Whiting, William Henry Chase, 1825-65, Confederate general in the American Civil War, b. Biloxi, Miss. He served in the U.S. army until Feb., 1861, when he resigned and entered the Confederate service; there he rose to the rank of major general. As chief engineer to Gen. Joseph E. Johnston, Whiting distinguished himself at the first battle of Bull Run (1861). He fought in Stonewall Jackson's command in the Seven Days battles (1862). Appointed (Nov., 1862) commander of the district around Wilmington, N.C., he made Fort Fisher one of the strongest Confederate fortifications. He was wounded and captured when Union forces finally seized the fort in Jan., 1865, and died a prisoner in New York.

Smith, Margaret Chase, 1897-1995, U.S. senator from Maine (1949-73), b. Skowhegan, Maine. She taught school briefly and then worked (1919-28) on the Skowhegan weekly newspaper. In 1930 she married Clyde Smith, the publisher of the paper, and upon his election as a U.S. representative served in Washington as his secretary, researcher, and office manager. Active in Republican party politics, she was elected after the death of her husband in 1940 to finish his unexpired term, becoming Maine's first congresswoman. She was reelected four times. Noted for her integrity and independence, she was elected U.S. senator in 1948 and reelected in 1954, 1960, and 1966. She was unexpectedly defeated in the 1972 election by her Democratic opponent.

Knox, Philander Chase, 1853-1921, U.S. cabinet member, b. Brownsville, Pa. He built up a fortune as a corporation lawyer in Pittsburgh. He was Attorney General (1901-4) in the cabinets of Presidents William McKinley and Theodore Roosevelt. He was prominently identified with trust prosecutions, but failed to dissolve any significant organizations, except that of the Northern Securities Company, a railroad holding corporation. He served as U.S. Senator by appointment (1904-5) and was elected for the succeeding full term, but resigned in 1909 to become Secretary of State under President Taft. Continuing the policies of his predecessors, John Hay and Elihu Root, Knox sought to protect financial interests abroad, particularly in Latin America and China—a policy that became known as "dollar diplomacy." Knox returned to the Senate in 1917 and allied himself with those who fought ratification of the Treaty of Versailles and participation in the League of Nations.

Chevy Chase, town (1990 pop. 8,559), Montgomery co., W central Md., a residential suburb of Washington, D.C.; founded as a village, inc. 1914. The Audubon Society maintains a mansion here with 40 acres (16 hectares) of garden and wildlife sanctuary.

Chase, William Merritt, 1849-1916, American painter, b. Williamsburg, Ind., studied in Indianapolis and in Munich under Piloty. In 1878 he began his long career as an influential teacher at the Art Students League of New York and later established his own summer school of landscape painting in the Shinnecock Hills on Long Island. Proficient in many media, Chase is best known for his spirited portraits and still lifes in oil. His Carmencita, Lady in Black, and portrait of Whistler (all: Metropolitan Mus.) and My Daughter Alice (Cleveland Mus.) are characteristic. He was president of the Society of American Artists for 10 years and a member of the National Academy of Design.

Chase, Samuel, 1741-1811, political leader in the American Revolution, signer of the Declaration of Independence, Associate Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court (1796-1811), b. Somerset co., Md. A lawyer, he participated in pre-Revolutionary activities and was a delegate to the First and Second Continental Congresses. In 1776 he was appointed, together with Benjamin Franklin and Charles Carroll of Carrollton, to win Canada over to the Revolutionary cause, but the plan failed. Chase helped to influence Maryland opinion to support independence from Great Britain. Although he opposed adoption of the U.S. Constitution, he later became a strong Federalist and President Washington appointed him (1796) to the U.S. Supreme Court. A series of brilliant and influential decisions established his leadership in the court until he was eclipsed by the rising genius of John Marshall. Chase was impeached (1804) by the U.S. House of Representatives for discrimination on the bench against Jeffersonians. Tried before the Senate (1805), he was found not guilty. This verdict discouraged further attempts to impeach justices for purely political reasons.

Chase, Salmon Portland, 1808-73, American public official and jurist, 6th Chief Justice of the United States (1864-73), b. Cornish, N.H. Admitted to the bar in 1829, he defended runaway blacks so often that he became known as "attorney general for fugitive slaves." Chase became prominent in the Liberty party and later in the Free-Soil party and was elected by a coalition of Free-Soilers and antislavery Democrats to the U.S. Senate, where (1849-55) he eloquently opposed such proslavery measures as the Compromise of 1850 and the Kansas-Nebraska Act.

Chase was elected governor of Ohio in 1855 at the head of a Republican ticket that was dominated by Know-Nothings; by 1857, when he was reelected, he was a leading member of the new Republican party. He was a splendid figure of a man, a "sculptor's ideal of a President," and few Americans have ever gone after that high office with more determination—or less success. He sought the Republican nomination in 1860, but since he lacked the full support of even his own state's delegation and since many considered him an extreme abolitionist, his chance passed quickly.

Again elected to the Senate, Chase served only two days in Mar., 1861, before resigning to become Lincoln's Secretary of the Treasury. In that difficult position he took part in framing for Congress the new fiscal legislation necessitated by the Civil War, collected new taxes, placed unprecedentedly large loans with reluctant investors, and directed vast expenditures. To assist in government financing and also to improve the status of the currency, he proposed the national bank system (established in Feb., 1863), which is generally considered his greatest achievement. Ambition and a high regard for his own worth made Chase a difficult man to work with; after refusing four previous attempts, Lincoln finally accepted Chase's resignation on June 29, 1864.

Chase failed in his effort to secure the presidential nomination, but he remained an important national figure, and on Dec. 6, 1864, after the death of Roger B. Taney, Lincoln appointed Chase Chief Justice of the United States. He took a moderate stand in most of the important Reconstruction cases. His dissenting opinion in the Slaughterhouse Cases subsequently became the accepted position of the courts as to the restrictive force of the Fourteenth Amendment. On the other hand, his decision (1870) in Hepburn v. Griswold (see Legal Tender cases) was soon reversed. For his fairness in presiding over the Senate in the impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson, he was furiously denounced by his old radical friends. Chase persisted in seeking the presidency, but neither the Democrats in 1868 nor the Liberal Republicans in 1872 were interested in him.

Chase, Philander, 1775-1852, American Episcopal bishop, b. Cornish, N.H. After experience as a missionary in the West, he was elected (1818) first bishop of Ohio, where he founded Kenyon College in 1824 with funds that he secured largely in England. In 1835, Chase became bishop of Illinois; from 1843 he was presiding bishop of the church.

Chase, Mary Ellen, 1887-1973, American educator and writer, b. Blue Hill, Maine, grad. Univ. of Maine, 1909. Her works, set in Maine and excellent in their regional fidelity, include a biography and the novels Mary Peters (1934) and Windswept (1941). She also wrote biblical studies such as Life and Language in the Old Testament (1955) and children's books like The Story of Lighthouses (1965). Her autobiographical volumes are A Goodly Heritage (1932), A Goodly Fellowship (1939), and The White Gate (1954).

orig. Margaret Madeline Chase

(born Dec. 14, 1897, Skowhegan, Maine, U.S.—died May 29, 1995, Skowhegan) U.S. politician. She served as secretary to her husband, Clyde Smith, after he was elected to the U.S. House of Representatives as a Republican in 1936. When he suffered a heart attack in 1940, he urged voters to elect her to the office. She became the first woman to win election to both the House (1940–49) and the Senate (1949–73). Though a staunch anticommunist, she was the first Republican senator to condemn the tactics of Joseph McCarthy, delivering a memorable “Declaration of Conscience” speech on the Senate floor in 1950. Her opinion that Pres. John F. Kennedy should use nuclear weapons against the Soviet Union prompted Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev to dub her “the devil in disguise of a woman.” She retired from politics after her defeat in 1972. She received the Presidential Medal of Freedom in 1989.

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(born May 6, 1853, Brownsville, Pa., U.S.—died Oct. 12, 1921, Washington, D.C.) U.S. lawyer and politician. After admission to the bar in 1875 he became a successful corporation lawyer in Pittsburgh. As legal counsel for the Carnegie Steel Company, he helped organize the United States Steel Corp. (1900–01). Appointed attorney general by Pres. Theodore Roosevelt in 1901, he initiated several suits under the Sherman Antitrust Act. He served in the U.S. Senate from 1904 to 1909. As secretary of state (1909–13) under Pres. William H. Taft, he helped develop the foreign policy of expanded U.S. investment later criticized as Dollar Diplomacy. During his second term in the Senate (1917–21), he opposed the formation of the League of Nations.

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(born Nov. 1, 1849, Williamsburg, Ind., U.S.—died Oct. 25, 1916, New York, N.Y) U.S. painter and teacher. He studied in New York and for six years in Munich. Chase became the most important U.S. art teacher of his generation, first at New York's Art Students League and later at his own school, founded in 1896. His teachings, particularly his advocacy of fresh colour and bravura technique, greatly influenced the course of early 20th-century U.S. painting; among his students were Georgia O'Keeffe and Charles Demuth. As a painter, he was very prolific; his 2,000 paintings include portraits, interiors (e.g., In the Studio, 1880–83), figure studies, still lifes, and landscapes characterized by bold, spontaneous brushwork.

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(born April 17, 1741, Princess Anne, Md.—died June 19, 1811, Washington, D.C.) U.S. jurist. He was a member of the Maryland assembly (1764–84). An ardent patriot, he helped lead the Sons of Liberty in violent resistance against the Stamp Act. He served on the state Committee of Correspondence (1774), was elected to the Continental Congress, and signed the Declaration of Independence. When Alexander Hamilton exposed his attempt to corner the flour market (1778), Chase retired from Congress, only to return in 1784. He served as chief judge of the Maryland General Court from 1791 to 1796, when Pres. George Washington appointed him to the Supreme Court of the United States. Chase upheld the primacy of U.S. treaties over state statutes in Ware v. Hylton. In Calder v. Bull (1798) he contributed to the definition of due process. At the instigation of Pres. Thomas Jefferson, Chase was impeached for partisan conduct in 1804. His acquittal established the principle that federal judges can be removed only for indictable criminal acts, thus strengthening the independence of the judiciary. Chase served until 1811.

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(born Jan. 13, 1808, Cornish Township, N.H., U.S.—died May 7, 1873, New York, N.Y.) U.S. antislavery leader and sixth chief justice of the U.S. (1864–73). He practiced law in Cincinnati from 1830, defending runaway slaves and white abolitionists. He led the Liberty Party in Ohio from 1841 and helped found the Free Soil Party (1848) and the Republican Party (1854). He served in the U.S. Senate (1849–55, 1860–61) and was the first Republican governor of Ohio (1855–59). He served as secretary of the treasury under Pres. Abraham Lincoln (1861–64). Appointed chief justice of the Supreme Court of the United States by Lincoln, he presided over the impeachment trial of Pres. Andrew Johnson and tried to protect the rights of blacks from infringement by state action.

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