{{Short description|American politician (1811–1896)}} {{Infobox officeholder | honorific_prefix = | name = Calvin C. Chaffee | honorific_suffix = | image = File:Calvin C. Chaffee.jpg | alt = | state1 = [[Massachusetts]] | district1 = {{ushr|MA|10|10th}} | term_start1 = March 4, 1855 | term_end1 = March 3, 1859 | predecessor1 = [[Edward Dickinson]] | successor1 = [[Charles Delano]] | birth_date = {{birth date|1811|8|28}} | birth_place = [[Saratoga Springs, New York]] | death_date = {{death date and age|1896|8|8|1811|8|28}} | death_place = [[Springfield, Massachusetts]] | spouse = Clara Nourse<br/>Eliza Irene Sanford | party = [[Know Nothing]]<br>[[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] | relations = | children = Emma Lovetta Wilder (Chaffee) (daughter)<br/>Clemens Clifford Chaffee (son)<br/>Henrietta Sanford King (Emerson) (stepdaughter) | alma_mater = [[Middlebury College]] | occupation = Physician | profession = | signature = | signature_alt = | website = | footnotes = | parents = Calvin Chaffee<br/>Elizabeth Hall }}

'''Calvin Clifford Chaffee''' (August 28, 1811 &ndash; August 8, 1896) was an American medical doctor and politician. He was an outspoken opponent of slavery.

==Life and work== Born in [[Saratoga Springs, New York]], Chaffee graduated from the medical school of [[Middlebury College]], [[Middlebury, Vermont]], in 1835. He settled in [[Springfield, Massachusetts]], where he began his medical practice.

In 1854, he was elected on the [[Know Nothing|American Party]] ticket to the [[Thirty-fourth United States Congress|Thirty-fourth Congress]] as part of the [[Know-Nothing|Know Nothing]] party sweep of the Massachusetts congressional delegation that year. An abolitionist who received an honorary degree from Amherst in the same ceremony as [[Charles Sumner]], he became a [[Republican Party (United States)|Republican]] and was reelected to Congress as such in 1856.

He was married to Clara Nourse (1813 – 1848) until her death in 1848.<ref>{{Cite web|title=Clara Nourse 1813-1848 - Ancestry®|url=https://www.ancestry.com.au/genealogy/records/clara-nourse-24-2r3hl7|website=www.ancestry.com.au|language=en-US|access-date=2020-06-01}}</ref> They had two children: a daughter, Emma Lovetta Wilder (Chaffee) (1838 – 1910), and a son, Clemens Clifford Chaffee (1841 – 1867).

In 1850, Chaffee married Eliza Irene Emerson (née Sanford) (1815 – 1903). Irene Emerson was the widow of Dr. John Emerson, the owner of the slave [[Dred Scott]]. She had a daughter, Henrietta Sanford King (Emerson) (1843 – 1919), from her first marriage. There is speculation <ref>Blaustein, pp 147</ref> that Chaffee advanced the [[Dred Scott v. Sandford|''Dred Scott'']] case as a test for slavery. However, contemporary reports have him discover from the ''Springfield Argus'' that his new wife owned the most famous slave in the world in February 1857, only a month before the [[Supreme Court of the United States|Supreme Court]] handed down the infamous [[Dred Scott v. Sandford|''Dred Scott'']] decision. Criticized nationwide for apparent hypocrisy, Chaffee immediately arranged for the return of Scott to his original owners, the Blow family, for emancipation.

Because of negative publicity from the Scott case, Chaffee did not seek reelection in 1858 and became Librarian of the [[United States House of Representatives|House of Representatives]] from 1860-1862. He then practiced medicine in Washington, D.C., until 1876, when he returned to Springfield. He died there in 1896 at age 84.

==References== {{reflist}}

==Bibliography== *{{cite book | author = Albert P. Blaustein, Robert L. Zangrando | year = 1991 | title = Civil Rights and African Americans: A Documentary History | url = https://archive.org/details/civilrightsafric00blau | url-access = registration | publisher = [[Northwestern University Press]] | location = Evanston, IL | isbn = 9780810109209 | id = 0810109204 }}

==External links== {{CongBio|C000270}} * [http://www.sos.mo.gov/archives/resources/africanamerican/scott/scott.asp Biography of Dred Scott] by Christyn Elley, Missouri State Archives *{{Find a Grave|7481822}}

{{s-start}} {{s-par|us-hs}} {{US House succession box | state=Massachusetts | district=10 | before=[[Edward Dickinson]] | after=[[Charles Delano]] | years=March 4, 1855–March 3, 1859}} {{end}}

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{{DEFAULTSORT:Chaffee, Calvin C.}} [[Category:1811 births]] [[Category:1896 deaths]] [[Category:Politicians from Saratoga Springs, New York]] [[Category:Abolitionists from Massachusetts]] [[Category:Middlebury College alumni]] [[Category:Politicians from Springfield, Massachusetts]] [[Category:Know-Nothing United States representatives from Massachusetts]] [[Category:Republican Party United States representatives from Massachusetts]] [[Category:19th-century United States representatives]]