Politician (1808-1873) who served as secretary of the treasury for the first three years of Abraham Lincoln's term, after which Lincoln appointed him chief justice of the Supreme Court. In that role Chase presided over the 1868 impeachment trial of President Andrew Johnson. LS signed “S. P. Chase,” three pages on two adjoining sheets, 7.75 x 9.75, Treasury Department letterhead, February 8, 1864. Letter to A. A. Low, President of the New York Chamber of Commerce, explaining that he has appointed a commission to revise outdated navigation, commerce, and customs collection laws, and inviting Low to designate one or more persons in the commercial sector to advise the commission with the revisions. In part: “My attention has been directed…to the state of the laws regulations and wages relating to the navigation and external commerce of the country and the collection of the revenue from customs, and I have become convinced that a system which was doubtless wisely adapted to the condition of the country and its commerce, at the time when it was first adapted in 1799, has…become inadequate…and regulations as well as reform in their administration has become necessary. With a view to these ends I have invited…in conjunction with the Solicitor of the Treasury…a commission to make a complete and thorough revision and codification of the navigation laws and the laws for the collection of the customs…it will be gratifying to me if you will designate one or more members of the Chamber of Commerce to confer with the Commission." In very good to fine condition, with some clear tape, and an area of paper loss, along the hinge.'
Notwithstanding the vague rationales given by Chase in this letter for the necessity of revising the revenue and customs laws (e.g., increase in population and trade) the primary objective of the revisions were to raise money to cover the costs of the Civil War. The letter's recipient, Abiel A. Low, was a New York merchant engaged in the China trade and a builder of clipper ships designed by Captain Nathaniel B. Palmer, who discovered the Antarctic continent in 1820.
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