New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1886-10-17
SALMON L. CHASE.

fermentation Proclamation, the towering
figure of Salmon p. Chase occupies command
ing position, which, in the minds OF many men
of his generation, he did not bear to the great
event there consummated. But the true rela-
ton of Mr.. Chase to the abolition OF slavery
was not fully understood by the generation
with which he worked, and is yet 10 be fully
comprehepded by the Nation which owes to
him so much of honor and of grandeur. The
Grafton of Ex-Governor Hoadly, at the burial
of Mr.. Chase in Ohio, will contribute much to
that better understanding.
AS armies must have both scouts and Gen.
erals, so great reforms require both pioneers
and practical leaders. But In no other relation
in life do men make the mistake of honorng
the scout before the General who organizes
victory Useful as he Is IN rare degree. the
best of scouts has in him no faculty to hold
foot of the ground he may tread. TO gam
ground and hold it, 10 push back foe until he
is finally subdued. the General is necessary
who can adjust plans to possibilities, ana array
great forces 10 accomplish with them the best
practical results within their reach Garrison
and Phillips were scouts Salmon z. Chase was
such a General.
of all the leaders Of the anti-slavery army to
whom the actual abolition of slavery is Justly
attributable, Mr.. Chase was one OF the most
powerful. The work of the scout or pioneer
Will ever be dear to the heart and fascinating
| TO the Imagination Men like Phillips and Car
rison did indeed render glorious services to
their country and their age, although the
| methods they chose were those from which no
practical change in the laws of the land or in
the condition of the slaves could have been ex-
pected. As Governor Hoadly well says, Garri-
son and Phillips were only able to enrage the
South, but had in them no power to brighten
or to hurt the institutions they asSaicd.
! "Thev lived to see the Union they detested,
and the Constitution they abhOrred, saved
by the methods they had denounced as i'm
moral" This strong statementimplics no CEN
sure ; it was not the part OF the pioneer to
begin by paving streets or building railroads
| The work which was theirs to do they did well,
for they reused public opinion and awakened
the cOnsclences of many, until the issue be-
tween slavery and freedom was clearly seen
and deeply felt on both sides of the dividing
line But theirs was not the duty to show an
awakened public how to revOlutiOnize the laws
of the land, and theirs was not the faculty TO
bring together millions of men, with divers
shades of thought and feeling, to unite upon
political effort i'll the right direction.
Among those who led, in the highest and
best sense Mr.. Chase is justly hOnored by Gov
ernor Hoadly as one of the foremost in thought,
one of the bravest and most devoted III action,
and one of the most potent in influence over
events He it was who brought great legal
learning and o Serful mind to the task of
convincing men that the fugitive slave law
could and should be resisted as uncOnstitu-
tional because, though the Constitution en-
braced a provision for the return of
fugitves, it added no grant of legislative
power to Congress over that subject, and
therefore left to the States alone the power
to devise proper legislation Resting this argu-
ment on the tenth amendment, Mr. Chase
added the conclusion drawn from the seventh
amendment and the common law, that no per-
son could be deprived OF liberty or of rights
without trial by jury. When the conscience
and the intellect OF the Nation had been en-
Ightened to resist the fugitive slave law as a
violation Of the Constitution, the abolition OF
slavery on American soil was rendered newt
able. For slavery could not be made profitable
without return of iugltives, and return of fugl-
tives was practically impossible wit out resort
to the methods which Mr.. Chase held repugnant
to the Constitution. The issue once joined II
rested with the defenders of slavery to deter
mine whether they would see it rot away grad
ualy by the sure working of industrial and
economic causes, or hasten Its end by drawing
the swo.d of rebellion and setting free the I'M
limited war power of the nation.
This great work of practical resistance to
slavery Mr.. Chase Began when it was nowhere
popular; when conscious possession of great
talents tempted him to seek elevation by open
maths. in town where Birney's press had
been destroyed and negroes mobbed because
they were free, and in State in which no per-
son of the slightest trace of negro blood was
allowed TO testify in the courts, He lived to
see the great crisis past, the land freed from
slavery, and the Union established iGr the first
time on foundations of justice, by political
methods which were in large measure due to