HIS POSITION IN 1848.

To John Colyer, Esq., New York.

“NARRAGANSETT, Aùgust 25, 1868.

591

".... Some time ago I received a letter from you, marked by so excellent a spirit that I felt prompted to reply. The reply has been delayed, however, until it can have no value, except as an assurance that I am not unmindful of what good men write me, whether in commendation or cen

Bure.

"I have not had any thought of going into a third-party movement. Nothing, in my judgment, has lately required such a movement; and I know too well the labors incident to political organizations to wish to have any thing to do with them, except upon clear convictions of duty. Besides, I must now leave such labors to younger men.

"It has happened to me, as to many others, to have my name mentioned in connection with the presidency; and not a few persons have thought fit to impute to me an exceeding ambition for the place. Of that I am not myself conscious, though it is quite true that the distinction would have been a most gratifying one, and that the opportunities of usefulness would have been welcome, notwithstanding the risks of failure. But I have never been so insensible to these risks as to be at all troubled in mind because political conventions and the people have preferred others to myself. I am entirely satisfied now with the fact that I am not a candidate, and the certainty that I never shall be.

"The hard names to which you refer as so freely bestowed upon me, affect me little. I espoused the cause of equal rights and exact justice for all men when few of those who now censure me most, were willing to maintain that colored Americans had any rights which white Americans were bound to respect. To that cause I have steadily adhered. As God has given me opportunity. I have endeavored to be useful to my countrymen in the reform of the currency and in other things not directly connected with the fundamental principles of human rights. In my public service, I have been the object of much assault; but I do not remember that I have assailed anybody. Where I could not approve I have contented myself with disapproval without imputing bad motives or unworthy purposes.

"So I expect to go on. I cannot and do not approve of much which has had the sanction of the Republican party; and there is much also which has the sanction of the Democratic party that I cannot approve. My faith in human rights makes me a Democrat, and I cannot follow any lead which separates me from my principles.

"I therefore at present prefer, and I hope ever hereafter to prefer, an independent position; free to approve and to vote as I think right. I do not blame those who by circumstances or convictions think themselves obliged to strict party adhesion. I have felt this obligation myself, when organization seemed indispensable to the maintenance of principles which I thought of paramount importance. All I mean to say is, that at present neither of the existing political organizations seems to me thus indispen

sable, more than the other, in any commanding degree. Thanking you for your letter, I beg you to receive this reply in the same spirit of good-will as that in which you wrote.

To Colonel A. J. H. Duganne, New York.

"NARRAGANSETT, September 21, 1868.

"6 ... I received some days ago your kind note accompanying an invitation to address a Republican meeting in New York. My great esteem and respect for you, and the fear that an omission to reply to your note may be interpreted wrongly, induce me to write a few lines.

"There are few if any instances in our history in which a judge of the Supreme Court has addressed a political assemblage; and the precedent thus established is one which I am hardly at liberty, if even disposed, to disregard. I could not, therefore, accept the invitation which accompanied your note, even if I were otherwise free to do so.

"But I am not. I cannot approve in general what the Republican party has done and this is not the time for discriminations in a public address. I hold my old faith in universal suffrage, in reconstruction upon that basis, in universal amnesty, and in inviolate public faith; but I do not believe in military governments for American States, nor in military commissions for the trial of American citizens, nor in the subversion of the executive and judicial departments of the general government by Congress, no matter how patriotic the motive may be. This is enough to explain what discriminations I should be compelled to make. The action of the two parties has obliged me to resume with my old faith my old position-nullius addictus jurare in verba majestri-that of Democrat, by the grace of God, free and independent.

"

...

To Colonel William Brown, Nicholasville, Kentucky.

"WASHINGTON, September 29, 1868.

I regretted nothing in your speech except its tone and tenor concerning Governor Seymour. I was sure, when the platform was adopted and interpreted on the vital question of the stability or forcible subversion of the accomplished work of reconstruction, by the letter and nomination of General Blair, that nearly all the Republicans and very many of the Conservatives, who were anxious to unite with the Democrats in opposition to the extreme measures of the Republican leaders, would be constrained to the support of General Grant. But it was not, and is not, my belief that Governor Seymour desired to have this issue made, or that he wished the nomination for himself. I have seen nothing in his action which makes me question the sincerity of his declared wishes for a different issue, and for another candidate. Hardly any man would have resisted the approaches made to him by a convention which seemed to be, and perhaps was, unanimous, or nearly so, in demanding his consent to his own nomination. That he did not resist may be deplored on public grounds; but

THE LIBERAL REPUBLICAN CONVENTION.

593 my friends should not complain. I had no claim on a Democratic convention, representing what may be called the old-line Democracy. The nomination was proposed only as a means of uniting in support of the ticket those in general sympathy with the Democracy on issues that have arisen since the war, but who were as much as ever in favor of securing to the enfranchised people all the rights of men and citizens, as the best, if not the only means of restoring order and prosperity to the South. . . .

"Please take this as a slight expression of what I said in my former letter and as explaining why I cannot consent to have the extract from that letter which you quote published. I know that Governor Seymour and his friends, who were also my friends, feel much hurt by what you said of him, and what others of my friends have said, and are inclined to regard me as in some sort responsible for those sayings; and the publication of that extract, disconnected from what I wrote of him, would confirm that impression. So I prefer to have nothing published; and you will, therefore, treat what I have heretofore written, and what I now write, as strictly private...."

To Demarest Lloyd, Washington.

"NORTHWOOD, N. II., August 14, 1872. .... You may remember that, in our walks to and fro on the portico at Edgewood, I said to you more than once that I would like to see Mr. Greeley nominated. Since 1848 it has been my earnest desire to see the Democratic party purged from the taint of slavery, and applying demo. cratic principles boldly and thoroughly to all political questions. The adoption of the Cincinnati platform realizes that desire, and the nomination of Greeley is a pledge of its sincerity which his election will confirm....

...

To Demarest Lloyd, Washington.

“NARRAGANSETT, R. I., September 15, 1872. ".. As to political matters, I have by no means lost heart, though results so far do not answer my hopes. The nomination was, in itself, the best that could be made; but it was an experiment, and a bold onė. A Free-Trade convention nominated the ablest, after Mr. Carey, of American writers in support of protection; a Republican convention nominated a full Republican ticket for Democratic support, without which almost unanimously given, success was impossible; a Democratic convention, departing from all party usages, nominated for Democratic support Republican candidates! May it not well be said that it was an experiment, and a bold one? To me, knowing Mr. Greeley as I do, and feeling in him the confidence I do, it would be a pleasure to vote for him. I can postpone all differences in the full confidence that, practically, his administration will, in no respect, fundamentally clash with my views, while, in the important matters of currency, amnesty, and reform, it will thoroughly harmonize with them. It is not surprising that others think and will act differently. . . .”

CHAPTER LII.

MR. CHASE'S RELIGION-HIS SIMPLE HABITS-HOSPITALITY-HIS MODESTY-LOVE OF TRUTH AND OF JUSTICE-HIS VAST LABOR -DESCRIPTION OF THE TREASURY DEPARTMENT ORGANIZATION OF NEW BUREAUS-RULE ABOUT WOMEN- -PERSONAL CHARACTERISTICS - HIS INTEREST IN MILITARY MATTERSFINANCIAL BELIEFS AND ACCOMPLISHMENT-POLITICAL ACTION -AS A MEMBER OF THE CABINET-AS A LAWYER-PERSONAL HIS PROPERTY.

UPON

PON faith in Almighty God, and a belief in accountability in another world for the acts done in this, and those other beliefs which Protestant Christians hold to be fundamental, Mr. Chase founded the maxims and the conduct of his life. He shrank from all ostentation in respect of his religion, and rarely spoke of it, and indeed not very often of religious subjects at all, and then always with an earnest and perfectly simple reverence; but it influenced him in all his acts, both public and private.

He was born in the Episcopal Church, and lived and died in it, though his beliefs were, in the main, of the school of Calvin. However, he was utterly free from any thing like intolerance, and had a deep aversion to disputatiousness about matters in which religion was concerned. He one day read to me, as expressive of his own feelings, the words of John Wesley: "I am weary to hear opinions. My soul loathes this frothy food. Give me solid and substantial religion; give me an humble, gentle lover of God and man, a man full of mercy and good fruits, without partiality and without hypocrisy; a man laying himself out in the work of faith, the patience of hope, the labor