Nashville union and American. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1868-1875, 1873-05-11
Is THIS A REPRESENTATIVE GOV
EMINENT?

The death Of Chief Justice Chase and
speculatioDs IS to his successor cali 10 mind
q condition Of affairs in references to the
Supreme and other courts Of the United
States anomalous in the history of the couI-
try, condition, in our view, lamentable
and to be regretted by all who, as we do,
earnestly desire the coming Ct the day when
the sections SO recently battling for diver
gent views as to the character and scope Of
the constitutional compact which binds the
States together shall be reunited in spirit,
as well as in letter, in full accord and SYM
pathy, each with the other, working out the
nations destiny.
Our national government is, in theory, a
government by the people, not of one State
or of half the States, but by the people of
all the States. In theory, ours is Demo
cratic and representative government, in
which all the people Of all the States,
through their representatives, rule in every
department of national puissance. This
representation should, and in theory does,
extend not only to the Legislature, but
in equal degree TO the co-ordinste, Judicial
and executive departments Of the Federal
Government. From the foundation of the
Government up to these latter days
this CONSTITUTIONAL RIGHT of all tn @
people of all the States to representation
in the Cabinet of the President, and in the
Federal judiciary and on the Supreme
Bench of the Nation, has been recognized
and acted upon. No so now. No single
representative has the South in the Cabinet
of the President or in the Supreme Court.
Not only this, but all over the South men
Lave been appointed to the Circuit and
District Judgcships of the United States
who were, at the time of their appoint
ment, citizens of remote States.
To-day the South is represented neither
in the Circuit and District Courts of the
United States, with rare exceptions, whose
jurisdiction is within the Southern States,
or in single instance in the Supreme
Court of the Nation.
True it is that among the pronounced
adherents of the dominant party, men quail
flied 10 sit on the Supreme Bench are not
numerous in the South. Yet there are
great lawyers among us-who are not and
never can be blind partizans of any party
who, if appointed to any position, would do
honor to themselves, their States, and the
whole country; men who would in no respect
dim the lustre reflected en- the States South
10y Marshal and bis illustrious confreres
from the same section. We, for our part,
hsve long since given up all hope that the
PRESENT appointing power will ever come TO
act towards the people of the South
N the high and 'n-psrtizsn tone
which would induce it to select a
man from the South for any federal sp-
continent becsuse of his intrinsic fitness
Jor the place or upon any other than mar
low partizan considerations. Closing, we
desire to ask an impartial answer to this
question. Is this government of ours, as at
present administered, really and in any
true sense Of the word representative gov
eminent of all the people, when, as is now
The case, the entire Southern half of the
countrylis notrepresented by single individ
ual in two of the coordinate departments o,
1. government?