cincinnati called "The Semicolon," of which Mr. Chase was one of the founders. In this club were read the first literary efforts of Miss Harriet Beecher, afterwards Mrs. Stowe, whose genius her friend Mr. Chase fully recognized at that time. Dr. Lyman Beecher and his family then resided at Cincinnati, and Mr. Chase was a welcome visitor at their home. He had a decided taste for literary com- position, but still more for religious discussion. He was always connected with the Episcopal Church, and is to this day, but sym- pathizes very strongly with the liberal movement of that Church corresponding to that which in England is associated with the Ersays and Reviews.
For a long time after his admission to the Bar Mr. Chase did not show any disposition to enter into political life, and indeed it was through the duties of his profession that he entered it at last. In 1837 the pro-slavery re-action was at its height in the United States. To be an abolitionist in any neighbourhood of the South was death, and in the North it was to be mobbed. It was in that• year that Mr. Chase volunteered to defend the right to freedom of a fugitive slave, a woman, who was about to be sent South. It was quite an ordinary occurrence to have a fugitive negro dragged back into bondage from Ohio, but it was extraordinary to have a lawyer undertake to resist this normal process. Mr. Chase was told by many friends that he would rain his prospects if he defended this woman, but he came forward, and in a memorable speech, which established the ruling of every Court in the North up to the time of Mason's Fugitive Bill, proved the then novel principle that the constitutional provision concerning "fugitives from labour" did not confer any power of action in such cases upon State magis- trates. If Kentucky wishes her slave, Kentucky must catch him or her as well as she can, but Ohio has a right to declare neu- trality between master and slave. The woman was not, we believe, saved by the argument, the delivery of which cost the young lawyer many friends. But he was very firm, and in that same year, when one of the earliest abolitionists (James (i. Bimey, the first abolitionist ever nominated for the Presidency) was on trial in Cincinnati for harbouring and helping a fugitive negro from Ken- tucky, Mr. Chase again came forward, with a defence which was based upon the principle, then and there for the first time since the fathers fell asleep, distinctly enunciated in America, namely, that freedom was national, slavery sectional. We need not go into the details of this case, nor of the application to it of the principle stated ; it is sufficient to say that from this time Mr. Chase began to feel that a reform in the ideas of the country as to the rights of the negroes under the law was imperatively demanded, and the friends of the slave, few and unlearned as they were then, began to rest upon him In 1838, when a committee of the Ohio Senate reported adversely to the admission of escaped and arrested slaves to the right of trial by jury, Mr. Chase wrote a scathing review of their •
report. Mr. Chase began as a democrat, but from the first he refused to go with that party in any of its concessions to slavery. In the Presidential campaign of 1840 he was keen enough to see that the Whig Harrison, whom South Carolina hated, was a truer friend of freedom than the Democratic Van Buren, and so he voted against his party. He first took a prominent part in the general politics of the country in vehement opposition to the Mexican War, and afterward to the annexation of Texas. Alter trying vainly for ten or twelve years to reform the Democratic party in the matter of slavery he withdrew from it in 1852, because it approved the compromise of 1850, which had inflicted upon the nation the odious Fugitive Slave Bill. In 1849, he was elected to the Senate, in 1855 he was elected Governor, and in 1859 he was re- elected by the largest majority ever cast for any Governor in Ohio. When the secession troubles began, Mr. Chase was sent to Washington as a delegate to the Peace Convention which sought to settle the impending difficulties by negotiation. In that Conven- tion he did much to save the North from making another disgrace- ful compromise with slavery, whilst his tone was kind and con- ciliatory. His speech there (February 6, 1861) was the best that was made. He declared to the Southern Commissioners that the delegates from the Free States could not surrender the principle of slavery restriction without being repudiated by their constituents. He then made the following wise proposition concerning the settle- ment of the Fugitive Slave question, which we give in his own words :— "Aside from the territorial question—the question of slavery outside of Slave States—I know of but one serious difficulty. I refer to the question concerning fugitives from service. The clause in the Constitution concerning this class of persons is regarded by almost all men, North and South, as a stipulation for the surrender to their masters of slaves escaping into Free States. The people of the Free States, however, who believe that slaveholding is wrong, cannot and will not aid in the reclamation, and the stipu- lation becomes therefore a dead letter. You complain of bad faith, and the complaint is retorted by denunciatigns of the cruelty which would drag back to bondage the poor slave who has escaped from it. You, thinking slavery right, claim the fulfilment of the stipu- lation; we, thinking slavery wrong, cannot fulfil the stipulation without consciousness of participation in wrong. Here is a real
difficulty, but it seems to me not insuperable A true solution of the difficulty seems to be attainable by regarding it as a simple case where a contract, from changed circumstances, cannot be fulfilled exactly as made. A court of equity in such cases decrees execution as near as may be. It requires the party who cannot perform to make a compensation for non-performance. Why cannot the same principle be applied to the rendition of fugitives from service ? We cannot surrender, but we can comien- sate. Why not, then, avoid all difficulties on all sides, and.show respectively good faith and good-will, by providing and accepting compensation where masters reclaim escaping servants, and prove their right of reclamation under the Constitution? Instead of a judgment for rendition let there be a judgment for compensation, determined by the true value of the services, and let the same judgment assure freedom to the fugitive."
The Peace Congress, as is known, failed to arrange an agree- ment. Mr. Chase was called to President Lincoln's Cabinet, and for some time gave his voice, with that of the most anti-slavery sentiment of the country, in favour of permitting the South to secede peaceably. This was because, with Garrison, Phillips, Gree- ley, and others, he had no idea that the North was equal to a bold war for freedom. But when the uprising of the people which occurred upon the attack on Fort Sumter revealed the fact that the North had not, after all, been utterly corrupted by slavery, he shared the great hope of a free Republic, which the people declared to be worth any price they should be called upon to pay. Mr. Chase's course as a Cabinet Minister is well known. He was faithful to his antecedents. The life-long friends of freedom had always a voice in the Administration whilst he was a member of it. When General Fremont declared the slaves of Missouri free, Mr. Chase implored the President to confirm the edict ; and when General Hunter did the same in the far South, he made the same appeal. He was always in advance of the Adminis- tration. And when he was out of it, and the office of Chief Justice became vacant, it was in obedience to the united demand of the country, based upon perfect trust of him, that this long- tried and unfaltering friend of justice was raised to that position
which, in the esteem of every American, stands next to the .Pre- sidency.
Mr. Chase has always had the recommendation of a handsome face and a noble person. Perhaps a finer-looking man could not be found in the States. He is in height about six feet four inches, is admirably built, and erect. His face is pale, his com- plexion blonde, his forehead full, and his head in every way well- formed. His eye is blue, clear, and remarkably serene ; his features regular and at the same time strong, and the expression in his face is that of seriousness and benevolence. His manner is kind without being at all warm, he is always courteous, and there is about him an air of refinement and culture. As a speaker he is plain, straightforward, and at times blunt. He has a slight lisp when he begins to speak, which is afterwards not heard, and his voice is vigorous, argumentative in its tone, and always quiet. Without being fluent he chooses his words well, and without pathos he impresses his audience deeply by the force of his own conviction. He has considerable humour, and now and then coins his thoughts into odd and telling phrases.
Mr. Chase has always been regarded as one of the most am- bitious of American statesmen, and perhaps justly, His ambition is of that kind which Mr. Fox (afterwards Lord Holland) had when he said "he must have the Treasury ; he had served up to it, and would have it." Mr. Chase firmly adhered to the cause of justice in America when it could give nothing and demanded all ; step by step, he has battled for its advancement, and it is scarcely wonderful that he should feel that his claim to the highest office, which in its day of triumph the cause for which he toiled thirty weary years can give, is valid. But it should not be forgotten that his ambition has never led to his shrinking from the task which is never popular—that of leading, and to that end com- bating the public mind.. He has never been a popular man, and has been put in office because his ability was needed. At this moment, when every eminent self-seeker in America is waiting and hanging back to see if the popular breath will be for negro suffrage, the man who unhesitatingly commits the highest judicial opinion of the nation to the just side, and risks his personal pro- spects for it, is Salmon Portland Chase.
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