Knoxville weekly chronicle. [volume] (Knoxville, Tenn.) 1870-1875, 1874-01-21

not our first or last choice, and that we
should not be inconsolate If he happened
to be rejected. In fact, we hope he will be.
From the New York Tribune LIBERAL
This IL nomination hardly less objec-
tionable than the first, though for widely
different reasons. No one questions the
learning, the Intelligence, or the legal acu-
men of Mr.. Cushing. His career has been
a busy and conspicuous one. Although too
far advanced in years to give to the Chief
Justiceship that prospect of stability
which has generally been considered desir-
able, he is still vigorous in body and mind.
In one respect the appointment might be
regarded as nn instance of political mag
nanimity in General Grant, for Mr.. Cush-
ing, so far as he has any political convic>
tions, has been opposed to every Republic
can Administration which he has assisted
with his adroit and skillful counsel. But
this nomination goes beyond the line of
iusGfiable intolerance. Coming from an
Administration which has been kept in
power solely because its supporters believ-
ed that any change would endanger the
results of the war; this is an extraordinary
choice. Simply because he is familiar
and serviceable friend, General Grant pro-
poses to put at the head of the Supreme
Court, to decide upon question involving
the national sovereignty, and the civil
rights acquired by the war and consecrat-
ed by the late amendments to the Consti~
tuition, pro-savery Democrat, whose last
public function was that of Franklin
Pierces Attorney General, and whose
views have been VIGOROUSLY in opposition
TO those by virtue of which the war was
carried on, slavery was destroyed, and the
rights of citizenship was extended to all
classes of Americans.
When Mr.. Cushing was nominated Us
Minister to Spain the country was agreea-
l. oil
Grant places in an important position a
man of good abilities and reasonable repu-
tatiOn. The appointment was not free from
objections, but on the whole it was a good
one, and we thanked the President for it.
But it was q mistake to conclude that be
cause Mr.. Cushing would make good en-
vOy, he was, therefore, the man for Chief
Justice. Gen. Grant would not say that
because q man was n fair cOmmissa"y he
would, therefore, make good General.
Mr.. Cushing is not our greatest lawyer.
He has not tirst-rate reputation as man
of fixed and conscientious convictions.
He does not possess in the country the high
prestige and public confidence which
should never be absent from exalted judi
cial station. He has always been unfriend-
ly to those great fundamental principles
upon which the national integrity was pre-
served through four years of war, and he
has never given his adhesion to those con-
stitutional guarantees by which the results
of the war We're secured. He is, there
FORE not the man whom the President
should appoint and the Senate confirm as
Chief Justice of the United States.
From the New York Herald, Neutral
He has been Wing, Tyler man, a
Democrat and q Constitutional Conserva-
tive; he was in the confidence of Presi-
dent Johnson, and he has become prime
favorite with q General Grant. He has
passed through all the degrees of our par
ty creeds, from the American system of
Henry Clay to the new dispensation of the
fifteenth amendment. Having tried all
parties, in order to prove that which is
good, he appears to have settled in the
happy hunting ground of "the powers that
be, not as a partisan, but as public SER
want. -
He surrenders the mission to Spain to
assume the robes of Chief Justice. In this
prompt confirmation for the one position
he doubtless is confident, as he has reason
to be, of similar Endorsement, for the
other. Having passed King David's boun-
Diary of three-score years and ten, Dame
Fortune showers those favors upon this
no~party man usually accorded to a young,
daring, dashing, and popular party leader.
But there were special reasons, it appears,
operating with General Grant in favor of
Mr.. Cushing for Chief ustice which would
llOI apply " younger uldu' from our
Washintiton dispatches on the subject it
would appear that the President has not
relinquished the hope of promoting Mr..
Williams to the head of the Supreme
Bench, but that in the appointment of Mr..
Cushing the idea is entertained that after
a few years service he may retire, and that
then, with the removal of the objections
to the advancement of the Attorny Gen
eral he may be safely re-rominated as
Chief Justice. We give this report for
what it is worth.
Like General jackson, as we have seen
in many things, General Grant has will
| and way of his own but we have seen,
| too, in some historical cases, that when his
| course has been disclosed as adverse to pub.
lie opinion he has gracefully retreated.
For example, he undertook the annexation
of the Republic of Dominica, more famil-
iarly known as St. Domingo. He became
an enthusiast in the prosecution of this
scheme; but when he found that our pub
lie opinion was against him he dropped
the enterprise and has left it to take care
of itself.