The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1874-01-22
THURSDAY, JANUARY %, 1874.

GSS" W publish elsewhere In this week
paper, the correspondence touching the
withdrawal of Caleb Cushing's nomination
for the Chief Justiceship. from the Senate.
We regret that this withdrawal was rendered
necessary, for we are satisfied that better
selection for the position could hardly have
been made. Even those who were loudest
in condemnation of the nomination were
compelled to admit Gen. Gushing legal fit
hess, and based their opposition almost if
not quite altogether on the fact that he was
not, or had not been, close Repullcan
And yet the political republicansm of some
of these very objcctors, would hardly bear
the test of scrutiny for the last twelve years.
In view of the idea advanced in President
Grants last annual message, that political
partizanship was well nigh obliterated
throughout the country. We had hoped that
the Senate would have buried recollection of
the past, and agreed to meet all men
squarely on the present. But not so. More
than a decade, ia Gen. Gushing case, was
skipped over-his invaluable services to the
pertaining to reconstruction and our dues
from foreign powers were ignored, and moth
ing considered but the facts that he was not
an abolitionist, and had acted with the
Democratic party prior to the rebellion.
Capacity and general fitness was thrown out
OF the count altogether good man must
be sacrificed and the country deprived of the
services of most excellent Judge, that the
enyy or hate Of the Simon Pures of the Sen
ate might be pandcred to.
1t is said that the chief cause of the Scna-
torial rebellion against the nomination was
an old letter of Gen Gushing to jefferson
Davis, which was exhumed from the rebel
archives now in the War Department.
This letter is attached to the correspondence,
and each reader can, for himself, judge of lis
contents Is that letter an evidence of a
want of loyalty? At the very time that
letter was written, other gentlemen now oc-
cupying high position in the Republican
1r,nks were acting in concert with Gen. Cush-
sng in endeavorng to stem the tide of rebel
lion which was overwhelming the country,
aud it is more than limited that search
among those same archives will reveal
other letters from other pens infinitely more
damaging to the loyalty of their authors.
The first gun fired on Fort Sumpter however,
asa better touchstone as to the standing of men
as patriots, and we venture the assertion,
without fear of serious contradiction, that
no man, both by deed and speech, stood more
squarely, as a loyal man, before the coun-
dry. than did Gen. Gushing.
But it cannot be that the Senate thought
That letter sufficient cause for their rebel
Lon The TriJat.,e, vehement opponent of
III Cushing's nomination denounces it as a
drifting matter, unworthy of consideration,
and the later action Of the Senate, in the
confirmation of Judge Hughes as the sue
cessor of Judge Underwood, deceased, to
% le uf the District Judgesbip's of Virginia
must have looked upon it in the same light
Judge Hughes fought the Union throughout
the entire rebellion, and in politics has been
50 vacillating sincc-irst Republican and
then Democrat-that is hard to-day 20 tell
which phase of his creed is uppermost. We
Jlve no fault to find with his appointment,
for he may make an excellent Judge and we
Lclicye in letting bygones be bygoDes, but we
cannot help regretting that as he has been
confirmed, the Senate did not hesitate before
slaughtering more certain patriot and
jurist who would have honored the position
for which he had been nominated.