Warren Chase | |
|---|---|
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| Member of theCalifornia Senate from the3rd district | |
| In office January 5, 1880 – January 8, 1883 | |
| Preceded by | Patrick W. Murphy |
| Succeeded by | George Steele |
| Member of theWisconsin Senate from the4th district | |
| In office June 5, 1848 – January 9, 1850 | |
| Preceded by | Position Established |
| Succeeded by | John A. Eastman |
| Personal details | |
| Born | (1813-01-05)January 5, 1813 |
| Died | February 25, 1891(1891-02-25) (aged 78) Cobden, Illinois, U.S. |
| Resting place | Cobden Cemetery Cobden, Illinois, U.S. |
| Political party | Democratic(before 1848) Free Soil(1848–1854) Republican(1854–1872) Liberal Republican(1872) Greenback(1874–1884) Workingmen's(1879–1881) |
| Spouses | Mary P. White (died 1875)
|
| Children | 3 |
| Profession | Pioneer, farmer, politician |
Warren Chase (January 5, 1813 – February 25, 1891) was an American pioneer, farmer, reformer and politician. He served in the state senates ofWisconsin andCalifornia, and was a candidate forGovernor of Wisconsin in theelection of 1849.
Chase was born inPittsfield, New Hampshire, on January 5, 1813. He was the son of Susanna Durgin, who was unmarried at the time. His mother was maligned by the community and expelled from the church for giving birth out of wedlock, making it difficult to provide for herself and Warren. Warren's father was Simon Chase, who was married to Huldah Peaslee. Simon Chase fought in theWar of 1812 and died atPlattsburgh in the fall of 1814, when Warren was not yet two years old. His mother died only a few years later, when Warren was five.[1]
As a child, Warren lived briefly with aQuaker family near Catamount Mountain. But after his mother's death, he became a ward of David Fogg and his family. Warren later described this time as a miserable experience and compared his servitude to slavery. He did not receive an education with the Fogg family, and at age fourteen was still not able to read or write. It was at that age he ran away to his grandmother's home in Pittsfield. Warren's grandmother and other members of the community interceded on his behalf and he was transferred to the care of his paternal grandfather, Nathaniel Chase, where he received a proper education and upbringing.[1]
In 1834 he moved toMonroe, in theMichigan Territory, and then, in 1838, he moved to theWisconsin Territory, settling inKenosha (then known as "Southport").
In the fall of 1843 the FranklinLyceum of Southport began discussing the ideas of the French philosopherCharles Fourier and his American popularizerAlbert Brisbane.[2] Convinced of the applicability of Fourier's "Associationist" prescription, Chase committed himself to the emerging movement without reservation, organizing a series of preliminary meetings to draft a constitution for a local "phalanx."[2]: 192–193
On March 23, 1844, a formal meeting of phalanx supporters was held at the Southport village schoolhouse, officers were elected, and a group of three, including Warren Chase, were tapped astrustees of the phalanx.[2]: 193 A bond sale of $10,000 was approved and stock in the new enterprise began to be sold.[2]: 193 On May 8, 1844, they decided to purchase 1.25sections (800 acres) of government land,[2]: 193–194 located in a valley between two gentle hills. By that fall a total of 1.5 sections (960 acres) were purchased[2]: 194 which would becomeCeresco, Wisconsin (later merged intoRipon).
Chase helped foundRipon College. He was a supporter of thetemperance,abolitionist, andspiritualist movements and wrote books and articles.
He served in the two WisconsinConstitutional Conventions of 1846 and 1847 and was elected to the first Wisconsin Senate from4th Senate district as aDemocrat.[3] In1849, he was the candidate of the newly organizedFree Soil Party forGovernor of Wisconsin, coming in third behind Democratic incumbentNelson Dewey andWhigAlexander L. Collins.
After the dissolution of the Wisconsin Phalanx, he moved to Michigan in 1853, then to Missouri, where he was elected as a Presidential elector forHorace Greeley in the1872 United States presidential election.[4]
In 1876 he moved to California and settled inSanta Barbara, where he worked as editor of theIndependent. While in California he was elected to theCalifornia State Senate on theWorkingmen's Party ticket, serving from 1880 to 1883.[5] In 1880, he was a candidate forSenate President Pro Tempore, losing toRepublican George F. Baker by a margin of 15 to 22.[6] In1882, he ran forCongress as aGreenbacker.
Chase was a supporter offree silver,[7] anti-monopolism,[8] andChinese exclusion, although on the latter point he condemned racial violence like theSan Francisco riot of 1877.[9] When theCalifornia State Legislature convened in1881 to elect aU.S. Senator, Chase nominated economist and newspaper publisherHenry George. In his nomination speech, Chase eulogized George as follows:
"He has in knowledge of American and European history no superior in this State. He is a man who can be an honor to the State and nation and to the United States Senate, and an honor to himself; a man whose heart beats in sympathy with the great body of the people; a man who is eminently like unto that greatest of modern men—Abraham Lincoln; a man who, if the people were to select, would be selected as the champion of their rights; a man—a man who has already gained a national reputation as the ablest political economist of America, standing the peer of John Stuart Mill, Ricardo and Adam Smith, and all the writers of history on political economy."[10]
George only received two votes out of 40 cast in theState Senate; one from Chase, and the other from fellow Workingmen's SenatorJoseph C. Gorman.[11]
Warren Chase died inCobden, Illinois, in 1891, and was buried at Cobden Cemetery.[12][13][14]
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Media related toWarren Chase at Wikimedia Commons| Party political offices | ||
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| Party established | Free Soil nominee forGovernor of Wisconsin 1849 | Succeeded by |
| Wisconsin Senate | ||
| State government established | Member of theWisconsin Senate from the4th district June 5, 1848 – January 9, 1850 | Succeeded by |
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