CHASE, SALMON PORTLAND, 1808-73; b. N. II. He was the son of a farmer, and a nephew of bishop Chase, who supervised his earlier education. Graduating from Dartmouth college in 1826, he opened a school for boys at the national capi tal, and in 1830 was admitted to the bar, where almost his earliest work was the preparation of an edition of the statutes of Ohio with annotations, and a sketch of the history of the state. This assisted him in gaining practice, and in 1834 he was appointed solicitor in Cincinnati for the bank of the united States. His first effort in a cause touch ing slavery was in defense of a colored woman claimed as a fugitive. He maintained that the fugitive slave law of 1793 was void, because unwarranted by the federal consti tution. In the same year he defended James G. Birney (subsequently the candidate of the abolitionists for president), who had been prosecuted under the state law for harbor ing a slave. In this case he argued that slavery was a local institution, and that as the slave had been brought into a free state by his master, he was in fact free. In 1846, in the Van Zandt case before the U. S. supreme court, he took the ground that under the ordinance of 1787 no fugitive from service could be reclaimed from Ohio unless he had escaped from one of the original states; that it was the understanding of the makers of the constitution that slavery was to be left to the disposal of the several states, without sanction or support from the federal government; and that the clause in the constitution relating to persons held to service was a compact between the states, conferring no power of legislation on congress, and was never intended to confer such power. 'In 1841, he was prominent in the organization of the liberty party of Ohio, which nominated him for governor. In the national liberty convention at Buffalo in 1843, and in subsequent conventions until the nomination (in 1848) of Van Buren for president, C. was a leading member, and in most cases directed the proceed ings. In Feb., 1849, he was chosen U. S. senator from Ohio, his vote coming from all the democrats and a few freesoil members. He acted generally with the democrats
until the nomination (in 1852) of Pierce on a strongly pro-slavery platform, when he withdrew and undertook the formation of an independent democratic party. The debate on the Nebraska bill gave him an opportunity to oppose the famous compromise, to which he moved an amendment looking to the exclusion of slavery from all•he territories; but it was not adopted. Through all the contest for the repeal of the Missouri compromise and the Kansas debate, he was foremost in opposition to slavery extension. In the mean time, he was heard on other important subjects. He favored internal improvements by the general government, and supported the free homestead movement, and cheap postage. In 1855, he was elected governor of Ohio by the votes of the opponents of the Nebraska bill, and he was re-elected in 1857. His name was before the first national convention of the republican party (1856) for president, but was withdrawn at his own request. He was named, also, in the convention that nominated Lincoln, but was not pressed. In 1861, he was appointed secretary of the treasury, and held the office until July 30, 1864, when he resigned. In this position the arduous duties of sustaining the national oredit in the struggle with the rebellion devolved in a great degree upon him; and he proved equal to the occasion. The death of Roger B. Taney in Oct., 1864, made a vacancy in the chair of the chief justice of the U. S. supreme court, which was immediately filled by the appointment of C., iu which capacity he presided at the trial on the impeachment of Andrew Johnson in Mar., 1868. About this time, his dissatisfaction with the course of the republican party became so decided as to throw his influence on the side of the democrats, at whose national convention, July, 1868, he was prominently, though unsuccessfully, urged as a presidential candidate. In 1870, lie was stricken with paralysis, the effects of which lasted until his death.