Salmon Portland Chase

Side A: Salmon Portland Chase, a renowned lawyer and statesman, was born in Cornish, New Hampshire, on January 13, 1808. He came to Ohio in 1820 and attended Cincinnati College (1822-23). Chase returned to New Hampshire and graduated from Dartmouth College in 1826. He studied law under U.S. Attorney General William Wirt in Washington D.C. and was admitted to the bar in December 1829. He then moved back to Cincinnati and in September 1830 established his law office and residence on the first floor of a brick building that stood at the northeast corner of 3rd and Main Streets. Chase gained national recognition as an anti-slavery attorney and politician and by aiding in the organization of the Liberty, Free-Soil, and Republican parties. He served as a Cincinnati city councilman (1840-41), U.S. senator from Ohio (1849-55), and was the first Republican governor of Ohio (1856-60). (continued on other side) Side B: (continued from other side) Chase was elected to the U.S. Senate in 1860, but resigned in March 1861 when President Abraham Lincoln appointed him Secretary of the Treasury. Responsible for financing the Civil War, he created the national banking system used until 1913, introducing the nation’s first federal paper currency and the first federal income tax. Chase established the Bureau of Engraving and Printing and the Bureau of Internal Revenue (later renamed the Internal Revenue Service). He also opened the U.S. bond market to the general public. Chase resigned from office in June 1864. He then served as chief justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1864-73) and presided over the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson in 1868. He died in New York City on May 7, 1873. He was originally buried in Washington D.C., but was later re-interred in Spring Grove Cemetery, Cincinnati, with his family, including daughter Kate Chase Sprague (1840-99), famous Washington socialite.