Salmon P. Chase

In 1834, Salmon Portland Chase married Catherine Garniss. While giving birth to their first child, Catherine died in 1835. After her death he became more spiritual and involved himself in different abolition movements.

He was an active member of the Cincinnati based ‘St. Paul Episcopal Cathedral’.

In 1839, he married Eliza Smith and the couple had three children. She died in 1845 due to tuberculosis.

Salmon Portland Chase was born in January 13, 1808, to Ithamar Chase and Janet Ralston in Cornish, New Hamsphire.

In 1817, Salmon’s father died leaving his wife and ten children with little resources.

He received his primary education at a school in Windsor, Vermont and thereafter at a school in Worthington, Ohio.

During 1820 to 1824, he stayed in Ohio with his uncle Bishop Philander Chase who was a prominent figure in the Protestant Episcopal Church. His other uncle Dudley Chase was a U.S. Senator from Vermont.

In 1822, he joined the Cincinnati College. He later enrolled in Dartmouth College and graduated from the same in 1826. While in Dartmouth he worked as a teacher at the ‘Royalton Academy’ in Royalton, Vermont.

In 1830, he moved to Cincinnati to begin legal practice. In no time he became a prominent figure in the Cincinnati bar as an abolitionist lawyer. He published a version of laws of Ohio with annotations which became a standard for a long time.

His early career saw him working with the ‘American Sunday School Union’ as a lawyer who frequently defended fugitive slaves.

During the Cincinnati Riots (1836) several events including assault of Games G. Birney’s press had deep impact on him following which he got associated with the anti-slavery movements.

In the case of ‘Jones v. Van Zandt’ held in the U.S. Supreme Court, he drew much attention for his argument on constitutionality of laws related to fugitive slaves. He insisted that the Constitution does not empower the federal government to establish slavery in any place. He contested that a man ceases to be a slave of a state, once he leaves the state’s jurisdiction.

In 1840, he was elected to the Cincinnati City Council as a member of Whig party. The very next year he left the Whig party.

During his tenure as ‘Secretary of Treasury’ when the Civil War was in full swing, he effectuated the National Banking Act. He was instrumental in setting up a national bank and also introduced paper currency.

The changes in the American financial policy ensured a market for government bonds that could be used in aiding war effort. In 1862, he along with ‘Jay Cooke & Company’ managed to sell government war bonds worth $500 million. He set up the ‘Bureau of Internal Revenue’ to collect taxes. It was later called the ‘Internal Revenue Service’.