The Elk County advocate. [volume] (Ridgway, Pa.) 1868-1883, 1873-05-29
"reminiscences of the Chief Justice,

The suddendeath of the Chief Justice
has awakened many "reminiscences OF
his administration of the Treasury De-
partment, and from them an estimate of
his leading traits as an administrative
officer is readily formed. When Mr..
Chase took charge of the Treasury De-
partment the Government was without
money, and it's credit low. He had but
six weeks of peace in which to learn the
routine of business, and then had to
provide for increased expenditure from
diminished revenue. In this work he
never failed or tagged, nor lost sight of
the least of those assisting him in doing
it, or the means by which it was done.
His powers of endurance were wonder
full, and exceeded those of anybody
about him. On one occasion he re-
minded the Assistant Secretary, Mi.
Harrington. that in coming to the De-
nnrtment ten minutes late on that par
ticular occasion he was setting a bad
example to the others, and, on that gen
tleman excusing himself by saying that
he had stayed at the Department nearly
the whole of the preceding night, the
Secretary replied that he had been up
all night himself, and was still there.
One time his shorthand writer utterly
broke down from protracted exertlon,
when Mr.. Chase sent for another, and
continued to dispose of business with
unhagging ardor till the second gave up
exhausted, and third could not at the
moment be had, when the Secretary
went home for the remainder of the
night. He was in those days great
drinker of tea, to which he then at
tributed much of his strength, and his
friends since, in part, his paralytic dis
order. The habits of the schoolmaster
were, in some respects, fixed in him
even at this late period OF public life.
He was accustomed to keep a watch
upon those he introduced into the De-
partment till satisfied that they would
run without watching in the right
grooves; and, though he was often
frank and cordial with his subordinates
before the end of a heightened inter
view, he usually received them at the
outset with the air of monitor. He
was notably man of moods, and for
that reason was generally approached
with misgivings; yet he was never ac-
tually discourteous nor unjust, and al
ways took lively interest in those
about him, remembering zeal and good
service without solicitation. In 1868
the expenditures were enormous and
the means of meeting them apparently
all but exhausted. Night and morning
the cry was for money to meet necessary
expenses that could not be deferred,
but i'll all the time of the pressure he
turned no business away from his desk,
though he occasionally laid a letter aside
for a second reading, his custom being
to read carefully every paper presented
for his signature, and even to make cor
rections or Improvements in the gram
matical form. One amusing incident is
remembered by an old clerk in the De
partment as occurring between "School-
master Chase" and the late George
Wood, of literary memory. Mr. Wood
had one of his letters returned to him
with directions to change the word
"by" to "with," but resisted the order
by augmentation, until the Secretary
settled the argument by quoting in H.
| lustration of the difference between the
words, the sentence, "By these swords
we gained our lands, and 1UiM them we
will maintain what we have gained. y
He entered into the discussion of the
| details of army organization with an in
| terest equal to that of an army officer,
and military consultations at the Treas
ury were not infrequent at the Depart
ment in the early days of the war. II
was Mr.. Chase who procured the ap-
pointment of Fighting Joe Hooker to
the command of the Army of the Poto.
mac in January, 1868, and the Secretary
of the Treasury was his one friend al
| court all the time he exercised the com
mand. The downfall of Hooker greatly
weakened the influence of Mr.. Chase il
the Cabinet, and, finding himself unable,
at last, to protect his own friends il
office under him, in positions where he
was the best Judge of their deservings
he left the Cabinet on a resignation
which Mr.. Lincoln accepted under the
advice of other Cabinet officers.