.1 CiPb LIBRARY OF CONGRESS DDD2bl'^'^3ST ( E 415 •C4 P6 Copy 1 Chief Justice Chase, BY JAMES S. PIKE. -«^^ -^18 7 3.» ^-^||»~ Mtxv fotfe : Powers, Macgowan & ^lipper, Printei^s, Corner Nassau and Frankfort Streets, (Son Bdildino ) 1873- l: 4^ G ^-Tg ci5 1 - ' CHIEF JUSTICE CHASE. In the death of Chief Justice Chase there disappears from the ranks of the living the last of the four great men whom President Lincoln called into his Cabinet during the war of the rebellion. Messrs. Seward, Stanton, Fessenden, and Chase were men of diverse character and qualities, but each in his own way was unrivalled. In the high arena of Senatorial debate Mr. Fessenden was superior to either. In the ca- pacity of War Minister, with a million of men in the field, not one of them could have matched Stanton's imperious energy. In the direction of our foreign affairs, neither could have exhibited the copiousness, the fertility, or that genial facility of exposition that marked Mr. Seward's diplomacy. And it is not too much to say that no man in the whole country could have equalled Mr. Chase in that most embarrassing task of all, the successful man- agement of our finances. At the opening of the war there was nothing so diffi- cult as the financial problem, and there was none upon which so little light was shed, either by our own expe- rience or that of other nations. The vast proportions of the war required a corresponding system of finance to meet its enormous and constantly expanding demands. It was to Mr. Chase's bold simplicity and clearness of thought, and, above all, to his firm grasp and unbending will, that we owe the system which carried the country triumphantly through its trials. - He exhibited, far be- yond aiiyof hiscolleagi^es^that quality of administrative ability which the Frenc^i g^^ above every other, and which they term initiative. I^ ^his respect he was the greatest of them all. To cast do^j^ ^i^ systems and establish new, which shall stand the U.^^^ ^f ti^ig ^nd experience, and es- pecially to do this duri;Qg tj^^ tempest of civil war, is the work of genius. This i|g ^.i^^t Mr. Chase did. He over- threw the whole bankij^g gygtem of the country, and he erected another upon i^g r^ins. And he did this alone, and against the passiv^ ^j, active resistance of the entire community. When allj ordinary resources foiled to fur- nish money for the war j^g gg^ in motion a unique agency for placing the national ji^ans, which proved instantly and brilliantly successful. jHe mvented the system of five- twenties and ten-fortieslfoj, ^he permanent funding of the national debt ; and no f,;cheme has yet been found better than this in the complet:-e^egg ^^^d flexibility of its opera- tion, i With wonderful darilg ^nd force of character, he put aside the constitutional standard of value, and did not hesitate to override the f^j^^^^^^-^g^tal law against impair- ing the obligation of co^^tracts, in his eager and patriotic determination that evei' p^i^.^^te interest should yield to the public necessity. %e ^^de it the condition of exist- le country that they should con- 3 the support of the public credit. ion with vigorous determination against the most powdj-ft^i opposition. A few banks prudential, and sometimes from ; but Mr. Chase and his system at last acquiesced, or went out of g his resolute methods, and with his powers and resources, he in- ence for the banks of tl tribute their resources t( He enforced this condit would not comply, from political considerations triumphed, and they all existence. And pursuin unabated confidence in sistecl on the reduction of the rate of interest on the na- tional loans from six per cent, to five per cent., in the very height and pressure of the war, when three millions of dollars a day were required to maintain the armies in the field. These were the great leading features of Secretary Chase's financial policy. Even this cursory review of them exhibits their novel and masterly character. They could only have emanated from a bold, original mind of distinct ideas, strong, unhesitating, revolutionary in its vigor, imbued with self-confidence, and feeling itself equal to any emergency. The novelty of Mr. Chase's situation, and the ease and ability with which he met each succes- sive and threatening phase of it, carrying his great bur- den steadily to the end, have never been fully appreciated. But history will not fail to award him the title of great- ness for his deeds during this period. It were idle to say that in the prosecution of his large and vital schemes, Mr. Chase made no mistakes. If this were true, he would hardly have been human. The issue of his five per cent, legal tenders was a mistake. The legal-tender measure in its application to pre-existing contracts w..,, ct mistake, at least in our judgment. The injurious character of this application he himself recog. nized, and aimed to correct by his noble decision on its unconstitutionality after he became Chief Justice. But the easy-going public, and the lawyers of the great cor- porations who became his associate judges, were content to endorse even the errors of the great Secretary, which the wiser judge had himself condemned ; thus exhibiting in vivid and striking colors the difference between greater and lesser men ; between mere lawyers and statesmen, who while they recognize national necessities, maintain the prerogatives of justice over the plausibilities of the law. But we have no need to criticise the defects in Mr. Chase's financial administration, when we find that botli judges and legislators are unable to see them, or at least are thus far unwilling to recognize and remedy them, after long years of trial and experience. The issue of the five per cent, legal tenders by Mr. Chase in the crisis of the war was an effort made with the laudable purpose of reducing the rate of interest on the new loans required. It did not attain this object, while it had the effect, in connection with dissatisfaction with the military situation, to rapidly advance the pre- mium on coin, an effect which Mr. Chase was warned against, but which he refused to believe beforehand. But this, and the legal-tender measure, in its application to pre-existing contracts, were mere incidents of his general financial policy. While we take exceptions to them, others do not. The policy itself was broad and original. It carried the country majestically through the war. It paid the nation's debts. It has astonished the world by its success. Some of its leading features are to-day adopted by three millions of British subjects on our northern frontier. The financial prosperity of the coun- try under the system of greenbacks and national bank notes has reached a fabulous height ; and so enamored has the whole nation become of it, that it is impos- sible at present to get the popular approval even foi* any modification of the system, though such a modifica- tion has long been considered desirable and necessary by its author. This is a result which might well satisfy the highest ambition of the greatest of financiers. Of Mr. Chase's career as Chief Justice, we may sayit has been comparativel}' brief, and part of it has been clouded by illness. But without any long training as a lawyer in great cases, his clear and masculine intellect 5 \ I ,1 was adjudged by Mr. Lincoln to afford ample reason for his elevation to the head of thejcourt ; and that opinion has been fully justified by the ievent. In every respect he has been master of his place. In the impeachment case of President Johnson all felt the presence of a con- trolling mind and will, which to a large extent shaped the character and result of that memorable trial. The dignfied bearing of the Chief Justice on that occasion, his resolute and impartial purpose, and his lofty aim in behalf of what he deemed sound law and exact justice, were fully recognized at the time, and it will be long be- fore their memory is obliterated. In transacting the general Imsiness of the court. Judge Chase manifested those rare administrative powers that m irked his whole life. They belonged to the character of his understanding:. It was his nature to direct. His mind leaned forward, so to speak, to give tone to and exercise control over whatever came within the sphere of his action. He emitted force, activity, and energy. The business of his court was thus under the impulse of these qualities, and its action corresponded. His leading opinions in court were mainly on questions connected with national affaii's, questions touching the relations and powers of the rebellious States, the limita- tions of military authority, the legal-tender question, and others of a kindred character. On all these subjects his judgments were marked Ijy the high qualities of the states- man as well as of the jurist, and they afford unquestion- able proof of his clear and lofty intellect and broad and accurate perception of the demands of his position as the expounder of both law and equity. For he had always, in all the relations of life, a stern sense of justice, into whose service he believed in pressing the law whenever 6 possible. He gained liis earliest renQwn as a lawyer from siicli convictions. Mr. Chase became a United States Senator from Ohio in 1819. Mr. Seward was chosen in the same year. Bnt while their sentiments did not materially differ on the slavery question, there was a variance in their political position. Mr. Seward represented the old Whig party, and aimed to preserve its organization. Mr. Chase was the representative of the Liberty party, so called, and the special advocate of anti-slavery ideas in a political organ- ization established to render them practical in adminis- tration. With Mr. Seward the same ideas were of a more sentimental cast, and took on no immediately belligerent aspect. Mr. Chase was thus an object of even greater hostility on the part of the slave-holders than Mr. Sew- ard. He stood alone, the representative and champion of his party in the Senate. Perhaps Mr. John P. Hale of New Hampshire, who had been chosen Senator in 1846, might claim the honor of holding a similar position ; but it was pre-eminently Mr. Chase who was the object of the vindictive wrath of the slave-holding party. All their strong indignation fell first on him. His speeches on the subject of slavery were not frequent, but they were always terse, passionless, and logical. He was not, like some other anti-slavery men, regarded as a mere fanatic, but as a much more dangerous antagonist. He was considered an enemy to be feared, since he aimed to undermine and overthrow slavery by logical and prac- tical processes, and not by sentiment and declamation. His position as Senator was an arduous and trying one. He stood outside of what was termed the " healthy po.li- tical organizations," and was tabooed completely by pro- slavery intolerance, and, as far as possible, ignored in the business of legislation. It was a deliberate and offen- sive ostracism of which he was every day made to feel the weight. Yet he bore himself with dignity, never allowing himself to be betrayed into unseemly altercation, which his adversaries aimed to provoke. His conduct as a Senator under these embarrassing circumstances forms one of the most marked features in his life. He steadily rose in influence and regard, and by the moderation and force of his character alone con- quered the prejudices of his opponents and extorted their respect for his evident sincerity and devotion to his cherished convictions. And he did this without the graces of oratory, and without any commanding ability ■ as a debater. It was the habit of Mr. Sumner* at that time, who had not then been elevated to the Senate, to say that Mr. Chase's Senatorial efforts were " Light with- out Heat." This was perhaps, in a certain sense, a just criticism ; but that was a period in our anti-slavery history when heat was a much more al)undant quality in the dis- cussions of the time than light; and Mr. Chase's utterances were thus calculated to supj^ly an important want. He never made an anti-slavery speech that could be replied to with eflPect, for the very reason that his logic was im- pregnable, while he indulged in no manifestation of feel- ing upon the subject. Mr. Charles Francis Adams, in his late eulogy on Mr. Seward, credits that statesman with being the leader of the anti-slavery movement in this country, and also the leader of Mr. Lincoln's Administration. We cannot ad- mit the accuracy of either statement. And we may say in passing, that it was not Mr. Seward who settled the *NoTE. — It is but just to Mr. Sumner to say that in allusion to this remark, he thus speaks: " Do you not misapprehend the remark attributed to me? If made by me, it was not in 'criticism,' but in description, and probably suggested by the famous defini- tion of equity, lianded down from antiquity, 'mind, without passion.' As it appears in your text, it is inconsistent with my sentiments towards the subject. I never was h.s critic. I place Mr. Chase as high as you do, everywhere." 8 Trent difficulty by deciding to surrender the captives, as is alleged by Mr. Adams. ' Mr. Lincoln himself did this, in the single observ^ation made by him, current at the time and current ever since, that the country could not afford to have more than one war on hand at a time. This was the key-note of that transaction, and Mr. Seward was left to make the argument. x\nd without wishing in the least to detract from that eminent man's just renown, we must say that he lost an oj3portunity of striking a blow in favor of the rights of neutrals such as may not occur again in a century. But it is of Mr. Adams's assertion in behalf of Mr. Seward, that he led the political anti-slavery movement, that we desire particularly to speak. If anybody can claim that distinction it is Mr. Chase. But we con- ceive that nobody can rightfully claim it. It is the glory of that movement that it had no chief. It was headed by an array of noble and earnest men, who moved shoul- der to shoulder in the van of that holy enterprise. N o one of them could be fairly said to be in advance of the other, or to be in any sense the leader of the movement. And the removal by death or desertion of any one, two, or three of the foremost could not have destroyed or even weakened the organization, or arrested its impetus. The great wave rolled onward l)y the force of the mighty in- spiring ideas that were its quickening spirit. It was to the vitalizing power of truth, and not to the lead of any man, that its victory was owing. The men were there who represented that truth, but if they had fallen, others were ready to take their places. Among those foremost men was Mr. Chase. He was there by choice. He was an anti-slavery man, pure and simple, first and last. Mr. Seward was a Whig first, and an anti-slavery man afterward. He never led the movement. He was 9 carried onward by it. He believed in the old Whig party. He was cliosen Senator by it when it was overwhelmingly strong. He was averse to its destruc- tion. He believed it could be educated so as to ac- complish every needed result. He was thus opposed to the formation of a new party with resistance to the spread of slavery as its fundamental idea. Mr. Seward belonged to the party in which such men as Henry Clay^ Daniel Webster, and Millard Fillmore were leaders ; and they were wholly hostile to the ideas of the anti-slavery men. Mr. Seward differed from them in this, that he was wil- ling to incorporate the new idea into the Whig creed, while they were not. But he resisted the formation of the new party to the last, and only joined it when he saw that the movement bad attained such force and vital- ity that it would go on without him. All this time Mr. Chase was urging with unremitting zeal the establishment of the new party under some significant appellation which would express its purposes. He suggested various names for it. In the numerous conferences of its friends at Washington during the win- ter of its birth, the titles of Free Democracy, Democratic Republican, and others were proposed by him. But under whatever name or title he cared not, so long as the party itself was created and christened. As the least objectionable of all, the name of Republican was finally adopted. This was the diiference in the position of these t\vo subsequent leaders in the Republican party. If either led in this great initial step that ended in emancipation, it was not Mr. Seward, but Mr. Chase. And as it was then, so was it afterward. Mr. Chase pressed forward with determined front. Mr. Seward often relented. In his speeches in the session of 1860-61, Mr Seward seemed 10 ready to compromise ; Mr. Chase never manifested the slightest sign of giving way l^efore the terrific events then in prospect. He felt the eternal justice of his cause, and he was ready to brave the consequences. He entered Mr. Lincoln's Cabinet in this spirit. Mr. Sew- ard entered it also, but his recorded acts and utterances show that he did not wish to face the crisis, but was ready to make great sacrifices for the sake of peace. We do not say this with any view to disparage Mr. Seward. We utter it in the interest of historic truth. It illus- trates tbe contrast l)etw^een the two men. Mr. Chase feared nothing. He was as averse to war as anybody. But he aimed at justice and righteousness above all things. His moral courage was equal to every occasion. It was buttressed all around by every faculty and quality of his natui'e. There was never any other question with him but wdiat was the right thing to do, not what was expedient. Originally a Democrat, he left the Democratic party in the heyday of its power and its glory, on a conviction that it was wrong on the slavery question. He espoused the cause of the slave when it was hopeless. Solitary and alone he raised his flag, and called for recruits when tbere were few to follow. In all bis administrative acts he pursued the same line of action. He did the same in his comparatively brief Congressional career. He did not seek what was pop- ular, l)ut vigorously pursued his own ideas, and left the world to follow or refuse to follow as it might. His aim through life was to shape events. This was particu- larly the case while he was in office. It was the cause of numerous conflicts of a subordinate character witb President Lincoln, while he was Secretary of the Treasury. He was exacting in his department, and did not share bis appointing power with any assistant. He thought 11 he knew better than anybody else who should be ap- pointed ; and he oi'ganized his whole department on this basis, and would hardly tolerate the interference even of his chief It was this strength of conviction and force of will that manifested itself in every situation, and render- ed him a marked personality everywhere and at all times. ' It has sometimes been made a subject of reproach to Mr. Chase that after the accomplishment of the great ob- jects of the war, emancijjation and enfranchisement, he coquetted with the Democrats and would have accepted their nomination for President in the election of 1868 if it had been tendered him. But it must not l)e for- gotten that he was a Democrat from the start, by convic- tion and association. He believed that the general ideas of the Democracy in regard to State rights, limited pow- ers, strict construction, and other fundamental precepts of the old Democracy, embodied the true doctrines of government ; and he wished the party that professed them and really believed in them to succeed. His aim from the beginning to the end of his career was always to bring the Democratic party into harmony with the anti-slavery sentiment which he considered was merely to make it consistent with itself. In pursuance of this purpose he was willing to become its candidate. To succeed in this was to achieve a cherished desio-n and accomplish a favorite object. If he could incorporate his own political ideas on the old Democratic creed, he would have a party that represented his ideal of the true political organization to govern in this country. It is the key to all of Mr. Chase's alleged political in- consistencies, to understand, that he was one who held steadily to the fundamental principles of demo- cratic government, and sought always to apply them without regard to political organizations, or to conse- 12 quences of any kind. His attitude in the recent Presi- dential election was in harmony with these views. He advocated the union of Republicans and Democrats under the lead of Horace Greeley, and gave the move- ment his Avarm support. He thought the action of the Administration toward the South was cruel, revengeful, and corrupt. He did not believe in Gen. Grant's style of government, and felt very keenly his appointment of judges to the Supreme bench for the purpose of revers- ing the well-considered and well-founded decision of the court in the leo-al-tender cases. As one of the most forward and urgent of its founders and originators, Mr. Chase may well be supposed to have fully understood the objects of the Republican party. He regarded it as an instrument to achieve a purpose. When the war was ended, and all its brilliant successes and tri- umphant results assured, his most fervent desire was that allhostility between North and South should cease. He desired above all things harmony and reconciliation. He sought in every way to abate animosity and restore frater- nal feeling. He desired the crushed, and broken, and deso- lated South to be speedily rehabilitated and re-instated in its former prosperity. He had been the friend and champion of the blacks when they were enslaved and under foot, and now he desired to see not one right or privilege of the white man abridged or withheld from him in the new order to be established. He saw the tendency of things was to continue the punishment of the white man, and he deprecated its in- justice and impolicy, and set his face against it. He looked upon the slave-holder as a spoilt child, who de- served punishment, but who had got all, even more than all he deserved. The idea of regarding him as a perpet- ual culprit and enemy, was abhorrent to his mind. 13 The same sense of justice that animated him in espous- ing the cause of the slave, rose in hostility to the need- less humiliation and j)unishment of his old oppressor. The events of the war had not disturbed the just l)alance of his powers, nor was his mind warped or beclouded by the passions that contest had evoked. In the serenity of his nature, he contemplated the situ- ation with candor and clearness. When the blind partizan feeling of the couutry countenanced and de- fended slavery, he set himself resolutely against its in- justice. When the tables were turned, and it was no longer the black, but the white man of the South, who was made the victim of prejudice and passion, he just as de- terminedly put himself in an attitude of hostility to that. It was the misfortune of the country, that mortal dis- ease had laid its remorseless hand ui)on him, prior to the selection of an opposition candidate for the Presi- dential canvass of 1872. If Mr. Chase, in the fullness of his health and vigor, had led in that memorable contest, the result would probably have been far different from what it was. But it was ordained otherwise ; and while the country has been deprived of his further personal services, there is left to it the rich legacy of his opinions and his judg-^ ment upon the complications that are fast rising upon the horizon, through the mismanagement of the South- ern question — complications that might have been, and ought to have been, and would have been averted, but for the presence of a moral and mental insensibility in our national affairs, every way discreditable to the country. It is ever the lot of public men of eminence to en- counter obloquy. Mr. Burke goes so far as to say, " it is a necessary ingredient in all true glory." Perhaps Mr. u Chase was called upon to endure less of it than any one of his contemporaries. It is the great complaint of scores of our public men, living and dead, that they have each been the victim of unecpialled malignity, l)y the ini])utation of bad motives and by the denial of all just and patriotic impulses for their conduct. To men con- scious of their ov^n integrity, it is hard to bear these slings and arrows of outrageous fortune. But no man felt or bemoaned them le?s tlian Mr. Chase. In his case they were charges of selfishness and ambition. As he was unconscious of either, the allegations never ruffled him. They are charges easily dealt with. None more so. They may be true of any man without being derogatory to his character, or injurious to his reputation. Ambi- tion usually involves selfishness. But a man may be justly and honoral)ly ambitious. It depends on the character of his ambition, whether it is any reproach to him. There are foul and gross ambitions — ambitious that wade through seas of blood to reach a throne — ambitions that would wreck the fortunes of a strug- gling nation to attain a personal end. Such are the ambitions of the usurpers and tyrants of all history^ and of the Arnolds and Burrs of our own annals. But of the ambition to reach a high or the highest station, in a free commonwealth, by open and hon- orable methods, what is there in that to provoke censure ? If Mr. Chase is amenable to any charge of being aml)iti6us, it is only this. With a nature born to com- mand, with clear views of public policy and public ne- cessity, w^ith an inflexible will, and an earnest purpose to realize his conceptions, what less strange or less blama- ble than that he should covet a theatre on which to act, and which would afi:brd him the means of carrying out his 15 ideas ? If he aimed at this, simply by impressing the public with his ability, and his patriotism, and his in- tegrity, making use of no corrupt influences, or degrading agencies, and descending to no low arts or sinister en- ticements but seeking only to show that he was capable of advancing the best interests of his country — we might admit the charge that he was thus ambitious, with no detriment to his fame. The charge is merely that Mr. Chase desired to be President. There is no pretense that he ever sought the place by unworthy means. As implying any stain upon his reputation, it thus dissolves and disappears in the handling. We feel a freedom in treating the imputation since it does not necessarily in- volve dishonor, whether it be repelled or not. It is unlike those vulgar and grosser vices which the public sense instinctively detests as indicative of grovelling natures — such as prevarication, falsehood, venality, and corruption. No breath of slander, even, ever tarnished for an instant Mr. Chase's name or character throuo;hout all his public career in these respects. He was above suspicion as well as above reproach. His native recti- tude was of such a lofty type, his integrity so complete, the stature and complexion of his inborn manhood so commanding, that he challenged recognition everywhere and at all times, as an illustrious specimen of that noblest work of God — an honest man. Kesolution was a leading characteristic of Mr. Chase's mind. He was bold, determined, fearless, even wilful. He abhorred indirection and inaction. He was not a man of roving intellect, or a dilettante optimist. He had precise views and purpose^, and the c^uestion with him was how to accomplish them. He did not so much believe in things coming right as in putting them right. He did not profess to have a philosophy adapted 16 I to every phase of liuman affairs^ so much as to have settled and determinate ideas npon the sul)jects which it ^vas his duty to deal with. Whether in the domain of puhlic or private lift;, or in that of ideas, his opinions were fixed and his judgments established. He indulged in no fantasies of speculation. What he knew, he knew. What he did not know, he did not. He had a mental reticence and a profound sense of the great issues of our being, which forl)ade him from approaching the discussion of such topics, except with feelings of reverence and awe. The religious senti- ment was strongly imbedded in his nature, and it is no slight testimony to its validity that it w^as able to make so firm a lod