And he was ecstatic when he received word in February 1849 that Ohio lawyer and ardent Free Soiler Salmon P. Chase was elected to the U.S. Senate, cobbling together a coalition of Free Soil supporters and antislavery Democrats in the Ohio legislature to propel him to victory. Chase’s election “has given our cause so triumphant a triumph,” Sumner exclaimed. “I can hardly believe it!” Chase’s success seemed to be “the beginning of the end” of slavery, Sumner said in his congratulatory letter.
