Inter-State Commerce Bill

Jameson on Constitutional Conventions, (Review)

Jay, John, Sketch & Portrait,

Jurors (See Women)

206, 213

391

215

Law Reform in Pleading & Prac., Civil Cases, ROBERT HERVEY

362

On Occasion of the Death of Hon. John G. Rogers,

333

Political Status of Woman in New York, and at Common Law,

THE CHICAGO LAW TIMES.

VOL. I.]

NOVEMBER, 1886.

[No. I.

SALMON PORTLAND CHASE.

Among the truly great names that have enriched onr century, is that of Salmon P. Chase, teacher, lawyer, politician, statesman, financier and jurist.

He was born in Cornish, New Hampshire, Jan. 13, 1808, the son of a man descended from pilgrim stock, and of a woman from Scottish parentage, both religious, even to puritanism.

He was nephew to Bishop Philander Chase, of the Episcopal church, and on the early death of his father, went to Ohio to reside with him, and became a member of the Academy just established by the Bishop at Worthington. He was expected to work for his board, turning his ready hand to milk the cows, chop wood, work in the garden and assist about chores in general.

The Bishop was a somewhat stern man, deeming it his duty to subdue the sturdy wills of his students to his own indomitable purpose. If in their crude boyhood, his pupils feared him more than they loved him, in later years they regarded him with loving reverence.

Under the forming hand of his uncle, he became a devoted member of the Episcopal church, and his early diaries are full of earnest expressions of religious devotion. Indeed the tone of his mind was through his whole life deeply religious.

While his father was still living, he had received a strong impression on the subject of intemperance which never left him. Walking along through a lane one morning, he found a neighbor who had gone to the village the evening previous, lying face downward in a shallow ditch into which he had stumbled while drunk. He was stark dead. The sight of this dead man made such an impression upon his sensitive mind that he never forgot the lesson, and in 1841 we find him making a strong protest against license in the city of Cincinnati. After two years study with his uncle, he returned to New Hampshire and entered Dartmouth College, teaching school in winter, and boarding round, to eke out his scanty means.

At eighteen, he graduated with a fair standing, though like Webster, he had given more time to general reading than most young students. Soon after graduating, he turned his face to Washington, D. C., intending to establish an academy there which might prove a means of support while he prepared for the sterner duties of life. His prospectus was sent out, and he waited till his courage forsook him for the scholars that were to make up his school. In his despair, he went to his uncle, Dudly Chase, then a Senator from Vermont, and entreated him to secure him a clerkship in one of the departments. This uncle looked him over and made this sensible reply; "I once got a clerkship for a nephew, and it was his ruin. I will give you fifty cents with which to buy a spade and you can go to work with it, but no more clerkships for any of my relatives."

His school ultimately succeeded, and among his pupils were the sons of William Wirt. He subsequently became a law pupil of the distinguished jurist, and an intimate friend of the family. Who can estimate the value of this association during these early years, giving direction to his principles and forming his manners after the noblest pattern.

In 1830 when he was barely twenty-two years old, we find him admitted to the Bar and preparing to settle in Cincinnati, Ohio.

He seems to have set himself to work with commendable. industry, and his first important legal reputation was won by