The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-05-08
Another or the Grent Lights OF the
Nation Removed.

| men and iurists, another of tho great political
| lights of the nation, has been removed Sal
mon P. Chase, Chief Justice of the United
States, in the sixty-sixth year Of his age, died
in this city yesterday morning, somewhat sud-
denly, and to the surprise of this community,
for it was here the general impression that his
failing strength for year or two past had of
late been sufficiently reinstated to promise
him yet many years in the prolongation Of his
invaluable public services. On Saturday he
came to this city from Washington, apparently
in perfect health; on Sunday he rode out
with some friends through our Central Park,
and highly enjoyed the recreation On Mon
day he walked down town with the elasticity
and cheerfulness of vigorous man Of fifty;
but in the evening the shock came, and in the
morning all TINT remained Of the stately pres
ence of our Chief Justice was o ifeless form
Of clay. On the 14th of this month, we
understand, he had contemplated, with ex-
Governor Gilpin, of Colorado, pleasure trip
to that Territory and stay Of a month or two
in the salubrious and health-giving air of
those lofty inland mountains and mountain
valleys But short as was the last warning Of
his impending summons we are assured that
he was fully prepared to meet it, and that as
man and Christian his death was the crown
ing glory of his life
| We shall not enter here into q reorganization
Of the many conspicuous events and historical
landmarks of the long and eminently distin-
guished spublic career of our deceased Chief
Justice. For these interesting details we
| refer our readers to the comprehensive
sketch Of the great mans career which
we give elsewhere in these columns.
But in the associations, the bearings and
the far-reaching consequences Of the lead
ing ideas and enterprises of this great mans
public life there is 80 much Of attractive
matter to the political historian that we
cannot forego some passing observations
| thereon. The initial landmark from which
we may trace the whole active political career
of Salmon P. Chase was established in that
| famous case in Cincinnati, in 1887, of
colored woman claimed as o slave, in which
the young lawyer appeared in behalf of the
poor slave-an undertaking which was SO un-
popular and unpromising at that day that it
was regarded as the essence of folly or fanati-
cism. But Chase had seized the grand idea of
equal rights, and while, from his legal training
under William Writ, his mind had been
anchored on the constitution, he saw that,
within the pale of the constitution as it was,
there were metss and bounds to the conces-
sions made to slavery, and to these he had re-
solved to hold the peculiar institution"
Hence, in defending this helpless slave woman,
he pleaded that the constitution gave no
authority to Congress to impose or confer
power in fugitive slave cases on State magis-
trates-a legal point upon which, years after,
he was sustained by the supreme judicial
authority of the country. In this initial slave
case we have, then, the active beginning and
the keynote of the political life of Salmon P.
Chase. We have here that well-considered
and deliberately adopted first overt act which,
down to the fourteenth amendment, gave
color, shape and purpose to the political
course Of this courageous adventurer into the
forbidden ground of slavery.
Having chosen his line of political action, we
find him next the powerful leader in the or
ganization in Ohio of the elderly party" the
party which, in 1874, under the flag of Birney,
carried off in New York the whig anti-slavery
balance Of power from Henry Clay, thus CIV
ing this State to Polk and electing him Presi-
dent. Clay had not answered on the question
of the proposed annexation of Texas as
slave State to the satisfaction of the abolition
lists Polk was the slaveholders' champion,
and so the liberty party, mainly directed by
Chase, voted for Birney. The results were:
first the election of Polk; next, the annexation
of Texas as slave State; next, the Mexican
war; and next under the active leading mind
of Chase, among others, the organization of
the 'free soil party" q new anti-slavery move
ment against the extension of slavery into the
free territories acquired from Mexico in our
treaty Of peace with that country. In 184S,
with the ticket Of Martin Van Buren,
and Charles Francis Adams, this free soil
party, carrying off the right wing of the New
York democracy, gave the State to Taylor,
and elected him Presdent-the same pro-
cess of cutting in by this third party by
which Clay was defeated in "A. We next
find Chase in the United States Senate, with
the forlorn hope of the free soil party in that
body, battling first against the Compromise
measures of Clay 1850, which included the
Fugitive Slave law; next we find him as bravely
disputing the Kansas Nebraska bill, the kernel
of which was plan for a new slave State IN
Kansas, in violation of one of the Missouri
compacts, which had been retained in Clays
compromises.
From this Kansas- N ebraska hill of snuatfer
sovereignty, and in the so-called border ruffian
war between pro-slavery and anti-slavery
settlers in the Territory, was given to the
country the gloomy overture of our great
Southern rebellion. We were thrown upon