Year: 1873

eminent the renewed affection and confidence OF gen
People, and that may win for American instu.
who, everywhere, love Liberty and revere Justice.


The Circuit Court decided against Van Zandt and
the case was carried TO the Supreme Court Of the
United States, where Mr.. Chase and William H.
Seward argued il In 1916, Mr. Chase maintaining
that it was the clear understanding Of the trainers
of the Constitution, and Of the people who adopted
it that Slavery was to be left exclusively to the dis
posal of the several States without sanction or sup
port from tho National Government; and that the
clause in tho Constitution relative to persons held
TO service was one of compact between the States
and conferred no power of legislation on Congress,
having been transferred from tho ordinance OF 1857,
in which it conferred no power on the cOnfedera-
ton, and was never understood 70 confer any, lhe
Court, however. through Justice Woodbury. al
firmed the constitutionaty o. the Act; and Van
Zandt, ruined by the fine imposed upon him and the
costs of the defense, died broken hearted.


By this time Mr.. Chase had carried the agitation
from the courts into politics. He had acted more
generally with the Wings in early life than with
the Democrats. but his vote was always governed
by his hostility to the naturalization of Slavery,
and when he became convinced that effectual re-
sstance to the aggessons of the shareholders could
be expected from the Tyler administration, be joined
in 1s41 the Independent movement which resulted
in the Liberty Party of Ohio He signed the call
for an anti-Slavery convention at Columbus, in
December 1871. and wrote and reported its
stirring address on the powers and duties
of the people. and the principles OF the
new party. at was, perhaps, the best
presentation of the subject" says Yice-President
Wilson, chat had then been made. No previous
paper bad 80 clearly defined the province OF poilca
action, its limitations and prospective results. u
was extensively circulated, and eXerted consderaDle
influence in giving cohesion and impulse TO the
new organizationD In the National Liberty Con-
yenton at Buffalo in August, 1Si3 be was an active
member of the committee on resolutions, and when
il was proposed by John PierpOnt to regard anu
treat the third clause Of the Constitution, whenever
applied to tho case of fugitive slave, as utterly
null and void, and consequently az forming no
part of tho Constitution Of the United states
whenever we are called upou or sworn to support
it, Mr. Chase vehemently cOmbatted the res0lu-
ton, on the ground that it apparently sanctioned
the dangerous doctrine of mental reservation
Defending himself afterward in the United States
Senate from the charge of advocating this very
resolution he made the characteristic declaration
81 never would propose OF vote for such resolution
I hold no doctrine of mental reservation. Every
man, in my Judgment, should speak just as he
thinks. keeping nothing back, here or elsewhere"


1t is impossible to read the narrative Of the next
few years struggles without seeing that to Mr..
Chase more than any other one man belongs the
credit of making the ant-slavery feeling, what 1t
had mover been before, power IN politics. Ii had
been the sentiment of phIl1nthropists he made 1t
the inspiration Of great practical party lie pro-
iected and we may almost say he organized the LIB
erty Convention of the South and West which met
at Cincinnati in 1915 with 1900 delegates. He took
part in the second National Liberty Convention IN
1Si7 He prepared the call for Free Territory
State Convention at Columbus in lSs, the result OF
which was tho Buffalo Convention of the same year
and the nomination of Martin Van Buren,
and Charles Francis Adams. The platform
adopted on this occasion was almost entirely MS
work Thus Mr. Chase had consistently endeavOred
to bring the Democratic party Of the North to
recognize the rights of man as they ara recognized
by the clear vision of Almighty God" On Feb. -,
1s49 he was chosen Senator of the United States by
the entire vote of the Democratic members of the
Ohio Legislature and of those Free Soil members
who favored Democratic views while he had
brought the party in its state Convention TO declare
Slavery an evil and practically to commit itself to
the standardization of the institution. He
entered the Senate, therefore, as the leader and
teacher of his party, not merely as its
representative; and when the Ohio Democracy
sanctioned the nomination Of Gen. Pierce by the
Baltimore Convention, in 1882 Mr. Chase acted with
consistency and IN fulillment Of his previous
pledges by formally ending his connection with the
party. 1t was in letter from Mr. Chase to the
Hon. b. F. Butler of New-York that the organization
of an independent Democratic party was proposed.
The Convention met at Pittsburgh and adopted
platform framed substantially by Mr. Chase, who
continued to act with 1t until the political frag-
ments which had been gradually shaped and guided
under his influence combined in the formation of the
Republican party.


In the Senate the construction Of "A Pacific Rail
road. the passing of Homestead law, system of
cheap postage, and reform in the public expendi-
lures were among the topics to which he especially
applied himself But it was in the Slavery debates
as q matter Of course that he took a commanding
position. When the Nebraska question came up. be
proved tower of strength TO the anti
Slavery party at critical and exciting
period. He offered an amendment to Mr. Clay's
Compromise bill, prohibiting the introduction of
Slavery into the territories to which it applied but
it failed by vote of 25 to 30 He drew up an appeal
to the people against the repeal Of the Missouri
Compromise in 1854. He made the first elaborate
exposure of the wrongs of that iniquitOus measure
His persistent attacks upon it in the Senate, though
they failed TO prevent the consummation Of the
scheme, did thoroughly rouse the North and are
admitted to have influenced in remarkable degree
tho subsequent scenes in the struggle. Retiring
from the Senate in 1856 he elected Governor Of
Ohio by the opponents of the Nebraska blu aud the
Pierce Administration, including not only those
who afterwards became known as Republicans, but
also the KnowNothing faction of which be was an
outspOken enemy.


The new Republican party held its first National
Convention in 1856. In that Convention Gov. Chase
was the first choice of many of the delegates for the
Presidential nomination but HIS name was with