overshadowed the more conservative Seymour, the Chief-Justice intimated that men of his way of thinking would be constrained to the support of General Grant.

CH. XVII. In a letter Wm. Brown

to Colonel

of Kentucky, Sept. 29, 1868. Schuckers, "Life of S.

P. Chase,"

p. 592.

But if the political attitude of Mr. Chase in his later years was a subject of amazement and sorrow to his ardent supporters, his decisions upon the bench were a no less startling surprise to those who had insisted upon his appointment as the surest means of conserving all the victories of the war. He who had sustained Mr. Stanton in his most energetic and daring acts during the war now declared such acts illegal; he who had continually criticized, not always loyally, the conduct of the President for what he considered his weak reverence for the rights of States, now became the earnest champion of State rights; and finally the man to whose personal solicitations a majority of Congress had yielded in passing the legal-tender act, without which he said that the war could not have been successfully carried on, from his place on the bench declared the act unconstitutional. But so firm was the impression in the minds of the people of the United States of the great powers and perfect integrity, the high courage, the exalted patriotism of this man, that when he died, worn out by his May 7, 1873. tireless devotion to the public welfare, he was mourned and praised as, in spite of all errors and infirmities, he deserved to be. Although his appointment had not accomplished all the good which Mr. Lincoln hoped for when he made it, it cannot be called a mistake. Mr. Chase had deserved well of the republic. He was entitled to any reward the republic could grant him; and the President, in VOL. IX.-26

CH. XVII. giving to his most powerful and most distinguished rival the greatest place which a President ever has it in his power to bestow, gave an exemplary proof of the magnanimity and generosity of his own spirit.

CHAPTER XVIII

PETERSBURG

D

1864.

URING all the summer campaign of General CH. XVIII. Grant, while he was intent upon breaking and crushing the army of Lee, he never lost sight of the equally important work of breaking his lines of communication and cutting off his supplies. His first attempt in the Shenandoah Valley having failed by the misadventure of Sigel at New Market on the 15th of May, he asked for the removal of that officer, and Major-General Hunter was appointed to supersede him. From Spotsylvania and Jericho Ford Grant sent orders for Hunter to move up the Valley as far as Charlottesville and Lynchburg if he found it possible; to destroy railroads and canals, and either get back to his original base or join the Army of the Potomac, as circumstances might decide. Hunter moved away with his usual alacrity, and on the 5th of June struck a force of three brigades under General W. E. Jones at Piedmont, and after a severe engagement routed it, killing Jones and capturing 1500 prisoners and some guns. Three days later, he formed a junction with Crook and Averill at Staunton and moved towards Lynchburg, while J. C. Vaughn, who had succeeded to Jones's com