The Portland daily press., 1864-12-08
Chief Justice Chase.

Chief JuBLlc6 OAaso'
President Lincoln has done rev acps tnae
reflect more honor upon his administrator
and uuon himself, than that OF appointing
SALMON P. CHASE to the vacant Chief JUS
t,cesbiu of the Supreme Court of the United
States. Many persons, who pretended to ex-
elusive information, have lately given forth,
that the personal relations subsisting between
Mr.. Lincoln and his late Secretary Of the
Treasury were such that the latter could new
or expect to receive SO high distinction at
the hands of the present executive. But
whatever may have been the private feelings
of the President, land he is too eminenay .
good-natured man to retain antipatnies VI
cherish resentments.) he has been TOO pa'rlo'-
ic to give heed to any suggestions OF sissi'y
or pique.
In this crisis and peril of the country, Mr..
Lincoln has felt the imperative necessity oi
calling into the public service, In every depart
ment. the most eminent capacity both military
and civil. He may have made mistakes in his
selections. He undoubtedly has taken upon
insufficient recommendation, and sustained in
responsible positions with too prolonged con-
fdence, men whose conspicuous Incompetent
cy has brought the Republic to the very verge
of ruin. But it can never be charged upon
him that these very selections were dictated
by personal or partisan preferences. In max
ing them he was deferring to a semi-hostile
sentiment among the people, which he wished
to conciliate.
In adjoining the Supreme Bench with the
judicial and statesmanlke eminence that has
given Mr. Chase reputation throughout the
country and throughout the world, he has not
only made an appointment fit to be made, but
one, the fitness of which has already been
spontaneously approved by the people. For
long before the decease Of the late Chief
Justice, Mr.. Chase was everywhere hailed as
his probable successor. Whoever has, since
the vacancy, made up list of candidates fer
the place, has put Mr.. Chase among them in
the first rank Nope who believed he would
mot be appointed, attributed his expected fail
ure to lack of the highest qualifications
Now that the appointment has been made, in
accordance with an almost universal anticipa-
ton, and of an earnest requirement from
many influential citizens, the administratlt n
will gain new confidence and respect. It has
shown itself able to discriminate and prefer
capacity and qualification; it has shown
due respect for what the responsible position
of the head of the judiciary Of great coun-
try required, and difference to the enlighten-
ed wishes of the loyal people that will be re-
ciprocated by the devotion with which it will
be sustained in the arduous task Of restoring
the Union and peace.
Mr.. Chase takes his conspicuous seat in Il g
vigor and maturity Of his powers, with ripe
experience, gathered In the various and re-
sponsible public trusts he has most ably dis
charged. With the very mblest beginnings,
apoor New England lad has become success
sively an accomplished lawyer, an eloquent
public speaker, an influential legislator, a SEN
ator, Governor of his own State, a success
full manager of the finances of q great nation
involved in gigantic civil war, and Chief
Justice Of the highest court of the Republic
and head Of one OF the coordinate depart
ments Of the general government.
Allying himself to causes and parties that
he deemed to be true and right, rather than to
those that commanded the popular applause
and that coerced the multitudes at the hour,
he has seen the better public sentiment of
his rejecting countrymen, the true, sober Sc.
cond thought of a virtuous and liberty-loving
people carryihim forward and upward to what
has been the very chief seat of conservatism
and reaction. 1t is a most significant indica-
ton Of the change wrought in the public SEN
timent by great revolution, that man
faithful from the first to the principles of anti
sldpery democracy should step into the seat,
whence so recently was promulgated the abhor-
rent bred Scott decision, quite ia keeping
with the aristocratic and inhumane maxims of
the Supreme bench for the last twenty years,
land that all the people should say amen
The same day the demon of slavery, exor-
cised from war-harrowed Maryland by the ge-
MUS Of Universal Emancipation, fled south
ward forever, the superannuated Chief lay dy-
ing. They vanished together-let us not be-
Ieve to common perdition. How fitting the
coincidence. He belonged to the old order,
wherein "black men had no rights which white
men were bound to respect A new order
comes, wherein men are taught by terrible
judgments the self evident truth they solemn
ly acknowledged in another hour Of national
peril, but forgot and denied in the intervening
years OF thrift and prosperity, that all men
haze an inalienable right to liberty. Stare
decisis is the Interchangeable maxim that /
dominates the bench. How shall the in
fexibleold judge standing paraylzed up /
on his own precedent over-rule himself ?
he cannot change; and when tie world
changes and the new heavens land the new
earth begin TO glow around him, the merci-
ful destinies permit him to depart aThe
Guard die,-they never surrenderp So with
sad stern face, he wraps his mantle about him
and vanishes into darkness, the clank of bro
ken letters ringing in his dying ears, and the
bon-ares of liberty from every hilltop Of his
own Maryland faring before his glazing eyes
Ring out slowly dying cause, II
Anoancient forms Of party strifes; 1
sing IN the noher modes Of life,
WIN s"eeter manners, purer laws
Judge Chase comes to the bench, his clear
convictions braced by strong will, that will
coerce the intellect of his colleagues. hiring.