New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1877-01-20
THE PROPOSED UMPIRE.


Under the thin guise of compromise,
or, as Mr.. Edmunds grandly calls it, IAN
act of justice" the joint committee of
Congress have brought in bill to vest
the right to elect the President of the
United States in one man. This man is
to be chosen by four designated electors,
viz: Associate Justices Clifford, Strong,
Miller and Field Two of these judges are
ultra Democrats of the hard shell stripe,
while the others are known to be very
mild Republicans. Their choice is linn
tied to q slate of five other judges-the
Chief Justice, Waite, and Associates
Hunt, Bradley, Swayne and Davis. Of
these, Waite, Swsyne and Hunt are be-
lieved to be inclined towards Republican
ism, while Bradley and Davis are what
the Philadelphia Press calls assistant
Democrats" T. e., Independents. Clifford
and Fieldwould at first ask for Bradley,
as the fifth member of the commission,
but would probably at last consent to
take Davis. They would never consent
to either Waite, Swayne or Hunt.
When this commission, composed of
five Senators, five members of the House,
and five Judges has been established and
meets for the purpose of eleeting the
President of the United States, Judge
Clifford will preside. He will be the fif-
tenth member of the commission; there
will be seven of either party on side,
and Clifford will decide every point as
absolutely as he now selects his barber or
bootblack. There is not an intelligent
man in the United States who can be in
the least doubt as to how the judicial ton
of flesh contributed to the country by
Maine-the last lingering remains of the
legacy bequeathed to this country by the
unfortunate Buchanan-will decide when
it comes to him. Every Republican in
Congress who votes for the most extraordi-
nary bill introduced by the committee, viz
tually consents to disfranchise the voters
Of the Union, and give the power to appoint
President to one of the most bigoted and
unreasonable old fogy partisaLs on the
bench, or perhaps in public life. If Con-
gress intends to set up its will above the
constitution, and appoint an umpire to
decide questions referred by that instru-
ment to another officer of the government,
it would be decent at any rate to take
the whole Supreme Court as one of the
branches Of the triangular commission.
Then, in all points of dispute, the five
Senators might cast one vote, the five
Representatives one, and the nine judges
Of the Supreme Court third. In creating
such commission, however, with both
political and judicial powers, the bill de-
parts from usage and from the express
language of the constitution: HE (the
PresidenD shall appoint ambassadors,
other public ministers and consuls, judges
of the Supreme Court, and all other officers
of the United States" There is no limit
to the right of the President to appoint
except in the case of certain designated
officers the advice and consent of the Sen.
ate is required.
The proposed law creating this com
mission provides for new and extraor
binary officers, with functions of clearly
judicial character, and contemplate
translating members of Congress into
quasi judges, to meet when a certain
emergency shall arise and sit quietly BY
to hear Judge Clifford turn this fair lame
over to Samuel J. Tilden.