The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1867-07-25

laSt issue seems utSposeu " ue iit1iS |
catechetical, and anxious to derive infor
nation from us on toptics which he evi-
IDENTIFY lacks the desire to investigate for
himself, aud, in this connection, takes
exceptions to statement Of ours drawn
out by comparison of the relative merits
of the two candidates for the Supreme
Bench. We spoke of Mr.. Sharswood
and Mr.. Williams from political stand
point, and in view of the influence which
their peculiar political predictions had
had on their Judicial decisions, when the
country's life was in danger from the war
which the principles of the party to
which Mr.. Sharswood belonged had
brought upon it. In this view we said,
as the Democrat quotes: =" Numberless
are the decisions of Judge Sharswood,
which prompted by ideas which acknowl-
edged only state of profound peace, in
the face of cruel war, would have
given aid and comfort to the enemy, and
embarrassment to the country, but for
the interposition of a higher power than
that which his judicial commission be-
slowed upon him."
That our neighbor cannot comprehend
the point here made is certainly no fault
of ours. We made it plain enough for
common comprehension, and regret that
his uncommon comprehension fails to per-
ceive it. If he chooses to merge the poll
tician into the Judge, and mistake opin-
ions which were decisions In embryo, for
decisions reversed, contrary to the plain
intent of our language, it is a misfortune
of his, or a fault, which we have no desire
to control. The points with which Judge
Sharswood met the war were evidently
the same points which the Democratic
party and its leaders shouldered and car
ried through the war, to their own polit-
ical destruction, and to the final overthrow
of their partizan friends South, who be-
gan war upon an assured hope of moral
and physical support from the Northern
Democracy.
The anti-coercion policy was emphat-
ically creation of Democracy. 1t found
an advocate in Buchanan, Judge Black
Woodward, Sharswood, and the leaders
f generally. If it was principle at all, il
: was principle which had law for its
basis, and, as its advocate, Judge Shars
wood, if honest as we believe him to be
on the bench would have given it the
weight and influence of decision. TC
have done so would have given FaiC
and comfort to the enemy" A higher
authority decided otherwise, and aHti-co
ercion was made to yield to the doctrine
of coercion, and the country was saved.
Following up this policy of coercion
in the same spirit in which it was conceiv
ed, when the legal tender question came
before the Court, of which Judge Shars
wood was President Judge, if he had MOI
been oUerruled by his associates and by
the Bench Of the country, almost en- masse
the country would have been embarrassed
in its finances, and the enemy aided and
comforted by decision adverse to the
legality of the legal tenders; and so toe
with the raising of armies by draft, the
emancipation of the slaves, and every
other measure demanded to be employed
for the safety of the Government On all
these his mind contained but the refec.
tion of other minds minds which could
imagine no suitable line of division for
the Union but one to run north of Penn.
sylvania, and which during the whole
progress of the war could see no legal
power to prevent wicked sacrifice of the
Union upon the alter of bad mems pas.
sions, and which to this day can find
no law to punish those bad men for their
. rebellion.
1t was these among the many other OF
Judge Sharswood's decisions to which we
alluded, and to which the whole tenor OF
our article proves conclusively that we
|. alluded. We could not have alluded to
any other, for thank God, the occasion
for siding in with Woodward, Black
Buchanan & Co., was met with positive
negative from his patriotic associates,
Judges Stroud and Hare, who, if they
could not reUerse, had at least the power
to oUerrute and render nugatory the mis-
chief which his decisions would have
worked. Instead, then, of dealing in
vague insinuations," as the Democrat
has it, our allusion amounted to an open
reference to what was stubbornly patent
to every one who has at all kept pace with