The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1874-01-20

The sudden blight which fell upon Mr. Cush
ing's prospects for the Chief Justiceship put al
| end to public discussion which promised to b
| animated and exhaustive. The exhumation Of
letter from the Rebel archives furnished .
plausible pretext for the withdrawal of the
nomination, but there was nothing in the let
ter which ought to have occasionod surprise t.
those who were acquaiuse with Mr.. Cushing
ahte-w record. Up to the initial battle a
Sumter Mr. Cushing was not mt rely the friend
OF the Confederacy, but he had taken no small
part ia promoting the loag series of cowaldl,
concessions and pitiful surrenders to Souther
Insolence, by which the Northern Democracy
were dissraced and overthrown.- If La. and hi
political co-laborcrs had Impressed the fire.
eaters with the conviction that the people OF
the free States were craven, those misguided
wretches would not have dared them to the
cOuf1.ct. Ga the Northern dough-faces more
than on any other class, rests the responsibility
of having brought on the rebellion 1t is not a
pleasant, perhaps not profitable re;niniscence,
but when one of those fossils OF the slavery
epoch rises to the surface, it is impossible not
to recall with mingled feelings of scorn and an
ger the times of omnibus-bil compromises and
fugitive slave law enactmauts, when the great
statesmen, the great lawyers, aye, even some
times the great ministers of that period pros
trated themselves in abject humility before the
Moloch of Slavery. and declared in every vari-
ETY. OF expression, by speech, resolve and leeis-
lative sanction that thev would patiently do the
bidding of their cotton-governing masters, even
to the extent of pursuing their slaves and being
their bloodh.unds.
1t isn't so much that these pusillanimous
creatures were violating the principles of JUS
tice and humanity-lhough that was enough in
all conscience-but they showed 10 pluck,
and the Anglo Saxon race dote on pluck.
Consequently when they fell there was no res
direction for them. Here and there some orr
OF the number, having made atonement for
former sins by subsequent good deeds in mill
tary or civil life. succeeds in bursting his cere-
ments and regaining position and influence
among his fellow men, but these cases are ex-
ceptional and peculiar. They simply prove the
iule. 1t is noticeable, too, that when one of
them aspires to judicial position, his fitness is
instantly challenged The country will not have
the laws of the land construed by men who were
ever so Ignorant Jurisprudence as to find in the
Constitution of the United States warrant for
the atrocities which were practiced under the
authority of law, in the days of Fillmore,
Pierce and Buchanan.
Here is the real secret of the determined re-
sstauce which Cushine's candidacy encounter
ed. The same people who approved of sending
him as Ambassador to Spain, would have none
OF him as an expounder Of constitutional law
1t was not enough that he had been Re-
publican since Lincoln's second term, that he
voted for him, and supported, counselled ard
advised his administration; that he opposed
Andy johnson and his policy; refused his
retainer in the impeachment trial; sustained
Gen. Grant in '6S and ~, aud has shown no
signs of back-sliding; the Chief Justice must be
a man who has had no errors to repent of-who
has been right in his legal opinions all the
time.
A striking example of the diff ,ulties which
former heresies place in the way Of preferment
70 THIS exalted station, is presented in the
case OF MIR. Evarts. This gentleman euioys
rare eminence in his profession, and his char
acter is unblemished And yet he is out of
the category of possible appointees. WHY?
he might have done from a sense of profess
siosal duty-but he accepted place in his
cabinet. thereby committing himself to that
reasonable scheme for demanding the South
to rebel control. which was feebly disguised
under the name of Johnson's ''policy' aud
which if it had not been thwarted by the
active opposition of Grant and Stanton would
have brought about the war of races which
the Tennessee tailor first predicted and after
warts sought to precipitate. President Grant
ie"ui's enough selected him as a counsellor of
oeneVa' Ior lie is the most magnanimous of
men, ahd never is influenced by personal pref
uiice or resea.ineets, but he woahn't far a
moment entertain the idea of ipvest;,r ,,;,s
the highest judicial function in the land tho
Attorney General who advised or acouies,ad IN
the foolish aud wicked measures which rem
dered the administration of Gen. Grants ac-
cdentaf predecessor odious. The u1thinking
folk who clamor for the appointment of Mr..
Evarss doubtless have not stopped to consider
these elements of diSguaiiica ion, but it would
be strange indeed if the President whose po-
itical life originated in his patriotic action in
turning to naught the Vaccinations of the
lemagogue, who was in turn the feroci0us de-
1ouncer and the sycophantic toady of the ex-
'ebels, had not long ago made up his mind
past revocation that the man who found law
or the proceedings of johnson could not be con-
idered eligible so interpret law for .he whole
Republic, and it strikes me the reasoning
, sonnd. have great respect for Mr.. Evarts
ut preciou, little sympathy with his political
r
$50 when we had ooe of those great Union
aving Meetings.. where the Cotton worshippers