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Clay for the Presidency. In 1836 and 1840 he was still a Whig, and voted for Harrison. But in May, 1841, he took an active part in the county convention of the Liberty Party in Cincinnati. He had come to see that there was no hope from either of the two old parties for an anti-slavery policy. The Liberty Party at tha't time was feeble and discouraged. Chase built it up, shaped its policy, merged it first into the Free Soil and then into the triumphant Republican Party. His accession to the Liberty Party was a great joy to its adherents. There was plenty of work for him to do. He almost imme diately became its leader. He organized its conventions, wrote its platforms and ad dresses, planned its campaigns. Issues were plenty, the slave trade, the fugitive slave law, the Texas question, and after 1846 the Wilmot Proviso. The progress of the party, however, was slow. In April, 1847, Chase wrote to Senator John P. Hale: "I see no prospect of greater future progress, but rather of less. As fast as we can bring public sentiment right, the other parties will ap proach our ground." Dissensions in the councils for the Liberty Party appeared in 1847, and in the Presidential campaign of 1848 Chase secured the call for a national Free Soil convention, and formally dissolved the Liberty Party of Ohio. He hoped to force the Democracy to adopt his ideas. To his influence was due the nomination of Van Buren by the Free Soilers. During all these years, and after, Chase was engaged in litigation concerning fugitive slaves. He accepted their briefs without fees and fought the cases with all his energy and ability. So constantly was he employed in this work that he came to be called "the attorney gen eral for runaway slaves." In 1848 Chase's reward came unex pectedly. The union of Free Soilers and Democrats had been barren of result in the presidential election. But in Ohio a Senator was to be chosen. The Ohio Legislature was evenly divided. Two Independents held the

balance of power. By their combination with the Democrats Chase was elected, and took his seat in the Senate of the United States on March 4, 1849. Now had come his first great opportunity. He considered him self as the representative of the anti-slavery forces of the West. But as a member of a small and despised party, elected by an acci dent, he received very little consideration and was given no important committee appoint ments. He sympathized with the Democrats, and said, in July, 1849 : "The doctrines of the Democracy on the subject of trade, currency and special privileges command the entire assent of my judgment." Yet for two years he stood almost alone. Hale, he said, was a guerrillist; Seward, a Whig partisan. Wade and Sumner came to his aid in 1851, Hamlin, Fessenden and Everett in the conflict over the Kansas-Nebraska bill. Handicapped though he was Mr. Chase was a successful representative of Ohio. He was watchful over the expenditures of public money, impatient of delay, and secured Federal buildings and improvements for his Com monwealth. Yet he felt that his energies belonged to the cause of anti-slavery. For that cause he spent them freely. His speeches on the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska bill had an incalculable effect throughout the country, and much added to his reputation. He became a national character. The appeal of the Inde pendent Democrats was written by him, and published on January 25, 1854. It unmasked the design of Douglas, who came into the Senate on the thirtieth, and attacked Chase with reckless fury. The latter met the on slaught with undaunted front. In this con test he showed himself a bold parliamen tarian, a sagacious and skillful leader. It was this debate that was the efficient cause of the birth of the Republican Party. After it the Northern wing of the Whig Partv could no longer affiliate with the Southern, nor could the Independent Democrats follow Douglas. Chase, more than any other man.