Chase, Salmon P.:

$4,500 · Offered by William Reese Company · No longer available

[MANUSCRIPT LETTER, SIGNED, FROM UNITED STATES CHIEF JUSTICE SALMON P. CHASE TO S. BASSETT FRENCH OF RICHMOND, VIRGINIA, CONCERNING THE PROHIBITION ON OFFICEHOLDING IMPOSED ON FORMER CONFEDERATES ... An important manuscript letter, signed, from United States Chief Justice Salmon P. Chase to S. Bassett French of Richmond, Virginia, in which he declines to offer his legal opinion on whether the terms of amnesty and pardon granted under the proclamations of Presidents Lincoln and Johnson extend to the prohibition on officeholding imposed on former Confederates under Section Three of the Fourteenth Amendment. Chase suffered a stroke in 1870, and this letter is likely in the hand of his personal secretary, David Demarest Lloyd, though it is signed by Chase in his hand. The present letter, signed "SP Chase" and addressed to the "Hon. S. Bassett French at the foot of the text, reads in full as follows: "Washington, Mar. 19. 1872. Dear Sir: The decisions to which you refer merely give effect to the amnesty proclaimed by President Lincoln & Johnson, in property cases. I enclose the opinion to which you allude [not present here] from which you will be able to gather its true nature and extent. It may become a judicial question whether any persons are relieved by the amnesty from the disabilities imposed by the third section of the fourteenth amendment. Of course it would be improper for me to express an opinion on the point whether such disabilities can be removed, otherwise than by a

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