Salmon Portland Chase was born on January 13, 1808, in Cornish, New Hampshire, and died on May 7, 1873, having served as the sixth chief justice of the United States from 1864 until his death. Before joining the Court he was a prominent antislavery lawyer who frequently defended fugitive slaves, helped found both the Free Soil Party and the Republican Party, represented Ohio in the United States Senate, served as the states governor, and led the Treasury Department under Abraham Lincoln during the Civil War, making him one of the few American politicians to have held office in all three branches of the federal government as well as a states highest office. As chief justice he presided over the 1868 Senate impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson, and even while on the bench he repeatedly and unsuccessfully sought the presidential nomination, first as a Democrat in 1868 and then as a Liberal Republican in 1872.
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