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(POLITICS.) CHASE, CALVIN.
Autograph Letter Signed to Hon.
Benjamin Franklin Jones, Chairman of the Republican National Committee.
Single page, written on both sides on his Washington Bee letterhead; creases where folded.
Washington, 6 October 1884
[400/600]
A letter with excellent content. Chase asks Benjamin Franklin Jones, Chairman of the Republican
National Committee to intercede with Secretary of War Robert Lincoln, Chase’s employer, so that
Chase may have 35 days paid leave to campaign for James Blaine in Maryland and Virginia. Calvin
William Chase was born in 1854 to a free black family in Washington, D.C. Raised in integrated
neighborhoods Chase attended local area schools including Howard University Law School. Chase is
best remembered for his nearly forty years (1882-1922) of service as editor of the Washington Bee.
Chase was a dedicated “Race Man,” using the power of his newspaper to inform and influence both
the African American community as well as the general Washington establishment on all issues relat-
ing to African Americans. Chase’s Washington Bee was published weekly from 1882 through 1922.