Statesmen . ? In the debate over the Fugitive Slave law, hepleaded earnestly for some amelioration of theiron statute which the slaveholders insisted uponforcing upon the country. The right of trial byjury, he urged, ought at least to be embodiedinto the law. If the most ordinary contro-versy, he said, involving a contested claim to$20, must be decided by a jury, surely a contro-versy which involves the right of a man to hisliberty should have a similar trial. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise by thepassage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill was anotheropportunity which Chase readily embraced tod
Statesmen . ? In the debate over the Fugitive Slave law, hepleaded earnestly for some amelioration of theiron statute which the slaveholders insisted uponforcing upon the country. The right of trial byjury, he urged, ought at least to be embodiedinto the law. If the most ordinary contro-versy, he said, involving a contested claim to$20, must be decided by a jury, surely a contro-versy which involves the right of a man to hisliberty should have a similar trial. The repeal of the Missouri Compromise by thepassage of the Kansas-Nebraska bill was anotheropportunity which Chase readily embraced todisclose his immovable position on the generalsubject of human rights. He pleaded only thatthe people of the Territories, acting throughtheir proper representatives in the TerritorialLegislature and subject to the limitations of theConstitution, should be able to protect them-selves against slavery by prohibiting it. Thisprinciple was steadfastly denied bv the pro-slavery Senators. When the battle was won for. SALMON P. CHASE 161 the pro-slavery cause, great was the jubilation ofthe people who had for weeks crowded the gal-leries and lobbies of the Capitol waiting for thedetermination of the question. It was dark in theearly morning of March 4, 1854, after a sessionof seventeen hours, when the bill finally passedthe Senate. Senators Chase and Sumner walkeddown the steps of the Capitol together. Thethunder of a cannons salute by the victoriousslave-owners fell upon their ears. Said Chase: They celebrate a present victory, but theechoes that they awake will never rest untilslavery itself shall die. Nominated for Governor of Ohio by the Re-publican party in 1855, Chase stumped theState, making a series of vigorous and effectivespeeches. During his term of office the Statewas repeatedly torn with dissensions over ques-tions raised by the attempt to return fugitiveslaves. It is noticeable, however, that publicopinion, since his first activity in the Van Zandtand similar cases, had gr
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