- In full:
- Salmon Portland Chase
- Born:
- Jan. 13, 1808, Cornish Township, N.H., U.S.
- Died:
- May 7, 1873, New York City (aged 65)
- Political Affiliation:
- Free-Soil Party
- Liberty Party
- Republican Party
Salmon P. Chase
-
Who was Salmon P. Chase?
Salmon P. Chase (1808-1873) was a U.S. lawyer, politician, and antislavery leader before the Civil War. He served as Secretary of the Treasury (1861–64) under President Abraham Lincoln and as the sixth chief justice of the United States (1864–73).
Chase began his law practice in Cincinnati, Ohio, and became known for defending runaway slaves. Originally a Whig, he shifted his politics with the antislavery movement, eventually assisting in the foundation of the Republican Party in 1854. During his time as chief justice, Chase enhanced the Supreme Court's prestige through his caution with Reconstruction measures and fairness in President Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What does it mean to be the Chief Justice of the United States?
The Chief Justice of the United States is the Supreme Court's presiding judge and the nation's highest judicial officer. Appointed by the President with Senate consent, the Chief Justice has lifetime tenure.
Their primary roles include presiding over public sessions and private conferences, assigning opinion writing when in the majority, and administering oaths to the President and Vice President. The Chief Justice also chairs the Judicial Conference of the United States, addressing federal court administration issues.
A Chief Justice with exceptional intellect and dynamism can greatly influence the Court's work, as seen with John Marshall (1801–35). William Rehnquist's tenure as chief justice dramatically reduced the court’s caseload and improved its efficiency.
4 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
When did Salmon P. Chase serve as Chief Justice?
Salmon P. Chase served as the sixth chief justice of the United States from 1864 until his death in 1873. Even though he was temperamentally unsuited to judicial office, he enhanced the prestige of the Supreme Court by his caution in dealing with Reconstruction measures and by his fairness in presiding over the Senate’s impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson in 1868.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What were some important events or cases that happened while Chase was Chief Justice?
During Salmon P. Chase's tenure as the sixth Chief Justice of the United States (1864–1873), several significant cases and events occurred.
Important events and cases during Chase's tenure:
- Reconstruction Measures Chase enhanced the prestige of the Supreme Court through his cautious approach to Reconstruction measures.
- Impeachment Trial of President Andrew Johnson Chase fairly presided over the Senate's impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson in 1868, which ended in acquittal.
- Mississippi v. Johnson (1867) and Georgia v. Stanton (1867) The Court, with Chase speaking, declined to prohibit President Johnson and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton from enforcing the Reconstruction Acts.
- Texas v. White (1869) Chase wrote that the U.S. is an "indestructible union" from which no state can secede.
- Ex parte McCardle (1868) Chase disavowed the Court’s jurisdiction, thus sidestepping the question of whether a U.S. military commission could try a civilian in a former Confederate state.
- Cummings v. Missouri and Ex parte Garland (both 1867) Chase dissented when the Court invalidated state and federal loyalty oaths prerequisite to practicing learned professions.
3 Britannica SourcesCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
How did Salmon P. Chase's decisions influence American history?
Salmon P. Chase significantly impacted American history through his antislavery efforts, helping form the Free-Soil Party and the Republican Party. As Abraham Lincoln's Treasury Secretary (1861–64), he financed the Union war efforts during the Civil War.
Appointed Chief Justice in 1864, Chase enhanced the Supreme Court's prestige through his caution with Reconstruction measures and fairness in Andrew Johnson's impeachment trial. Despite his temperamental unsuitability for judicial office, he protected Black rights from state infringement, though often dissenting in a Court that narrowly interpreted the Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles. -
What roles did Chase have before becoming Chief Justice, and how did they prepare him for the job?
Before becoming Chief Justice, Salmon P. Chase was a lawyer, politician, antislavery leader, U.S. Senator, Ohio governor, and Secretary of the Treasury.
Chase's legal background and antislavery work prepared him for his role by providing him with a deep understanding of the law and the Constitution. His time as governor and senator equipped him with political experience, while his leadership as Treasury Secretary under President Lincoln gave him executive skills necessary for leading the Supreme Court.
1 Britannica SourceCreated from Britannica articles using AI. AI can make mistakes, so verify using Britannica articles.
Salmon P. Chase (born Jan. 13, 1808, Cornish Township, N.H., U.S.—died May 7, 1873, New York City) was a lawyer and politician, antislavery leader before the U.S. Civil War, secretary of the Treasury (1861–64) in Pres. Abraham Lincoln’s wartime Cabinet, the sixth chief justice of the United States (1864–73), and repeatedly a seeker of the presidency.
Chase received part of his education from his uncle Philander Chase, the first Episcopal bishop of Ohio and later of Illinois, and his legal training (1827–30) from William Wirt, U.S. attorney general. From 1830 he practiced law in Cincinnati, Ohio, where he became widely known for his courtroom work on behalf of runaway slaves and white persons who had aided them. Originally a Whig, he changed his politics according to fluctuations in the antislavery movement. After leading the Liberty Party in Ohio (from 1841), he helped to found the Free-Soil Party (1848) and the Republican Party (1854). Between terms in the U.S. Senate (1849–55, 1860–61), he was the first Republican governor of Ohio (1855–59). He sought the Republican presidential nomination openly in 1856 and 1860, and surreptitiously in 1864 while serving in Lincoln’s Cabinet; in 1868, during his chief justiceship, he sought the Democratic nomination as an opponent of the Radical Republicans’ program of reconstructing the defeated Southern states, and in 1872 he was once more an unsuccessful candidate.
At the 1860 Republican convention in Chicago, Chase permitted the delegates pledged to him to cast decisive votes for Lincoln on the third ballot. As a reward Lincoln appointed him secretary of the Treasury, in which position for the next three years he was responsible for financing the Union war efforts. He held the Treasury post until June 1864, and in December of that year he was appointed chief justice to succeed Roger Brooke Taney, who had died in October.
Temperamentally unsuited to judicial office, Chase nonetheless enhanced the prestige of the Supreme Court by his caution in dealing with Reconstruction measures and by his fairness in presiding over the Senate’s impeachment trial (ending in acquittal) of President Andrew Johnson in 1868. In Mississippi v. Johnson (1867) and Georgia v. Stanton (1867), Chase spoke for the court in refusing to prohibit Johnson and Secretary of War Edwin M. Stanton from enforcing the Reconstruction Acts. By disavowing the court’s jurisdiction in Ex parte McCardle (1868), Chase sidestepped the question of whether a U.S. military commission in a former Confederate state could try a civilian for opposing those statutes. He dissented when the court invalidated, in Cummings v. Missouri and Ex parte Garland (both 1867), state and federal loyalty oaths prerequisite to the practice of learned professions. In various cases in 1872–73 (near the end of his life), in a court whose majority narrowly construed the postwar Thirteenth and Fourteenth Amendments to the Constitution, he tried to protect the rights of blacks from infringement by state action.