The Republican journal. [volume] (Belfast, Me.) 1829-current, 1877-03-01
Sketches at the Capital.
NO. THE SUPREME COURT ROOM
WASHINGTON, Feb. 20.

NO. THE SUPREME COURT ROOM.
WASHINGTON, Feb. 20
In the darkest spot in the dark corridors
| which run through the wilderness of space
! in the Capitol, between the Senate and
House ends, two heavy doors of some dark
polished wood swing outward on noiseless
hinges. The doorway is like a dozen
others in this dark labyrinth. No letter.
ing in gold or white emblazons this as the
main entrance to laws chief citadel. Not
even tin sign instructs the passing stran-
ger, Not even a plain white card with
paiaest superscription, like that of the
immortal Widow Bardell, invites the
searcher after temporary lodgings to Gin
qurre within A tall, stately servltor,
white of hair and dark of hue. sometimes
sits the silent guardian of the entrance.
His presence is the only outward sign that
the august Supreme Court sits within.
Inside these darksome outer doors two
lighter ones of dull red baize swing in
ward into the sanclum sanctorum of the
law Ii is the old Senate Chamber. Its
walls rang years ago with the grand ora
tions OF Daniel Webster, the honeved
rhetoric of Calhoun, and the fiery, match
less eloquence Of Harry of the West
Long years ago the Senatorial benches
were removed, and the makers Of the
laws abdicated in favor of the expounders
of the same.
1t is a most lifting arena for the great
legal contest now wagmg therein. In
shape, the room is the quarter segment OF
a sphere, its floor the half of the equato-
rial plane. The entrance is in the centre
of the semi-circe, Directly opposite, and
extending along the only flat side of the
room is the long bench OF the Justices,
on a dais raised a foot or two above the
floor. Behind this long bench, in the
great chairs of the Judges, sit the fifteen
chosen ones OF the Electoral Commission,
than whom none ever had q grander OPP
portunity to win for themselves a famous
niche in history none ever stood in more
imminent danger OF rendering themselves
infamous. In the wall above the judicial
bench runs a long narrow gallery, the
only gallery in the room The ceiling, a
semi-dome, curves upward to its apex IN
the perpendicular centre of the flat side
aforesaid. In front of the judicial bench
most OF the spaceway Of the floor has been
rallied of into great square, within
which the lawyers plead when the Sn-
preme Court is in session. Two long,
legal looking tables in the square are
cluttered with books of legal lore, with
pamphlets. manuscripts and heterogene
Gus documents when pleadings are going
on. Outside the railing few semi-circu-
lar benches afford a resting place for the
few strangers who wander in, listen for a
moment. and then quietly depart. A sub
dued light comes in through row of
email 11rip1pu-c btrh ia ho
wall above the galleries.
Ordinarily it is a place Of resttul quiet,
The air is heavy with memories of by
gone days and soporific with the weighty
dignity Of the Supreme Court. No APP
plauding crowds stimulate the legal war
riors to torrents OF invective, to flights Of
rhetoric or shafts of wit Counsel drone
monotonously through weighty legal ar
guments, their voices rarely raised above
the pitch of ordinary conversation. The
Court listens aolemnv, with eyes halt
shut. A spirit of rest pervades the place,
These latter days, since the Electoral
Commission took possession of the place,
the whole atmosphere has changed. The
vandals Of the press have Mostly possessed
the gallery, hitherto tor long Years given
up to dust, to spiders and their webs
Five Judges have indeed held their own
behind the bench, and an unprecedented
array ct legal talent has gathered daily
about one OF the legal tables; but = great
crowd OF politicians has beset them behind
and on either side, filling up the small
spaceway Of the floor so completely that
the lawyers have been given barely elbow
room and even then the common people
have been unable 10 gain a toothold with
in. Rest has given place to turmoil, for
the political Jnggernaut has possessed
himself Of the temple OF the law