Belmont chronicle. [volume] (St. Clairsville, Ohio) 1855-1973, 1877-02-01
The supreme Judges Oh the
Commission.

snip OF Inc C0m mission, ana VINO Is
made its President, is Nathan Clifford,
now in his seventy-fourth year, and
who has been nineteen years on the
Supreme Bench. Justice Clifford was
Democratic member Of the Msibe
Legislature from 1880 to 1884, when he
was appointed Attorney General of the
State and held the position four years.
] 70 n 1889 to 1913 he was Democratic
Member of Congress from Maine. In
| 1916, President Polk appointed him
Attorney General of the United States,
which Office he held until 1917, when
be was appointed Commissioner to
Mexico. On his return to the United
States he settled down to the practice
of law in Portland, Maine, until Janu-
ary, 1858, when President Buchanan
appointed him to the Supreme Bench.
Assistant Justice William Strong,
named second Oh the list, is in the
sixty-Dinth year OF his age, and has
been seven years on the Supreme
| Bench. He became a member of the
| Pennsylvania bar in 1882, and practic
ed law at Reading until 1847. In that
year he entered Congress and served
two terms. He became Judge of the
Supreme Court of Pennsylvania in
1857, and held the position until 1868,
after which he practiced law in Phila-
delphia until Febr uary, 1870, when he
was appointed to the Supreme Court of
the United States by President Grant.
In June, 1871, he made decision de-
claring the income tax constitutional,
and in January, 1872, delivered the
opinion of the Court affirming the Con-
Estitutionality of the Legal Tender act
of 1862. ~ l-
Justice Samuel F. Miller, the third
Justice named for the Commission,
will besixty-one in April, and has been
nearly fifteen years on the Supreme
Bench. He is native of Kentucky,
and at first practiced medicine, but
after few years turned his attention
to law. Having been from 1S4S in
favor of emancipation though generally
taking no part in politics, the course of
public affairs caused him to remove in
1850 from Kentucky to Iowa, where he
became one of the leaders of the Repub-
lican party in that State. He was
pressed repeatedly to accept nominal
tions for public office at the hands of
the Republicans, but refused these,
and confined himself strictly to the
practice of his profession, In July,
1852, President Lincoln appointed him
to the Supreme Bench.
The last of the four Justices named
for the Commission is Stephen 8. Field,
brother of Cyrus w. Field, of ocean
telegraph fame, and OF David Dudley
Field, the attorney for William N.
Tweed, who has within o few days
been sent to Congress from New York
to fill the place of Smith Ely, Justice
Field is eleven years the junior of his
Congressional brother, being now in
his sixty-first year. He has been near
ly fourteen years on the Supreme Court
Bench. Born in Connecticut, he re-
moved, when he came of age, to New
York city, where he studied law with
his brother, and after wards made law
partnership with him. In 1S49 he re
moved to California. In October of
that year he was elected to the Legisla-
ture, and took leading part in mould.
ing the judiciary of the State. He
was elected in 1857 Judge of the Su-
preme Court of California for six years.
and became Chief Justice of that court.
In March, 1868, he was appointed by
President Lincoln to the United States
Supreme Court, and has the States of
the Pacific slope for his circuit. AL.
though appointed by President Lin
coin, his political affiliations are known
to be with the Democrats. Recently
he was reported as maintaining with
some heat that Tilden was elected, but |
the statement is now authoritatively |
denied.