On the Campaign Trail

Abstract

Abstract In the aftermath of the Cincinnati riot, it became apparent that the Brinkerhoff candidacy was a move the Whig Know Nothings were pushing to cut short Chase’s political career or force him into their party. As Chase saw it this latter course was far more dangerous to the antislavery cause and to his own political ambitions. Though Brinkerhoff had a fine antislavery record as a congressman (one of the authors of what became known as the Wilmot Proviso), this splenetic lawyer from Mansfield, in north-central Ohio, was one of the few Democratic political leaders in the state who had openly joined the Know Nothing organization.