The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1874-01-22

withdrawn, and also the letter of Cushing to
President Grant, to which reference is above
made. The original letter of Cushing to Da-
Wis is in possession of the War Department.
Senator Sargent has a copy of it, which he
procured Yesterday, by virtue of his Senatorial
privilege, and which was exhibited by him to
the caucus. Efforts to obtain copy for publl-
cation have thus far proved unsuccessful, as
the paper is considered confidential. Nothing
has vet been concluded as to new nominee
for Chief Justice. It is supposed in official
quarters, that Cushing will soon leave Wash
ington for Madrid
WASHINGTON, January IA.
The following is the letter of Gen. Gushing
requesting the withdrawal of his nomination !:
To the President-SIR: Animated by the
sense of profound gratitude for the honor you
have done me in nominating me to the high
office of Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
of the United States, and perceiving that the
continuance of my name before the Senate may
be the cause or occasion of Inconvenience to
yourself or your political friends, therefore |
respectfully request you to withdraw the noml-
nation. Permit me to add that the charges of
disloyalty to the Union and the Constitution
which have been brought against me in this
connection are utterly destitute of foundation
in truth or in fact. Indignantly repel the
imputation. In the time anterior to the COM
mencement of hostilities in the Northern States
every act of my political life, in whatever re-
lation of parties, was governed by the single
dominant purpose of aiming to preserve the
threatened integrity of the Union, and to avert
from my country the calamity of its disruption
and of consequent fratricidal carnage. How
could such purpose be promoted otherwise
than by political association or personal In
tercourse with citizens, of different States, in
Guiding those of States professedly disaffected
to the Union? Sould the ony possible means
of laboring to prevent civil war be stigmatized
as disoyalty to the constitution? But imme-
diately on the occurrence of the first act of
hostility to the Union being struck in the State
of South Carolina took my stand with the
Union and its government. 1 publicly an
nounced my adhesion to them in the most une-
ouivocal terms. rendered my services to the
government in the field or in any other way
which might testify my fidelity to it, and have
continued from that day to this as we'll as in
official as unofficial action, to tread in the path
of answering devotion to the Union, whether
during the actual progress of hostilities against
it, or in the consequent events of its reconstruc-
ton, and of the successive amendments of the
constitution rendered necessary by the changed
conditions and relations of the several States
of the United States and of their respective
inhabitants. The recent amendments of the
constitution, each and all of them, as they
were in turn adopted, and the legislative acts
for their enforcement and for accomplishing
reconstruction, had my cooperation and adhe-
sion, and have supported them constantly, if
not in political debates, from which my COM
parativey reserved habits of life afforded neith-
er occasion nor opportunity, yet in legal opin-
ion or in the courts, and in counsel or discussion
with officers of the government, members of
Congress and private persons, | entertained
the same general respect for these amend
ments as for other provisions of the constitu
ton, and also rendered the special observance
due to them as the just and necessary incidents
of the reconstruction of the Union. While my
nomination was undergoing consideration in the
Senate, it would have been unbecoming for me
to speak in explanation of my acts or my
opinions, but now, with relative indifference
to whatever else may have been said, either
honestly or maliciously, to my prejudice, it
belongs to my sense of public duty, and it is
my right, to reafirm and l to declare that have
never, in the long course of q not inactive life,
done an act, uttered q word or conceived
thought of disloyalty to the Constitution or the
Union.
have the honor to be, very respectfully,
(Signed) G. CUSHING.