CHASE 



1283 



CHATHAM 



equal electoral districts; (3) vote by ballot; 

 (4) annual Parliaments; (5) no property quali- 

 fications for members of Parliament; (6) sal- 

 aries for members of Parliament. 



Monster meetings were held at which hun- 

 dreds of thousands were present, and huge peti- 

 tions were presented to Parliament. Directly, 

 the movement accomplished nothing, though 

 it did leave an influence on the trend of 

 thought of the times. The repeal of the Corn 

 Laws brought improved conditions, and after 

 1848 the movement gradually died out. See 

 CORN LAWS. 



CHASE, SALMON PORTLAND (1808-1873), an 

 eminent American statesman and jurist, who 

 as Chief Justice of the United States Supreme 

 Court presided over the impeachment trial of 

 President Johnson. His greatest fame, how- 

 ever, was achieved in the Cabinet of President 

 Lincoln. He was born in Cornish, N. H., and 

 was educated at Dartmouth College. After 

 studying law in Washington, D. C., he began 

 to practice in Ohio, where he took part in the 

 defense of so many runaway slaves that the 

 slave-holders of Kentucky nicknamed him "the 

 attorney-general of fugitive slaves." He became 

 the recognized leader of the anti-slavery move- 

 ment in Ohio, and throughout a term of office 

 as United States Senator, from 1849 to 1855, he 

 vigorously opposed the extension of slavery 

 into the new territories and the passage of 

 the Kansas-Nebraska Bill (which see). The 

 Liberty party in 1843 and the Free-Soil party 

 in 1848 had called upon him to prepare their 

 national platforms (see LIBERTY PARTY; FREE- 

 SOIL PARTY). 



Chase was elected governor of Ohio in 1855 

 and again in 1857. He had by that time joined 

 the new Republican party, and in 1860 was one 

 of the candidates for the Presidential nomina- 

 tion. Failing to secure this honor, he accepted 

 the office of Secretary of the Treasury under 

 Lincoln. His career as a Cabinet officer marks 

 him as one of the great Secretaries for during 

 the perilous years of the War of Secession the 

 national credit was maintained, funds were 

 secured to carry on the struggle and a new 

 national banking system was created. Differ- 

 ences with Lincoln regarding the President's 

 war policy caused him to resign in 1864, and in 

 the same year Lincoln appointed him to suc- 

 ceed Chief Justice Taney as head of the 

 Supreme Court. His dignified and impartial 

 conduct of the impeachment trial of President 

 Johnson was highly praised. 



There Is an excellent life of Chief Justice 



Chase written by Albert Bushnell Hart for the 

 American Statesmen Series. 



CHAT, a popular name of "the clown 

 among birds." The chats are small, lively birds 

 of the warbler family. During the mating 

 season the males perform many extraordinary 

 twists and turns in the air. Their song is a 

 mixture of whistles, wails, clucks and chuckles, 

 which gave them their name. In the United 

 States and Canada the yellow-breasted, or 

 polyglot, chat is a larger species, olive-green 

 above and white below, with a yellow breast. 

 It builds its nest in briary thickets. 



CHATHAM, c/ia'am,atown of Northumber- 

 land County, New Brunswick, situated on a 

 series of terraces rising from the south bank 

 of the Miramichi River, twenty-five miles 

 above its entrance into Mirimichi Bay. Its 

 harbor is excellent, and provides anchorage for 

 vessels drawing twenty-five feet of water. 

 Chatham is the largest town in New Bruns- 

 wick, on the eastern, or Gulf of Saint Law- 

 rence, shore, and is the fourth town in size in 

 the province. It is on the Intercolonial Rail- 

 way, 112 miles northeast of Fredericton, the 

 capital of the province. The Miramichi River 

 is a great logging stream, and lumber is Chat- 

 ham's chief interest. There are several lumber 

 and planing mills, and opposite the town, on 

 the north bank of the river, is a large pulp 

 mill. These mills have a combined working 

 force of about 500 men, one-tenth of the total 

 population of Chatham. The fisheries in the 

 vicinity are also noteworthy, smelts, sardines, 

 bass and oysters being most important. Chat- 

 ham is the seat of a Roman Catholic bishop, 

 convent and hospital. The town was founded 

 in 1816, and incorporated in 1896. Population 

 in 1911, 4,666; in 1916, estimated, 5,000. J.A.T. 



CHATHAM, the county town of Kent 

 County, Ontario, is forty-seven miles east of 

 Detroit, sixty-four miles southwest of London 

 and 180 miles southwest of Toronto. It is fre- 

 quently called the Maple City, from the large 

 number of maple trees in its parks and on its 

 boulevards. Chatham's geographical position, 

 midway between Lake Saint Clair and Lake 

 Erie, has made it an important railway cen- 

 ter. The Canadian Pacific, Grand Trunk, 

 Wabash and Pcre Marquette railways enter 

 the city, and the Michigan Central runs seven 

 miles to the south. Connection with the latter 

 is by the Chatham, Wallaceburg A Lake Erie, 

 an electric railway. Chathnm also has excel- 

 lent facilities for shipment by 'water, for the 

 Thames River, which flows through the city, 



