Existing comment:
Salmon P. Chase, 1808-1873:
As a lawyer and antislavery leader in Ohio, Salmon P. chase was known as the "attorney general" for runaway slaves. In 1855, he cast his lot with the new Republican Party and soon viewed with William Henry Seward for its leadership. A candidate for the party's presidential nomination in 1860, he lost to Abraham Lincoln but was named secretary of the treasury in the new cabinet.
Although Chase helped to write the Emancipation Proclamation, his relations with Lincoln became strained. The personal antagonism between Chase and Secretary of State Seward weakened the cabinet, and that, combined with Chase's insatiable desire to become president, eventually led to his replacement. In 1864, Lincoln appointed him chief justice of the Supreme Court, where he showed political wisdom in handling constitutional problems created y the Civil War and Reconstruction. |