The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1877-07-10


emily maligned by a reckless and dishonest
press that his friends do well to show their
continued confidence in him as q man and
Jerseyman. hope the gathering will
be such as to make it a marked rebuke to
the public SANDERS which have been heap
ed upon him.
Respectfully and truly yours,
JOSEPH P. BRADLEY.
If such letter was really written by
Mr.. Justice Bradley, of tle Supreme
Court of the United States, great many
old fashioned people will be very apt to
say that there is sharp need not only of
civil-seryice reform, but of judlcial-servlce
reform also, in this country. The ban
ouet" to which the letter refers was a
purely political affair, as the writer must
have known. No one outside of a certain
clique, party within the republican party
itself, was expected to be present. It's OBJ
ject was vindication of the conduct of
Mr. Robson as Secretary Of the Navy
against various criticisms and charges
which have been made against him not
only by reckless ard dishonest" Ipress.
but on the floor of Congress and by a mum.
Der of persons of character in both political
parties. These allegations against Mr..
Robson have been made in such circum-
stances and in such way that nothing but
careful judicial investigation can posi-
| bly, enable any conscientious person to say
whether they are or are not reckless and
dishonest" and yet Mr.. Justice Bradley
(if he wrote this letter., without having
had the least opportunity to make such an
inquiry rushes into political gathering to
utter. Judgment thereonl Half a century
ago, or even a quarter of a century ago,
such conduct on the part of a justice Of
our highest national tribunal would have
been simply impossible. In those days
everybody felt that a man who assembled
that high place of justice had turned his
back forever upon the strife Of partisan
passion. In those early days no lawyer
ever dreamt of soliciting, either personally
or through friends, IN appointment to the
federal bench, and therefore when the
federal Judges were appointed they had 10
party to serve or reward less extensive
than the whole people and the whole
patton. How is it now? Are we not by
slow and short but certain and fatal steps
going back to the judicial theory and prac
tice of the sixteenth and seventeenth
centuries in England, when the king was
8 assumed to sit in person to administer the
, law a1d judges we're simply his persona
representatives We have substituted {
political party for the king, and the man
ners of our time will no longer tolerate The
savagery and cruelty upon the bench
5 which disgraced the days of Jeffreys anC
I of Scroggs. But have we not in certain
0 other things quite returned to jeffrey
. and to Scroggs? 1t was Jeffreys-not
). bad lawyer, remember-who said in
r speech to his successor in the chief Justice
: ship: BE sure to execute the law to tn
e utmost OF its vengeance upon those tina
:. are now known land we have reason Il
e remember them by the name Of Wings.
" After the general improvement 10 tn
o moral tone of English civilization between
A the end of the sixteenth and the middle o
! the ninteenth centuries, nothing did 8
h much to secure to liberty the alliance in
y stead of the autagonism of law as tn
A. change in the middle Of the eighteenth
e century which made English Judge
D. independent Of the power by whic
q they were appointed. The judi
e cial independence, and its resul
T of a lofty judicial indifference a
Ii between political parties, our forefather
4. in America saw to be threatened by tn
% attempts of the kings friends" and
p warned by the example, they endeavore
p in organizing our system to preserve il
50 and they did preserve it down to the 'lega
b, tender cases. the latest decision 10 whic
,, p cases, it will be remembered followed s
Or closely upon the elevation to the bench {
Ct Justices Bradley and Strong. 10 the CAT
IN met which nominated both of these jus
r tees Mr. Robinson sat, and in the senat
,, which confirmed them both Mr., Frelinp
huyson sat, 1t would be curious to trac
N the resembances, as to both court an
:. counsel, between the reversal of the earl
~ egalt tender decision and the counting i
L of President Hayes
t. In every respect it is most unfOrtunat
IF that MIR. Justice Bradley should hav
- written Gf he did write), and that tn
y" friends of MIR, Robson should have pull
ID lished, the letter which we have placed q
j. the head of this article. To no man, prot
le ably, in the country is Mr.. Justice Bradle
:, more indebted for his present judicis
- commission than to Mr.. Robson. An
E. Justice Bradley may thank himself for
s if people should now begin TO suspect thu
a. to no men is Mr.. Hayes more indebted fC
n the presidency than to Mr. Robson and I
MIR. Frelinghuysen.
W