Cleveland morning leader. [volume] (Cleveland [Ohio]) 1854-1865, 1864-12-23

almost unanimous, and that of all shades
of Unionism st the Capital was equally
so.
Mr.. Lincoln's reception of all this
pressure was Characteristic. To the last,
as the Chicago preachers can testify, he
argued against the very proclamation of
Emancipation he had already decided to
issue. 1t was precisely in the same way,
one is constrained to believe, that he
argued against Mr.. Chase, reeiting to one
things that people had told him that Mr..
Chase had said at Newport; telling an
other that Ohio could hardly claim two
places in the Supreme Bench urging upon
third the impropriety Of eleYsting a
Presidential aspirsnt to the highest ju-
dical position in the land. Such talk ad-
ded to the alarm almost universally felt
here for the three days preceding the sp-
pointment, and by consequence redoubled
the pressure for Mr.. Chase but those who
knew Mr.. Lincoln best, remembered his
habit of drawing out opinions by profess
ing to take the opposite side from that to
which his convictions have led him, and
still regarded the affair as certain.
THE INEVITABLE CONCLUSION.
The facts above named can lead to but
one conclusion. Mr.. Lincoln had all
along intended that Mr.. Chase should be
offered the Chief Justiceship. That he
would have been glad to make Place
for Montgomery Blair on tho Bench is
more than probable; and that on person.
al grounds he would have been glad Of
reasons that would enable him to avoid
appointing Mr.. Chase is possible. The
natural reluctance these personal consider
ations inspired doubtless delayed the sp-
pointment somewhat; but I believe the
only actual effect of any of the tremen-
dous pressure for Mr.. Chase was to end
this delay and precipitste, at the urgent
representations of some Ohio gentlemen,
the appointment on the Tuesday morning
on which it was sent IN. 1t might per-
maps nave peen more gracefully made
some weeks before but for this pressure
it might possibly have been delayed a
little longer; but in either case believe
it was certain.
The President has, since the appoint
ment, spoken very frankly of his reasons
for it. "I could not fail" he has ssid, to
recognize Mr.. Ohase's fitness for the place,
or the popular desire that he should be ele-
waited to it. I wanted man certain to sus-
tain the emancipation and financial policy
of the Administration. I could not ask
man beforehand how he would decide such
questions if he were appointed. The man
who would answer an interrogatory of the
kind would be unfit for the place. But
kllelO where hr. Chase stood, and felt sure
that all these great questions would, in his
hands, be safe And could not forget
how had asked Mr.. Chase to come into
my Cabinet for four years, when he was
Just elected to term Of six years In the
Senate; and how he cana almost against
his viii, and against the advice of his
friends and the papers of Cincinnati" It
was q generous statement of cogent rea-
sons,
Mr.. Chase had been advised that the
appointment would undoubtedly be set
tied, one way or the other, before his arri-
val; but every effort to inform him Of the
settlement failed. Schuyler Colfax tele-
graphed him st Philadelphia, and again
telegraphed the conductor of the train on
which he was coming, but the dispatches
in both cases missed him. Next to the
Presidents magnanimity the plessantest
feature of the whole affair was the last.
Mr.. Chase reached his own door in sbso-
, Lutte ignorance Of the days work, and re-
ceived his first intimation Of his appoint
ment and confirmation as Chief Justice of
the Supreme Court of the United States
from the lips of his own daughter, Mrs.
Sprague AGATE.