Ashtabula weekly telegraph. [volume] (Ashtabula, Ohio) 1853-1873, 1866-09-15

right promptings of his own reason and
good sense. lie saw mtuitively the inn
portanee of the Bench being in close
harmony with the Bar--each entertain
ing for the other the highest confidence
and respect. Upon this platform, con-
structed in his cool and considerate mo-
mcnts, we wish that Judge Chaffee had
continued to stand. Had he done so, the
unpleasant controversy that has arisen
between Bench and Bar, would have been
avoided. Those expressions of lack of
confidence in him--always injurious to
the reputation of man, and never made
with reference to any individual, by high
minded, honorable citizens, unless requir-
cd for the fuller vindication of justice
and right, would never have been publish
ed and declared, the tendency of which
has been to startle and stagger every
thinking and impartial mind. We eregret,
as every right-minded, honorable man
must regret, that even one man should
find it in his heart to declare that Judge
Chaffee lacked the honesty and integrity
requisite to faithful and impartial dis
charge of the duties of the position to
which he aspires. What, then, must be
our feelings-and the feelings of the cool,
considerate masses of the people, when a
large number of intelligent citizens,
whose position and occupation have Civ
en- them superior advantages for deter
mining the qualification of a man for a
given position, over their own signatures,
publish and declare to the world, that
they have no confidence in his integrity?
Life, property, reputation-aH that
men esteem valuable in this world, are
subjects of adjudication in our courts. Is
it trifing matter, then-the selection
and elevation of the man to preside there
in? Without integrity, without honesty,
without incorruptibility in the Judge,
every interest of the citizen is in jeop-
ardy.
So vast are the interests to be protect
ed, SO responsible the position, so nice the
duties to be discharged, it seems to us
that every man might rather distrust his
fitness for the place, than rush with mad
haste towards it.
Because it is position of such vast
and varied responsibilities, the office of
Judge has been ever regarded as among
the most honorable. No higher compli-
ment can be paid to any man, than that
he be singled out from among the mem
bers of the bar by his associates of the
legal profession, as part of the people,
and by the people themselves, and assign
ed, by their mutual partiality, to the high,
honorable and responsible position of
Judge. 1t seems to us that there is a
glaring impropriety in aspiring to the po-
sition in any other way. In giving ut
terance to this sentiment, we only declare
the deliberate conclusion of every intelli-
gent citizen.
In the inception of the canvass for his
successor, these were the declared senti-
mcnts of Judge Chafee himself. How
infinitely better for him to have adhered
to them. So long as he saw the shadow
of chance to receive the endorsement
and recommendation of his former asso-
ciates of the bar, he stood squarely upon
this platform of propriety and right but
when frankly informed that he would not
be named by the bar for denomination and
reelection by the people, with mad haste
he came down from that high and honor
able position.
In doing so, he has proven to every one
cognizant of the fact, that instability is
one defect in his character. The act it.
self, proclaims in language unmistakable,
that his promise viii not be sacred, where
its violation may seem to promise the ad-
vancement of his interests.
Eleven years ago, when by violation
of plighted faith, he had secured to himself
the prestige of nomination for the office
he so msanely seeks to-day, the people
administered to him rebuke at the polls
such as, in their good judgment, the hien-
BUSINESS of the offence demanded.
Graver reasons are urged against his
qualification and fitness for the position
now, than men could or dare urge then.
Why is this =? Who can tell better than
the men who know him best and have
been brought most in contact with him in
social and business relations? Going
back in the past, tell us, citizens of this
Judicial District, when before, in all the
time of our existence, the members of the
bar, as a unit almost, have declared their
lack of confidence in Judge. Tell us,
ye conductors of the press, both free and
subsidized, when you were ever called up
on before, to publish to the world the re-
cord of want of integrity in any man
about to retire from the Bench.
Do you not know that all his predeces-
sors have come down from the Bench and