Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1868-07-15
Chief Justice Chase.

The Democratic Convention being over,
and the dust and smoke of its fights having
cleared away, it may be as well to look about
among the politically killed and wounded
Among the former, one of the first inanimate
bodies that greets our vision is Chief Justice
Chase. We took occasion some weeks since
TO say that the Democratic party had no in
tention of nominating Judge Chase, and the
event has proved the correctness of our
Judgment. The highest vote the Chief JUS
tice received was four, given by part of the
Massachusetts, delegation. He also re
ceived a somewhat doubtful compliment in
the shape ola resolution approving his course
during the impeachment trial This, and
few cheers and some Kisses, was all the re-
cognition the Democrats vouchsafed Mr..
Chase.
That the Chief Justice desired and hoped
for the nomination l. quite apparent. Since
he became satisfied that Grant would be
nominated at Chicago, he has been industri-
ously at work to 50 express his political
opinions as To make it possible for tue Dem
ocratic party to take him for their leader
His course during the impeachment trial
shaped, doubt with a view to the
same result. From time to time authorize
tive announcements have been made of his
political opinions, each one bringing him
nearer what few principles the Democratic
party have. While the Convention was in ses
sion, this correspondence was published; an
eminent gentlemen in Ohio having written
the following letter to New Yorker, it was
forwarded to Chase
June 25, 1865.
There Is growing disposition among the
democracy of the West TO accept Chief JUS
tice Chase as their candidate. If cordially
received by the party, his election Will be
certain and it is the safest and best we can
DO. | see the Commercial doubts his consent
ing to leave the question of suffrage, without
distinction of race, to the states, and con-
siders it departure from his long avowed
principles This I do not perceive. Chase
is in favor of two things-the Constitution of
the United States and the rights of the
states under it, and suffrage without distinc-
ton of race and | think he has never said
he would violate the first in order to secure
the last, and 1t is not an inconsistency or de-
parture from principle to refuse the attain
ment of an end however desirable, by an
assumption of ungranted powers
In returning the foregoing letter to the
gentleman TO whom it addressed, the
Chief Justice defines his position on the
question of suffrage in relation to national
politics, as follows:
July l, 1868
s'Pleaso say to your friend that he is en-
tirely right 70 my views of suffrage and
state rights. What / desire for the southern
states is peace and prosperity, with all dis
Embellishments and disabilities removed and
all rights restored to all citizens. But the
practical disposition of the question of suf
frrge, as well as all other domestic questions,
is for the people of the states themselves, not
for outsiders. On this question | adhere to
nv old state rights doctrines. In the event
of nomination and success, [ trust that |
would so act that neither the great party
which makes the nomination, nor the great
Duuy or paGrIUJIU cILI1ouo ~tIvrv Uv-vtor auivr,
would insure success, would have any cause
to regret their action. 1t is an intense de-
sire with me TO the Democratic party
meeting the questions of the day in the spirit
of the day, and assuring to itself long du-
ration of ascendency. 1t can do SO if it will.
Yours truly,
S.P. CHASE"
In this declaration of principles, Mr.. Chase
surrenders everything but sentimental equal
suffrage. He knows, as every man with an
ounce of brains must know, that if the
Southern States are even now left to them
selves, and deprived of the active sympathy
of the Republican party, expressed through
all the departments of the national govern
ment, the negroes would very soon be re-
duced to position little better than slavery.
Judge Chase's old state rights doctrine, we
never thought it sound, not even when it
was invoked as a weapon against pro-slavery
executive and a pro-slavery COURTS just
what Wade Hampton and A. II. Stephens
and JEFF Davis want, and is, in fact, one of
the things they fought for. With that they
were sure to make slavery and the South
strong, and to resist the progressive and free
spirit which has now, we trust, forever
swept them and their party and their princi-
pies from power.
But the Democratic party, after all this
abandonment of everything in his old prin-
ciples which made him admired by the friends
of freedom, retaining only the dangerous
doctrines borrowed originally from Calhoun,
could not be brought to give Judge Chase
even the poor compliment of a respectable