94 



CIIASE, SALMON P. 



teevred large tod lucrative bntlncs*. IIo 

 bad not for the first Mven or eight yean of 

 hi* residence in Cincinnati given much atten- 

 tion to politic*, Toting aouietimet with the 

 Democrat* and tometirnet will, the Whip*, 

 though, to far at general principle* of national 

 policy wen concerned, he wat more in sym- 

 pathy with the Democracy. On one point, 

 however, he wat decided : be wot inflexibly 

 hostile to tlavery. In July, 1830, when the 

 office of the Pkilantkroput newcpaper, an 

 antitUvery periodical, edited by Jainet 6. 

 Birney, wat attacked and destroyed by a mob, 

 Birney owed the preterrttion of bit life to 

 the ttalwart arm and intrepid courage of Sal- 

 mon P. Chate, and from that time forward 

 he wat, at much at Birney himself, a leader n 

 tlie conflict with slavery, and one always 

 ready to take hi* petition in the front, where 

 the battle raged most fiercely. In 1837 be 

 defended a fugitive tlave woman, claimed 

 under the law of 1793, and took the highest 

 ground againtt the unconstitutionally of that 

 law. It wat at this time that one of the 

 oldett and ablect lawyer* in the court- room 

 wat heard to remark concerning him : " Tim- 

 it a protniting young man who has jurt ruined 

 himtt-lf.' 1 How great an error this wat, time 

 effectually demonstrated. In 1837 Mr. Chate 

 also defended hi* friend Birney in a suit for 

 harboring a negro tlave. In 1838 he re- 

 viewed with great tc verity a report of the 

 Judiciary Committee of the State Senate, re- 

 fusing the trial by jury to tlavet, and in a 

 teconil mil defended Mr. Birney. 



It wat not long after thin that he judged the 

 time to be ripe for carrying thews great ami 

 important quettiont into politics. lie had sup- 

 portal Ilarri-..n and Tyler for the presidency 

 in 1840. but "the tone of hit inamrnral address, 

 and, ttill more, the conrte of the Tyler Admin- 

 istration, convinced him that no effective ro- 

 Ittance to the encroachmentt of slavery was 

 to be expected from any party with a tlave- 

 bolding and pro-slavery wing, modifying, if 

 not controlling, ita action. He bad made up 

 hit mind. His day for giving a stray vote with 

 the Ifcmocracy wat gone, tnd the time for fully 

 orgimmnu a distinct party, pledged to anti- 

 tlsvery views, had ! the way, 



In 1*41, in calling a convention of those op- 

 posed to tlavery and tlavery extension. The 

 convention met In December of that year, or- 

 ganized the " Liberal party of Ohio, nominated 

 a candidate for Governor, and itsned an td- 

 dreetdeflningiu principle* and purpotet." Mr. 

 Chate wrote and reported thit add ret*, which 

 hat an historical importance aa being one of 

 the eariiett a* well at one of the ablett cxpoti- 

 tioot of the political warfare against slavery. 

 In IMH Mr. Chate wat an active participnnt 

 in the " National Liberty Convention. 1 ' which 

 tseniMed In Buffalo. He wat on the Com- 

 mittee oa Resolution*, to which was rel 

 wider a rale of the convention, a resolution 

 propotlng " to regard and treat the third clause 



of the Constitution, whenever applied to the 

 case of a fugitive tlave, at utterly null and void, 

 and cciii-i-cjiuiiily lit- lorniiiijf no part of tin- 

 Constitution of the United States, win: 

 we are called upon or sworn to support it.'' 

 This resolution was opposed by Mr. < 

 wat not reported by the committee. 11. : 

 been moved, however, in contrition, it 

 adopted by that body. Senator Butler, of 

 South Carolina, afterward charj:id the author- 

 ship and advocacy of tlie resolution on Mr. 

 Chate, and denounced the doctrine of mental 

 reservation apparently sanctioned by it. ( 

 replied: "I have only to nay, I never proposed 

 the resolution; I never would propose or vote 

 for tuch a resolution. I hold no doctrine of 

 mental reservation. Every man, in my judg- 

 ment, should (-peak just at he thinks, ke< 

 nothing back, here or elsewhere." In the some 

 year, " the great repeal year," as it was calleil, 

 Mr. Chase was designated to prepare on ad- 

 dress on behalf of the friends of Liberty, of 

 Ireland, and of Repeal, in Cincinnati, to tlie 

 Loyal National Repeal Association of Ireland, 

 in reply to a letti r I'r< m Duniel O'Connell. In 

 it he reviewed "the relations of the Federal 

 Government to slavery at the period of its or- 

 ganization, set forth its original antlslavery 

 policy, mid the Mil, sequent growth of the polit- 

 ical power of tlavery, vindieatul the action of 

 the Liberal party, and npclled the :.*]< 

 cast by a Repeal Association in Cinch i.:.ti 

 upon antislavery men." 



The Soiitlnni and Western Liberty Convin- 

 tion held in Cincinnati, June. 1845, orijrinahd 

 with Mr. Chase. He desired to embrace "nil 

 who, belie\ ing that whatever is worth p-isiiv- 

 ing in republicanism can be maintaiiud < nly 

 by uiu-i niproniising war against the usurpa- 

 tions of die clave-power, are, therefore, rc- 

 folvid to use all constitutional and honorable 

 means to effect the extinction of slavery in 

 their n-peetive States, tnd its reduction to its 

 constitutional limits in tie I'nii.d M 

 There were two thousand delegates present, 

 and over twice that ni;ml>er of sptctators. As 

 chairman of the committee, the projector of 

 tlie movement drew up the address, embracing 

 a history of the Whig and Democratic parties 

 in their relation to the slavery question, rec- 

 ommending, as a political necessity, the forma- 

 tion of n party pledged to the overthrow of 

 the Southern institution, and showing what to 

 the writer teemed the natural and necessary 

 antagonism between democracy and Southern 

 interests. Mr. Chase was now a widely-known 

 champion of the growing antislavery party. 

 He Was the COnnsd of .lohn Van Zandt. who 

 wat arraigned before tlie I'nited States Circuit 

 Court lor the Southern District of Ohio, for aid- 

 ing in the c-capc of slaves. The Circuit Court 

 decided against Van Zandt, and Mr. Chase 

 promptly can led the case before the Supnire 

 Court Of the I'niti-d States, on appeal. At the 

 trial, in Washington, Mr. Deward was associ- 

 ated with him, and made one of his most clo- 



