The daily gazette., 1877-02-01
Our Washington Letter,
From our regular Correspondent. esTI
WASHINGTON, Jan. 81, 1877.


WASHINGTON, Jan. 81, 1877.
Yesterday / went into the Supreme
Court room to look at the Judges who
are to decide the presidential question.
They were all on the bench, or rather in
large arm chairs, metaphorically the
bench. Justice Hunt sat at one end Of
! the line, and Justice Bradley at the other
Chief Justice Waite sat in the centre;
Justice David Davis, senator elect from
Illinois, successor of Gen. Logan, lent
forward resting his stupendous head and
| colossal countenance cherubically upon
the balustrade. They are all weighty
men, mighty in averdupois, pitby,
venerable, incarnations of abstract JUS
tice. All of which may be attributed to
the black silk uniform long gown they
wear. How mortal can be swerved
from vertical or horizontal moral or
legal equilibrium with one of those black
silk investments, it is impossible to un- q
derstand. L would not be sarcastic. L
believe they dwell as completely in the
passionless atmosphere of law and fact,
as is possible in the flesh. But these
men are mundane, they enjoy life. 1t
You doubt it, look at their stomachs, and
at their chins too, If you can discern
them. The Supreme Bench is not com =
pletely insulated, I know, for, when ex-
Senator Matt. Carpenter, who was ad-
dressing the Court, indulged In one of
of his numerous humorous saliles, their
L l.
| amusement, while your sensitive and
verdant correspondent trembled lest the
scales in the hands Of the blind goddess
Knight wabble, and the struggling, op-
pressed corporation fail to secure its pit
lance of 100000 acres. i .0e Z.
| 1t was thought thatJ Justice Davis would
be the fifth Judge chosen to decide the
electoral question. there is no objection
that can be successfully urged against
him, and his four associates are the best
Judges of this fact. Though his immense
wealth, lifting him above the suspicion
of selfish action, and by his conspicuous
unimpeachable public life. the simple
great man, appointed to the supreme
bench by Lincoln seemed peculiarly
qualified to act and to decide But the
prevailing opinion now is that Judge
| Bradley, whose native State is New DER
sey, win be appointed: ....
1t is believed here that there will be no
disagreement, that the verdict of the
court will be unanimous on all essential
questions, and the fact that office holders
| consider their case hopeless is significant
of what an impartial decision will mean.
!, Democrats are as happy as the absorbing
presidential question will allow them to
be, over the result of recent senatorial
contests. Two most bitter, narrow, and
bigoted, Republicans have been elimina.
ted; one of them, Boutwell,, has been sue
Il ~ aoo1nH hu Tndna Hnar who though a
strict Republican, is an unjaundiced,
, honest, man; the other, Gen. Logan, has
been succeeded by Judge Davis, who, if
not a Democrat is still less a Radical.
Then there is another happy change.
Amediocre senator who added no strength
to the councils of his peers, and who re-
fiected no credit upon his state, who
: caused those who heard him from the
! gallery or read his speeches in the Record
| to inquire with pity and contempt; "is
that the best that Georgia can do"-has
been succeeded by Georgia's most
eminent citizen, by one who in eloquence,
in craftsmanship, in extensive informa
ton, and wide experience, in all the bril-
liant and sterling qualities that cnarac
, terize great representative, is second to
, | no man in the South or in the country.
have no personal i'll feeling against Mr.
, | Norwood, but the country, and especially
9 the South, cannot afford in this crisis to
De reDreSenIeu Dy weak luCstpdUle uotI
Nor is it our duty to deal softly with
them. Those who seek conspicuous
= places invite criticism for mediocrity and
; incapacity the safest place, as well as for
the country,is obscurity. There are nights
sacred to greatness; aspiring ounces who
will ascend them must be taught that the
light which surrounds these dizzy ein-
inences is, for them, tightening! That
: portions of the South have been misrepre-
: sented by such disreputable men as
+ Spencer, Patterson, Ames, and Clayton
is not the fault of the South but Of the
Administration ring in Washington that
elected them, but Georgia cannot charge
the administration with imposing sena-
tor, who, though not base and venal was
scarcely stronger, abler, or more eminent,
than the greedy strangers who have rob
bed and misrepresented that section.
1t seems quite probable that after the
fourth of March the Republicans will
have bare majority of two in the Senate,
and the brunt that has been so long and
heroically borne and hurled back by
Thurman and Bayard will now be met by
Hill, Lamar, and Beck. Some Repubi
, cans are Silly chuckling over the sup
|, posed opportunities of Blaine, but let that
vessel of wrath and parliamentary techni
cality beware. Ben Hill can compress
! more into single sentence than would
explode his idea-proof cranial bomb if it
: could find penetration and Judgement
there c. A. s.
p