National Republican. (Washington City (D.C.)) 1872-1888, 1874-04-14
THE SUPREME COURT.
HOW GASES ARE DECIDED.

HOW GASES ARE DECIDED.
The Washington correspondent of the New
York Graphic furnishes the following racy
sketchIof the United States Supreme Court:
The new Chief Justice of the Supreme Court
has become warm in his seat, and considerate
second opinion awards him the praise of good
intentions, q sense of justice, inconsiderable
prejudices, but no vast amount of capacity.
That Is the opinion of the associate justices,
generally speaking. The Supreme Court was
never so harmonious as at the present time. Il
never possessed so many men of nearly equal
age, and that age youthful enough to develop
the fullest energy and the most earnest thought
compatible with legal principles. There was a
time in Mr.. Chase's term when his strong de-
sire to reach the Presidency tinged many Of the
Issues before the court, and gave powerful per-
sonality and antagonism to the court eotsrie.
The Presidents determination not to appoint
any man on the bench to tho Chief Justieeship
has dashed the hopes Of several Of the able
gentlemen who had dreamed of that promo
ton. With chastened spirit, accepting the
inevitable, they are now entirely harmonized.
As some of the attaches inform US, when they
meet for consultation the spectacle is enlivening
no less for the wisdom PUT forth than for the
amiability and gentility which fayors 1t.
my nave omitted reference ID former let
ters to the manner in which the Supreme
Court decides cases after the justices have
passed out Of observation into the cloisters of
the consulting room.
Imagine, then, quite o family of men, gen.
orally portly and beyond middle life, seated In
an old-fashioned room in the old part of the
Capitol, with the Chief Justice at the end of
the table. The Chief Justice is solid-looking
Western man, with hair decidedly iron gray, in
all the sense of that term, whatever it may
mean. He is the moderator and suggester at
the ceremony. He says: Gentlemen, in the
case of Tompkins against the Hudson Canal
Company, what shall we dot Shall we deny
the motion or grant itP
Then, in q good humored way, the portly
Justice Clifford says something sententiously.
With twinkle in his eye the athletic Miller
puts in an amendment. The Reverend Greer,
who thinks God ought to be In the Constitu-
ton, interposes with stately sentence. He is
picked up in no time by the rather merry Brad
ley, of New Jersey. He eliminates the whole
topic, as If he did 1t by accident. Justice Hunt,
dainty little man, listens to the others, and
puts In an interrogatory. This warns up the
mericurlal Field, who sails right in, and just as
things are beginning to look lively the Chief
Jusstce sxyss -<6eftlemen, hardly think we
will come to any conclusion where there Is so
much controversy; so suppose we put this mat
ter over until our next Saturday consultation,
when we may have arrived at some opinion"
do not know q body connected with the
Government where there Is 30 much humanity,
good fellowship and sense of self-respect as
She Supreme Court. There was time when
poiltics hid in the edges Of the cloister. At
restless ambition. Many of the justices are
well-to-do. The clerk Of the court Is .
wealthy man, made so by the Legitimate ac-
emulation Of his fees, and he has established
certain members of his family in bankiag, and
when Jay Cooke & Co. failed the young firm Of
Middleton & Co. Immediately leaped into their
custom. Nicolay, well remembered for his inti-
macy with President Lincoln, is the marshal Of
this court, and in the receipt Of q moderate
salary. He Is revereutly brooding over CLASH
cal life of Mr. Lincoln, which shall consider
that kindly essence not as q monstrosity nor
as hero merely, but in the perfectness Of his
relations to the times, his friends and himself.
Colonel John Hay, who has plenety of talent
and only too much luck, has acquiesced with
Nicolay In the design Of making this book.
IT rs just one hundred years ago since the
first settlement Of Kentucky. In April, 1774,
the terrible massacre Of the Logan family by
the Indians took place, and Daniel Boone, who
hated the Indian as much a. be relished Indian
Life, was longing for revenge, when q messen-
ger came riding down the valley of the Ohio
with his steed in foam, messenger from the
royal Governor Dunmore, Of Virginia, seeking
one Boone, . woodmsn, who had been In the
West, to 60 Westward to the Falls Of the Ohio,
conduct surveying parties, and protect them as
they went. Boone started on his perilous jour
ney on the 9th Of. June, TIA, reached and re-
conducted the surveyors in safety to the settle
ments, the distance being 800 miles, and the
time two months. The Governor rewarded
Boone by employing him on q larger scale for
settling the West. James Harrod, the founder
Of Harrodsburg, built the first house In what
was then termed the West, q log cabin raised
In the forest In April, 1774.