Green-Mountain freeman. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1844-1884, 1874-01-01
Unfit for Chief-Justice.

George III. Williams Is AttOrney-Gene-
raj of the United States, and his depart
ment, the " Department of Justice" has
a contingent fund. That is, while he has
Il salary and provision is made for the va
rious expenses of the department which
can be foreseen, there is besides sum OF
money set apart by government for meet
ing such demands as even an . estimate -
maker cannot reach with his long-visioned
eye. The various appropriations helped
out by this fund, are intended to keep this
particular branch of the government in
good running order; in fact to keep the
wheels of the car of justice moving. Mr..
Williams, it appears, COMPOUNDED the gov
eminent with himself, and thought the
money was for the carriage of the chief
Justice that he thought was to he.
In plain terms this is what the attorney
general has done: he has bought $1,000
carriage, - landaulet," with government
money, put his private monogram thereon,
and appropriated it for the use of himself
anu WIZ 1t IL USttl IN lIltili
Just as though it was paid for by them.
The horses that draw it We're paid for out
of the same contingent fund, and it is said
that the driver and footman figure on gov
eminent pay-rolls. Though this last may
be untrue the fact is undisputed that the
carriage was "sponged" out of the PEG
pies money.
1t is urged by the friends of this candi-
date for the most high office of chief-ius-
tice, that this is a small matter; that cabi-
net officers have done this sort of thing
before, and are doing it now; that prece-
dent gives its sanction, and that custom
affirms it to be proper. 1t may be a small
matter as to the amount, but petty larceny
is more despicable after all than highway
robbery; and custom and precedent com
bined cannot sweeten the unsavOry odor OF
the little bill for the landaulet which Mr.
Edmunds is said to have unearthed among
the vouchers at the Treasury Department
If it is the custom for cabinet officers anC
other Washington officials to have salaries
and then add whatever their conscience,
and the money within reach will permit
people want to know it. As the matter
stands it looks as though this administra
ton is disgraced by some of the most mis-
cradle forms of petty, pilfering that cal
be conceived. The " absorption = of pub
lie funds for private purposes the countr,
is in no mood to submit to, and whoeve
has been engaged in these meannesse
should be called to account. Mr. William
is no honor to the Cabinet, and his reten
ton therein would be blunder after tn
revelations of the last few days.
But instead of turning him out of til
Cabinet the President still keeps his nam
before the Senate in nomination for tn
highest judicial position. As conse
quence, this Mr.. Williams is, by the judi
ciary committee, hung up to dry during tn
holidays, and we have a spectacle tha
is far from pleasing, however instructiv
the good sense of that committee ma
finally make it.
Besides all this, it is very evident til;
the nomination of Mr.. Williams is distast,
full to the bar of the principal States, an
to none more than to those who have see
him. pitted against some of the really gre;
lawyers of the land. The most that h:
ever been said of him is, that he migl
make respectable chief justice II
misrepresentation of public funds to h
private use, in an endeavor to make Il tir
appearance in the society of the capita
has forbidden hereafter the application
the term - respectable - which his talen
might otherwise have obtained for him.
There are serious charges made again
him by Oregon politicians; we know not
ing of their truth OF falsehood, and ca
as little, for the revelations as to his co
duct in Washington have filled the cou
try with disgust, and marked him as n
the man to be placed at the head of O
Supreme Court.
President Grant would greatly please
vast majority of his countrymen if
would give up his bad choice. withdra
the nomination of Mr.. Williams, and sci
in the name of some man who is real
eminent in the law, and who has clear DE
ceptions of the distinctions between "mi