Jonathan Chace (July 22, 1829 – June 30, 1917) was a United States Representative and Senator from Rhode Island. Born at Fall River, Massachusetts, he son of Harvey Chace and the grandson of Oliver Chace. In 1854, he married Jane C. Moon, and they had children: Anna H., Elizabeth M. and Susan A. (the latter deceased). He was also the nephew of famed 19th century abolitionist Elizabeth Buffum Chace and had himself been active in the Underground Railroad during his time in Philadelphia, where he operated a dry goods store.
He attended the public schools and Friends' School at Providence. He moved to Central Falls, Rhode Island and engaged in cotton manufacturing; he was a member of the Rhode Island Senate in 1876-1877 and was elected as a Republican to the Forty-seventh and Forty-eighth Congresses and served from March 4, 1881, to January 26, 1885, when he resigned.
Chace was elected as a Republican to the U.S. Senate to fill the vacancy caused by the death of Henry B. Anthony; he was reelected in 1888 and served from January 20, 1885, to April 9, 1889, when he resigned. While in the Senate he was chairman of the Committee on Civil Service and Retrenchment (Fiftieth and Fifty-first Congresses). He was president of the Phoenix National Bank of Providence, Rhode Island, and was interested in several manufacturing enterprises. Chace died in Providence in 1917; interment was in the North Burial Ground.
Famous quotes containing the word jonathan:
“There are obvious places in which government can narrow the chasm between haves and have-nots. One is the public schools, which have been seen as the great leveler, the authentic melting pot. That, today, is nonsense. In his scathing study of the nation’s public school system entitled “Savage Inequalities,” Jonathan Kozol made manifest the truth: that we have a system that discriminates against the poor in everything from class size to curriculum.”
—Anna Quindlen (b. 1952)