New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1874-01-12
THE PRESIDENTS CRITERION.


1t is highly probable that by the time the va
cancy at the head of the Supreme Court is filled,
the Republican party will have learned certain
truths in regard to morals and expediency III
politics. and in regard to the personal charac-
terisiics of the President, which years OF pre-
cept would never have taught them. When
Judge Williams was nominated, even his
patent unfitness did not seem enough to defeat
him. If he had been voted upon the day the
nomination was sent i'll, he would have been
confirmed. An objection caused delay, and this
gave an opportunity for the expression OF
public opinion which made the confirmation
impossible. When, on Friday last the name
of Mr.. Cushing was sent in to the Senate, the
general sentiment of Washington, always in
clined to take an official and acquiescent
tone, was that although the nomination
was unexpected and not unobjectiOnable,
it was not likely that any serious opposition
would be made to it. BY the time the Senate
comes together to-day, the fallacy OF that
opinion will be made manifest. The general
response of indignant protest which this
nomination has elected throughout the cOun-
try cannot but have its effect upon the loyal
and sorely-perplexed patricians who have the
matter in hand. We do not say the Senate
will do its duty and reject the nomination,
leaving to the President the responsibility of
making better one. The fear of a worse
thing may induce them to accept this; the
apprehension of the Presidents anger may
have its effect upon the more ignoble spirits.
There are some whose names are above re-
proach, and whose motives are above ques-
ton, who will cOnscientiOusly support the
nomination. But the mass of the Republican
members of the Senate, placed between the
upper and neither milestone of the Presidents
will and the disapprobation of the country,
are suffering the tortures of a mingled anxiety
and disappointment.
There is no reason whatever for the disap
pointment. There is nothing in the civil career
of Gen. Grant, up to this time, which should
make his action in the matter OF the Chief
Justiceship cause for surprise to his intelli-
gent supporters. He has never shown any
sense of responsibility to the country, or even
TO his party, in his important appointments.
He considers them his own. sort OF per-
ouisite to the position which was conferred
upOn him for his services in the war. He re-
CARDS advice before an appointment, or criti-
cism after it, as alike impairment and super
fiuous. This is as far as possible from any
thing like Cesarism. He is perfectly satisfied
with the place he occupies but he wishes to
use il as he likes. He wants no new powers or
| responsibilities. He greatly prefers an increase
of salary to an increase of prerogative That
very lack of Imagination which units him
| for a tyrant also units him for making
A proper use of his constitutional Of
fee. He cannot see anything except with
his ewes man out of his sight ceases to
exist for him. He stocked his Cabinet with
personal friends. Every vacancy which occurs
he fills on the premises. When Henry Clews
Is in Washington and the Earrings are in Lon
con, the Earrings cannot stand comparison for
q moment Sickles in Washington is his
fayorite partisan, but when he is in Madrid it
costs nothing to break him. Mr. Williams was
nominated because of the Presidents intimacy
with him and for no other reason. When that
nomination failed, there were sanguine people
who thought there was now chance that some
man eminent for character and for legal rank,
some man stainless and irreproachable, might
be named. 1t was not in reason to hope for
such a result. Gen. Grant could not, in Obedi-
ence to the laws of his own organization, APP
point man whose name had been suggested
by those who had opposed Mr.. Williams. To
nunjsb the Senate and the country and to
oblice at the same time an agreeable and ser
yiceable friend, he caught Mr.. Gushing as he
was packing his portmanteau for Spain, and
| named him for Chief-Justice He never did a
more characteristic thing i'll his life.
| However the incident may end in the Sen
ate, it is to be- hoped that the lesson it teaches
may be needed by those men of common sense
who still believe in the worth and Importance
of strict partisan organizations. The election
of merely "avaiahlc' candidates to high Off
cial position. independent of all considerations
of personal fitness, is more disastrous to the
party which elects them than it is to the
country at large. No one ever regarded Gen.
| Grant as the best man in this country for
| President. Yet he was nominated twice be-
cause his partisans thought he would "run
"well,n and preserve the party organization
| intact His election was urged by cOnscien-
tious Republicans on the ground that it was
necessary for the protection of those cOnsti-
| tutiOnal guarantees by which the results of
| the war were secured. By virtue of defects
| inherent in his character. which were as well
known last year as they are known now, he
| has taken an attitude in regard to the most
| important act of his term which bids fair to