Recollections of Forty Years in the House, Senate and Cabinet Part 30

"Yours most truly, "S. P. Chase.

"Hon. John Sherman."

After the election he wrote me the following letter, in which he referred to the appointment of a chief justice, with an evident desire for the office:

"Cincinnati, November 12, 1864.

"My Dear Sir:--The papers still state you are in Washington. I am glad of it, and hope you may be able to render good service to our friend, Fessenden. The task of preparing a report is no light one.

At least it always made me sweat and keep late hours. May he find a safe deliverance from the labor.

"All sorts of rumors are afloat about everything. Those which concern me most relate to the vacant seat on the bench; but I give little heed to any of them. My experience in Washington taught me how unreliable they are. If what I hear is any index to the state of opinion, Mr. Lincoln must be satisfied that in acting on the purpose expressed in your letters, he will have the almost, if not quite, unanimous approval of the Union men throughout the country.

So I 'possess my soul in patience,' and urge nothing.

"If it did not seem to me a sort of indelicacy even to allow to anyone the slightest occasion to say that I solicit or even ask such an appointment as a favor or as a reward for political service, I should now be on my way to Washington; but I think it due to myself as well as the President to await his decision here; though, if appointed, I hope the appointment will be considered as made from the country at large rather than from Ohio alone. My legal residence is here; but my actual domicile is still in the District.

"Please write me, if you can, when the President will act. Let me know too how the military and political aspects at Washington appear to you. We have achieved a glorious political victory, which must greatly help our military prospects and possibilities.

"Mr. Miller has just come in and says he goes to Washington to- night. Had he come before I began, I should have spared you this letter; only asking him to make verbally the inquiries I have just set down; but I will send it with 'answer respectfully solicited.'

"Yours very cordially, "S. P. Chase.

"Hon. John Sherman."

Early in December I received the following letter, which indicates very clearly that Mr. Chase was anxious for the position of chief justice, and wished his appointment made, if at all, before his arrival in Washington:

"Cleveland, December 2, 1864.

"My Dear Sir:--Yours of the 27th of November reached me here to- day. Yesterday I fulfilled my appointment to make an address on the dedication of the college edifice recently erected at Mount Union, under the patronage of the Pittsburg conference of the Methodist church. A number of leading men of the denomination were present and a.s.sured me of the profound wishes of themselves and the most influential men of the connection for my appointment.

These indeed seem to be universal except with an inconsiderable number whom various circ.u.mstances have made unfriendly personally.

So that I cannot doubt that the President's adherence to his declared intention is more important to our cause and to his administration than it is to me personally. Not to be appointed after such declaration and such expressions would, no doubt, be a mortification; but it would not, I think, be any serious injury to me.

"I expect to be in Washington, Tuesday or Wednesday. I should have been there long since had this appointment been determined either way; but I must come now. My personal duties, unconnected with it, have required and now require my attention, and though I hated to come before I knew that there remains nothing to hope or fear concerning it, I must. I will be at the Continental, Philadelphia, Tuesday morning.

"Our news from Tennessee is important and encouraging. Garfield's success against Forrest was brilliant. I hope Thomas will succeed as well against Hood.

"General Sherman must now be near the coast. His enterprise is full of hazard, but a hazard wisely incurred as it seems to me.

I ardently hope that 'out of the nettle, danger, he will pluck the flower, safety.'

"Our majority on the presidential election in Ohio turns out much less than I antic.i.p.ated. It will hardly, if at all, exceed fifty thousand.

"Faithfully yours, "S. P. Chase.

"Hon. John Sherman."

When I returned to Washington at the beginning of the next session I called upon the President and recommended the appointment of Mr.

Chase. We had a brief conversation upon the subject in which he asked me pointedly the question whether if Chase was appointed he would be satisfied, or whether he would immediately become a candidate for President. I told him I thought his appointment to that great office ought to and would satisfy his ambition. He then told me that he had determined to appoint him and intended to send the nomination to the Senate that day and he did so, December 6, 1864. After Mr. Chase had become chief justice he still had a lingering interest in the financial policy of the country. On March 1, 1865, I received from him the following letter. The portion which refers to the legal tender laws will naturally excite some interest in view of his decision against the power of Congress to make the notes of the United States a legal tender. He wrote:

"At Home, March 1, 1865.

"My Dear Sir:--More to fulfill a promise than with the hope of service I write this note.

"Your speech on the finances is excellent. There are one or two points on which I shall express myself otherwise; but, in the main, it commands the fullest a.s.sent of my judgment.

"Your appreciation of the currency question exactly corresponds with my own; only I would not give up the national currency even if we must endure for years depreciation through the issues of state banks before getting rid of them.

"The clause in the bill, as it came from the House, imposing a tax of ten per cent. on all notes not authorized by Congress which may be paid out after this year by any bank, whether state or national, will do much towards making our currency sound.

"I will briefly indicate what I should prefer and what I should most zealously labor to have sanctioned by Congress if I were at the head of the treasury department.

"1. Let the monthly tax on state bank circulation be increased to one-half of one per cent.

"2. Provide that any bank may pay into the national treasury the amount of its circulation in United States notes or national currency and that on such payment the bank making it shall be exempt from taxation on circulation.

"3. Provide for the application to the redemption of the circulation represented by such payments, of the United States notes or national currency so paid in, and strictly prohibit the paying out of such notes for any other purpose.

"This measure contemplates:

"1. An exclusive national currency.

"2. Relief of the state banks from taxation upon circulation which they cannot get in.

"3. The a.s.sumption of the duty of redemption by the national treasury with means provided by the state banks.

"4. Reduction in the amount in circulation while the payments into the treasury are being made and opportunity of some provision for redemption which will not again increase it.

"The effect will be:

"1. Healthful condition of currency and consequent activity in production and increase of resources.

"2. Gradual restoration of national notes to equality with specie and the facilitating of resumption of specie payments.

"3. Improvement of national credit.

"4. Diminution of national expenditures and possible arrest of the increase of national debt.

"Half measures are better than no measures; but thorough measures are best.

"I will only add, that while I have never favored legal tender laws in principle, and never consented to them except under imperious necessity, I yet think it unwise to prohibit the making of any of the treasury notes authorized by the bill now before Congress legal tenders. The compound interest legal tender notes have then fulfilled all my expectations for their issue and use; and may be made most useful helps in gradual reduction of the volume of circulation by subst.i.tuting them for legal tenders bearing no interest.

"I cannot elaborate this now. You will see how the thing will work without any suggestion of mine. Faithfully your friend,

"S. P. Chase.

"Hon. John Sherman."

From my long and intimate acquaintance with Chief Justice Chase I am quite sure that the duties of the great office he then held were not agreeable to him. His life had been a political one, and this gave him opportunity for travel and direct communion with the people. The seclusion and severe labor imposed upon the Supreme Court were contrary to his habits and injurious to his health. It took him some years to become accustomed to the quiet of judicial life. He presided over the Senate while acting as a court of impeachment during the trial of Andrew Johnson in 1868. While strongly opposed to the impeachment, he manifested no sign of partiality. He died in New York city on the 7th of May, 1873, at the age of sixty-five.

While Congress was in session, the Republican national convention met at Baltimore on the 7th day of June, 1864, to nominate candidates for President and Vice President of the United States, and to announce the principles and policy of the Republican party of the United States. The nomination of Mr. Lincoln had already been made by state legislatures and by the loyal people of the United States in every form in which popular opinion can be expressed. The feeble expressions of dissent were but a whisper compared with the loud proclamations coming from every loyal state in favor of Lincoln.

The convention, with unanimous a.s.sent, ratified and confirmed the popular choice.

The nomination for Vice President was dictated by the desire to recognize the loyalty and patriotism of those who, living in states in rebellion, remained true and loyal to the Federal Union. Though Mr. Johnson disappointed the expectations of those who nominated him, yet at that time his courage and fidelity and his services and sacrifices for the cause of the Union fully justified his nomination.

More important, even, than the choice of candidates, was the declaration by the convention of the policy of the Republican party.

The key-note of that policy was the third resolution, as follows:

"_Resolved_, that as slavery was the cause, and now const.i.tutes the strength of this rebellion, and as it must be always and everywhere hostile to the principles of republican government, justice and the national safety demand its utter and complete extirpation from the soil of the republic; and that we uphold and maintain the acts and proclamations by which the government, in its own defense, has aimed a deathblow at the gigantic evil. We are in favor, furthermore, of such an amendment to the const.i.tution, to be made by the people in conformity with its provisions, as shall terminate and forever prohibit the existence of slavery within the limits or the jurisdiction of the United States."