The New Student's Reference Work/Chase, Salmon P.

Chase, Salmon P., chief-justice of the United States, was born at Cornish, N. H,, Jan. 13, 1808. He graduated at Dartmouth College, and entered the law, practicing at Washington, D. C. His edition of the Statutes of Ohio, now court authority, made him known as a jurist, while his arguments in several cases intrusted to him, in favor of the rights of fugitive slaves, brought him into great prominence. In 1841 Chase entered politics as an opponent of slavery extension and was one of the founders of the Free-soil party. In 1849 he was chosen senator from Ohio as a Democrat, but withdrew from that party soon after on the slavery question. On his record in the senate he was elected governor of Ohio by the Republican party in 1855, and re-elected two years later. He was secretary of the treasury in President Lincoln's cabinet from 1861 to 1864. On him fell the burden of finding the ways and means of carrying the government financially through the war. Legal-tender greenbacks, issuing of bonds and the national banking system were the chief means used. In 1864 he became chief-justice of the United States, and as the head of the supreme court presided at the impeachment trial of President Johnson. He died at New York on May 7, 1873.