The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1867-05-28
Chase on Underwood.
From the World.


1t is well understood, we believe, that Chief
Justice Chase was indebted for his nomination
to the Supreme Bench much more to the fears
than to the respect of the late lamented Mr..
Lincoln. To Chick man upstairs was long
ago pronounced by Sir Robert Walpole pro-
foundly wise maxim in political rivalry, and
what he believed he practised in the case Of
Pulteney, whom he extinguished as a COM
petltor in the Commons by clapping coronet
on him among the Peers. Possibly Mr.. Lin
coin had never heard of Sir Robert Wal
poles tactics, but he applied them admi-
rably in the case of Mr.. Chase; and it has
even been limited by persons of comical turn
OF mind that Mr.. Chase has neither enter
tanned very lively feeling of gratitude
towards the late leader of his party in acknow-
ledgment OF the preferment bestowed upon
hlm, nor hesltated to express upon occasion
some pretty trenchant opinions as to the
general candOr and amenability of the Presi-
dent to whose names, as DR.. Butler persist
emily maintains, a mighty nation thought it
necessary to sacrifice the life of an innocent
woman.
But 1t hardly needs any reference to the
political relations between Mr.. Chase and Mr..
Lincoln to explain the crushing contempt
with which the former has Just "come down.
upon another of the latters judicial APP
made Mr.. Chase a Chief Justice Just to get
him off the Presidential track, he is believed
to have nominated Busteed to the Federal
bench in Alabama, and Underwood to the
same bench in Virginia, simply to relieve
himself from the Importantly of two bores.
The future historian may perhaps be able to
palliate these appointments by revealing the
fact that Mr.. Lincoln when he made them
expected the secession to succeed, and so
imagined that as nobody would ever be tried
before either Busteed or Underwood, no great
harm would be done by them to persons or
property. Account for it as we may, how
ever, the nomination of such men to such
posts Will remain an inefiaceable stigma upon
Mr.. Lineoln's memory; and since Chief Justice
Chase has recently helped to brand this
stigma III little deeper, it is but charitable
to him to say that he is really too good
a lawyer to have forbone doing what he has
| done.
In the Supreme Court at Washington
Wednesday last, Chief Justice Chase granted
writ of error in the case of Joseph
Bruin, whose property had been seized
and sold under decree of the District
| Court OF Virginia, Judge Underwood
presiding. The writ was granted on the fol-
lowing grounds
First Thalthe District Court condemned and
sold The absolute estate of the petitioner In and
| to the property, which Judgment it was beyond
/ the power of the Court TO pronounce.
Second. That the condemnation of the pro
perty was for treason, OF which the party
| could not be adjudged guilty except by a'tind-
| ing of jury.
! Third. That the proceedings were in Admi
| rally, when they should have been on the com
mon law side of the Court, by information, and
not by libel.
1t is difficult to see what remains of Judge
| Underwood after such revision of his Judi
cial merits as is implied in these grounds"
of the Chief Justice. The question, what
| shall be done about monument in this city
| to the memory of our martyred President,
having been just now brought forward again,
we submit that ii will be oonsonant with JUS
tice and the truth of history that "Judge"
| Underwood's decision and Chief Justice
Chase's Endorsement be inscribed upon the
cenotaph.