The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1874-01-15

Caleb Gushing the second nominee OF
to pass the ordeal of the Senate and, a. in
the case of Attorney General Williams the
Presidents first choice, the name of the dis
appointed favorite has been Withdrawn. In
the one case the professional attainments,
capabilities and experience of the man were
held by Senate largely composed OF able
lawyers as insufficient 10 meet the high re-
quirements of the office, while in the other case
the obnoxious political antecedents opinions
| and affiliations of the individual were held
| by Senate overwhelmingly republican as
utterly disquaIifying him for loyal interpre-
| tation of the thirteenth, fourteenth and IF
teenth amendments of the constitution. AS
republican the record Of Williams was all that
could be desired but he failed upon his de-
ficiencies as a lawyer and jurist. As a law
yer and jurist the qualifications Of Gushing
we're undisputed, but he failed upon his
record as a party politician. Had Williams
been as learned in the Law AZ Gushing. or had
Cushing possessed the party record of
Williams, the one or the other, as the first
choice of the President for Chief Justice,
would doubtless have been promptly con-
frmed
The professional requirements Of the posi-
ton and the political conditions demanded by
the Senate will have, then, to be considered
by the President in his third choice for the
important Office in question Failing with an
orthodox republican who is not first class
lawyer, and failing with first class lawyer
who has not the record of q genuine repubG-
can, General Grant is required by the Senate
to cast about him for q sound and reliable
radical who is a first class lawyer, who will
supply thu deficiencies of Williams and be
free from the objections to Cushing. Really
this duty is very perplexing. 1t places
General Grant between the two horns
of a dilemma from which we can
only hope he may have lucky escape. We
apprehend, however. that during the last six
months he has not given that thoughtful at
tention to this matter which its high impor-
lance should have exscted. Otherwise the
friendly hints, warnings and suggestions from
the public press, thrown out from time to
time since the death of the lamented Chase,
in reference to the Presidents duty in his
selection of a Chief Justice, would have
borne better fruit than Williams or Cushing.
The frequent and earnest discussions of the
subject submitted to the readers of the HERALD
through its editorial columns for months
past, were not given in any spirit of idle van
ity or foolish presumption, but from an hon.
est desire to assist the President in escaping
the shoals and rocks upon which, haphazard,
he has drifted, with Williams and with
Cushing.
The President, in his Message of yesterday
to the Senate, says that since the nomination Of
Caleb Cushing for Chief Justice information
has reached me which induces me to withdraw
his nomination for the highest Judicial Office
in the government" And what was this in
formation? Some two years ago Southerner
| of the name of Pickett, who had secreted
! somewhere in Canada three black trunks of
ssrebel archives" with the safe keeping of
which he had been charged, was seized with
the brilliant idea that as whatever the DISPOSE
ton he might make Of those papers, it would
be all the same to the defunct government Of
the ''lost cause" they could fairly be dis
posed of as merchandise. He entered into
negotiations accordingly with the govern
ment of the United States for the sale of those
three black trunks aforesaid and their precious
| historical contents, and finally sold and deiv-
cred them to the War Office for the sum of
thousand dollars per trunk. Among those
archives papers have been found of great value,
SUCH for instance, as have served to defeat
number of Southern war claims brought
in against the government; and lastly
the information" in reference to Caleb
Cushing to which General Grant refers
was fshed out of one of those black trunks.
1t was found in that unfortunate letter from
Mr.. Cushing of March q, 1861, to Jefferson
Davis, the production of which on Tuesday
night last caused such CONSERVATION in the
republican Senatorial caucus to the supporters
of Gushing that they Immediately abandoned
him. Next the Committee on the Judiciary,
which in the outset had promptly reported in
favor of his confirmation for Chief Justice,
were required by the caucus to wait upon the
President and to submit to him this awful
discovery, and the resulting necessity of with
drawing this obnoxious nomination.
The President explains to the Senate and
withdraws the obnoxious nomination Mr..
| Gushing explains in a mastery manner to the
President and asks to be withdrawn and
| the awful shadow of the Southern Con-
federacy, which lowered upon the Senate,
being thus removed, all is comparatively quiet
again upon the Potomac. The question
recurs, who will be or who should be General
| Grants third choice for Chief Justice? The
! Senate demands a nominee who, with the
requisite qualifications in the law and the