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328 CHASE dent democratic party. He prepared a plat- form, which was substantially adopted by the convention of the independent democracy at Pittsburgh in 1852. He supported the nomi- nees and measures of the independent de- mocracy until the Nebraska bill gave rise to a new and powerful party, based substantially upon the ideas he had so long maintained. In March, 1850, he delivered in the senate a speech against Mr. Clay's compromise bill, re- viewing thoroughly all the questions presented in it. He moved an amendment providing against the introduction of slavery in the terri- tories to which the bill applied, but it failed by a vote of 25 to 80. He proposed also, though without success, an amendment to the fugitive slave bill, securing trial by jury to alleged fugitive slaves, and another conforming its pro- visions to the terms of the constitution, by ex- cluding from its operation persons escaping from states to territories, and vice versa. In 1854, when the bill for the repeal of the Missouri compromise, commonly called the Nebraska- Kansas bill, was introduced, he drafted an ap- peal to the people against the measure, and in a speech on Feb. 3 attempted the first elaborate exposure of the features of that bill, as viewed by its opponents. In the general opposition to the Nebraska bill he took a lead- ing part, and made an earnest protest against it on the night of its passage. Meanwhile he was constant in the discharge of the general duties of his position as senator. To divorce the federal government from all connection with slavery, to confine its action strictly within constitutional limits, to uphold the rights of individuals and of the states, to foster all the great interests of the country, and to secure an economical administration of the national finances, were the general aims which he en- deavored to promote. He held that the fed- eral treasury should defray the expense of providing for the safety of navigation on our great inland seas, as well as on the Atlantic and Pacific coasts, and urged liberal aid by the federal government to the construction of a railroad to the Pacific. He was an earnest supporter of the policy of the free homestead movement, and of cheap postage. In July, 1855, Mr. Chase was nominated by the oppo- nents of the Nebraska bill and the Pierce administration for governor of Ohio, and was elected. His inaugural address, delivered in 1856, recommended economy in the adminis- tration of public affairs, single districts for legis- lative representation, annual instead of biennial sessions of the legislature, and ample provi- sion for the educational interests of the state. His state policy and senatorial course were now so much approved that at the national conven- tion of the republican party, held the same year, a majority of the Ohio delegation and many delegates from other states desired his nomina- tion for the presidency ; but his name was at his request withdrawn. In 1857 he was re- elected by the largest vote that had ever been given for a governor in Ohio. In the republican national convention at Chicago, May, 1860, Mr. Chase was proposed as a candidate for the presidency, and on the first ballot received 49 votes out of 465. In 1861 he became secre- tary of the treasury in President Lincoln's cabinet, and retained the position till June 30, 1864, when he resigned. The financial policy which carried the nation through the civil war was mainly the work of Mr. Chase. Its essen- tial features were the issue of United States notes, known as greenbacks, which bore no interest, but were made legal tender ; borrow- ing money upon bonds maturing at various dates, and bearing different rates of interest payable in gold; and the so-called national banking system, under which each bank was required to deposit in the treasury $100 in bonds for every $90 of notes issued by it, and which, superseding state banking systems, se- cured at once stability to the currency and to the national credit. A large amount of the bonds first issued bore 7'3 per cent, interest (2 cts. a day on each $100), but the great ma- jority were at 6 per cent. None were sold at less than par, and they generally commanded a premium. When Mr. Chase left the treasury department, the national debt amounted to $1,740,690,489, to which it was estimated $500,000,000 would be added in case the war continued another year. Mr. Taney, chief justice of the United States, having died in October, 1864, Mr. Chase was appointed his successor Dec. 6. In this capacity, in March, 1868, he presided at the trial of President Johnson, who had been impeached before the senate by the house of representatives. Mr. Chase had now become dissatisfied with the policy of the republican majority in congress. He was proposed in the democratic national convention held in New York in July, 1868, as a candidate of that party for the presidency. He was willing to accept the nomination upon certain conditions, and for a time it seemed probable that he would be very strongly sup- ported; but in the actual ballots his highest vote was 4 out of 663. From that time he withdrew to a great extent from public affairs, his health having been much impaired by a paralytic stroke ; but in the presidential can- vass of 1872 he sided with the party opposed to the reelection of Gen. Grant as president. CHASE, Samuel, an American jurist, and one of the signers of the declaration of indepen- dence, born in Somerset co., Maryland, April 17, 1741, died June 19, 1811. His father, an Epis- copal clergyman of English birth, directed his early education, and sent him to study law at Annapolis, where he was admitted to the bar at 20 years of age. He was soon noted as a skilful and eloquent advocate and a learned lawyer. He strenuously opposed the royal governor and his adherents in the colonial le- gislature, was among the most vehement in resisting the stamp act, and soon became the leader of the friends of liberty in his state. The