George P. Chase was a supporter of the Union cause during the U.S. Civil War.
Biographical information derived from the collection.
This autograph essay by George P. Chase, a Union sympathizer, was written during the U.S. Civil War (1864) and criticizes the Confederacy on what he calls "the madness of rebellion."
In this essay Chase criticizes the Confederate cause and attempts to demonstrate its "base madness". He begins with denunciation of South over the practice of slavery and destruction of the union of states. He then points to some of the faulty assumptions made by the South before and during the war. He lists these assumptions as being the belief that there would be a large swell of support for Southern secession in the North and that France and Great Britain, nations that had already outlawed slavery, would give aid to the Confederacy, an entity whose society is based on the practice. Chase also criticizes the rebels for turning to American Indians, who he refers to as "painted savages" to prey on their fellow countrymen.