Salmon Portland Chase. rather than judicial. In 1867 he began to make his plans to capture the Republican nomination in the following' year. He could arouse no enthusiasm. In March, 1868, it became apparent that Grant would be nomi nated, and Chase withdrew from the contest. Yet with singular fatuity he strove to grasp the eagerly desired prize at the hands of the Democracy. He was alarmed and disgusted by the measures of the Republicans. While hoping and striving for their nomination he thought that as President he could control and direct the party. But by April he had brought himself to believe that the Republi can party had been created for an especial purpose which had been accomplished, that it was a temporary organization, brought into being by a crisis that had passed. At heart he was always a Democrat. As a judge he strove to curtail the limits of Fed eral power. In September, 1868, he wrote: "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 government for American States, nor in military commis sions for the trial of American citizens, nor in the subversion of the executive and judicial departments of the general govern ment by Congress." This is his justification for changing his party. The change was fruitful of no other result than loss of in fluence and prestige. Again in 1872 he pulled wires for the Democratic nomi nation. Again his desires and hopes were vain. All these excessive activities and anxieties at last had their effect upon the splendid physique of the Chief Justice. In August, 1870, he had a severe stroke ol paralysis. From this he slowly rallied and again sat with the court during the terms of 1871-72 and 1872-73. Upon the rising of the court in the latter year he went to NewYork, where, upon May 6. he experienced a second stroke, from which he died on the following day. During the Civil War the Supreme Court
of the United States was in a humiliating position, silent leges inter anna. Its juris diction was limited by extrajudicial tribu nals, its authority impaired. It refused to entertain appeals from those parts of the country that were in rebellion. One of its ablest justices resigned in order to join in the effort to overthrow the government that he had sworn to support. But by 1866 the court began "to render a series of brilliant and far reaching decisions, which at the same time restored its own prestige, crystal lized the body of law arising out of the Civil War and moderated the excesses of Con gress. All the questions which finally stood forth for judical decision had been presented to Chase while he was Secretary of the Treasury, and upon most of them he had made up his mind." But I intend here only to refer briefly to four episodes of his judicial career. Even after President Johnson's two proc lamations of April and August, 1866, de claring the war ended, the Chief Justice steadfastly refused to hold any court in Virginia or North Carolina, until all possi bility that the judiciary would be subordi nate to the military power was removed. Jefferson Davis had been arrested on May 10, 1865, confined in Fortress Monroe, and indicted for treason in the District of Colum bia. That indictment, however, was not prosecuted, and in May, 1866, a true bill was found against him in the District of Virginia for waging and levying war upon the United States while owing them faith and allegi ance. The penalty for this offence was a fine not exceeding $10,000, or imprisonment not exceeding ten years or both. The Chief Justice believed that a military commission was the suitable tribunal. But in May, 1867, the President threw the responsibility of Davis's trial upon the judiciary by surren dering him to the custody of the Federal Court under a habeas corpus issued by Mr. Chief Justice Chase. Judge Underwood then admitted him to bail, and the trial was
