AMERICAN BAR ASSOCIATION HONORS SALMON P. CHASE
The following extracts are from the account in the Journal of the American Bar Association of June, of the dedication of a memorial to Chief Justice Salmon Portland Chase, Dartmouth '26:
Salmon P. Chase, former Chief Justice of the United States Supreme Court, sleeps today beneath a monument fitly commemora- tive of a great character and a great life devoted to the public service. The solid block of granite, suitably inscribed and standing out against a beautiful background of green, seems to symbolize not only the enduring achievements of a life but also that eternity of grateful remembrance in which the profession of the law holds its members who have adorned it by their lives and works.
The memorial unveiled May 30 with appropriate ceremonies in Spring Grove Ceme- tery, Cincinnati, in the presence of a large audience, brings to a successful conclusion the work of the special committee of the Association appointed by former President Cordenio A. Severance. The suggestion leading the appointment of that committee was made during the Cincinnati meeting of the Association in 1921. Mr. Walter George Smith, of Philadelphia, former President, at that time called attention to the fact that the grave of the late Chief Justice was not marked. He and Mr. Andrew Squire dis- cussed the matter and decided to bring it to the attention of the new President. Mr. Severance took it up with his customary promptness and appointed a committee composed of Senator Selden P. Spencer, Chairman, Andrew Squire and Guy W. Mallon. This committee held various meetings to select suitable plans for the monument and to raise the necessary funds.
Perfect weather helped make the unveiling a success from the ceremonial stand- point. Those in attendance included a majority of the members of the Ohio Supreme Court, the U. S. Circuit Court of Appeals, the U. S. District Courts of Ohio, and prominent members of the Bar of Ohio and adjoining states. Chief Justice William Howard Taft delivered the main address of the occasion, reviewing the life and services of Salmon P. Chase and drawing some in- ferences very applicable to the present time from the recital.
Mr. Joseph Wilby, Chairman of the Cincinnati Bar Association committee, presided, and in the absence of John W. Davis, President of the Association, Mr. Guy,W. Mallon of the Special Committee of the Association delivered the presentation address. He said in part:
"Ladies and Gentlemen: The American Bar Association has fulfilled a neglected obligation long due to the memory of a great man. Salmon P. Chase held many posts of high honor in the governments of Ohio and of the United States, and rendered signal service to his state and to his country. For the greater part of the half century since his death his body has lain in this grave unmarked and almost unknown.
"As a statesman he was a leader among that staunch crew, who under the inspired Lincoln, 'Our Captain,' held the rudder true through storm and stress of civil war. As a lawyer he became Chief Justice of the United States at a time when clarity of vision and strength of purpose were demanded of those who would vindicate the majesty of the law and render equal justice to all.
"We, the lawyers of the United States, acting through our national group, The American Bar Association, have caused this monument to be erected upon his grave, to manifest our appreciation of his character and our gratitude for the life which one of our fellows gave in service to his nation; and this -we do, with full realization that we can add nothing to his fame, by panegyric or by memorial. Two thousand four hundred years ago, Pericles said of the great men of Greece:
" 'Their glory is not graven only on stone over their earth, but lives on far away, without visible symbol, woven into the stuff of other men's lives.'
"Thus truly, as our civilization is founded upon law and justice, the virtue of the thoughts and acts of Salmon P. Chase brings daily sustenance to the life of every citizen of the United States."
" 'This whole earth is the sepulchre of illustrious men. Nor is it the inscriptions on the columns in their native soil alone that show their merit, but the memorial of them, better than all inscriptions, in every foreign nation, deposited more durably in universal remembrance than on their own tombs.'
"The American Bar Association presents this memorial to the spirit of mankind."
Mr. Wilby then read a letter from Mrs. William S, Hoyt, the sole surviving daughter of Salmon P. Chase, addressed to the Committee of the American Bar Association and the Committee of the Cincinnati Bar Association, in which she conveyed her appreciation of this tribute to the memory of her father and expressed regret that her physical condition did not permit -her to be present.
Following a brief address by Mr. Frank F. Dinsmore, president of the Cincinnati Bar Association, Chief Justice Taft reviewed the life and services of Chase and said:
"Chase was a serious-minded man. He was sincerely religious. He had the moral force and persistence that prompted him to keep a journal, and this he did throughout his career. He has disclosed much of the inward workings of his heart. He revealed traits of which undue modesty was not, one; but he showed his purpose to live a life of usefulness and high principle; and, more consistently than most, he pursued it."
"Mr. Chase's temperament was masterful and his desire to take charge of anything in which he was interested was evident. He knew his powers, he understood the value of his experience, and he had the constructive impulse that made him anxious to apply all these in furtherance of his cause. Apparently he did not make friends of his contemporaries and his equals in point of ability and experience. He gathered about him able young men whose subsequent successes demonstrated his judgment in their selection, but he demanded of them complete devotion to the cause which he had embraced and a subordination to his own views and purposes which made some of them restive."
"Chase was a great man. He has had the disadvantage in history of comparison with Lincoln. Next to Lincoln, he stands out as a great civil figure of the decade of the Civil War. He was actuated by moral force. He had the defects of his attributes, but among those attributes were devotion to principle, courage of convictions, indefatigable industry, and a profound patriotic desire to achieve in the public interest."
