The Rutland daily globe. [volume] (Rutland, Vt.) 1873-1877, 1873-09-18


of the Judges. lie has no more power or
authority than any other of the judges.
The opinion of Nathan Clifford, Ward
Hunt, or any other member of the court,
carries with 1t the same weight, power and
authority as that Of the Chief Justice. 1t
il only the difference Of n name. One Is
an Associate Justice" and the other
"Chicf Jnstlcc." Their duties are precisely
the same. The Chief Justice, when pre-
sent, prcsides in court and at the delibera-
tons and consultations of the judges
when absent, the oldest Associate Justice,
in term of service, takes his place and pre-
sides. He is, so to speak, merely figure
head or presiding officer We have called
attention to this view Of the matter to show
that, in reality, the same care, the same
dcliberation, and the same close scrutiny
should be observed in selecting each and
every member of tie court, as In the selec-
ton Of the Chief Justice. a Chief Justice
who stands preemineut as a lawyer and
jurist, whose reputation for integrity and
impartiality Ia without 4 blemish, and
whose very name would honor the
position more than the position would
honor him, would not give us the court
that we desire, or that we ought to have,
unless the other judges stood on the same
plain with him As an individual member
of the court, lie would he powerless for
good, "a well as harmless for evil, unless
he was sustained by majority of his asso-
cate7 Notwithstanding this, the country
and, perhaps, the world-haye come to
look upon the Chief Justice as more inn
portant than his associates and as repre-
scnting, in great degree, the honor Of the
nation and the purity of the judiciary, In
that which we have already said, we have
purposely omitted ali mention OF the one
upon TO perform different from his asso-
ciates. The constitution of the United
| States provides that when the President is
impeached and placed on trial, the "Chief
Justice shall plesidc' Such an impeach-
| ment never has occurred bat once in our
| history, and It's recurrence seems too re-
mote TO be taken into consideration, anu
we have not, therefore, particularly re-
! fegrcd to it before
As member of the coDu, and in the
/ eyes Of the world, as It's embodiment it is
! proper and necessary that -reat care should
/ be taken in the selection There IS a sub
stantial agreement, upon all sides, that the
! incumbent Of the Office should be lawyer
and jurist OF national reputation, whose
very name would command the respect of
| the country as the possessor Of these quill
flcations. lie should be a man, too, whose
moral character, personal integrity and
| private life should not only be blameless,
bur above and beyond all liability to sus-
| picion or reproach. We dttcrly dissent,
however, from the idea that he should
never have taken part in politics, in its
true and broadcast meaning. We hold it to
be an essential requisite for the office, that
the appointcc should be q statesman and if
he has filled political position so much the
better, II it so he that he has kept his gar
ments above contamination from the slime
and dirt, which so much. in these days,
pertains to such pursuits We have been
particularly fortunate, heretofore, in all of
our judges, and especially so with our
Chief Justices yet, with n possible eNcep-
ton, they have all been known az states
men, politicians and Office holders. Take
the last two. Roger b. Taucy and Salmon
Z. Chase They We're active politicians
and statesmen We're the ffynrtes of the
party with which they affiliated, and were,
repeatedly, elected and appointed to Office
by their partisans. To their political opin-
ions, too, they owed their appointment,
Questions of politics and Of constitutional
construction are constantly coming before
the court for adjudic alton, ard it is essen
tial that the men who are to decide the
same should he familiar Herewith. II
seems to us that the claim that Judge OF
this court should not have taken part III
politics, could only be exceeded in absurd
ity by the further claim that he should
never have practiced law. All Other
things being equal, we have no doubt tho
President will appoint member of the
dominant party to this posii'n, rs any and
all Of our former presidents would have
done We trust the ermine may be placed
upon the Shoulders Of William VI. Eyarts
of New York, as the one man answering
every possible requirement