The weekly clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1863-1882, 1881-03-24
The denomination Of Stanley Math-
eWs--A Bad Beginning.

me denomination OF STANLEY Matn-
ews--A Bad Beginning.
The denomination Of Stanley Math-
ews for a seat on the United States SUI
preme Court Bench, after his virtual
rejection at the late session. is so serious
a bIunder of the new Administration
that even some ofits strongest partisans
admit that it amounts to a crime. APP
pointments to that august tribunal are
not to be disposed of as rewards for cum
ming political schemers, crotehety DEM
agogues and violent sectional partisans
Men are wanted who are learned in the
law, liberal, broad-minded and free
from sectional and partizan bias Even
as decided Republican paper as the
n. Y Post says:
president Garfield has made his first
mistake. 1t is a very gross one. He has
nominated Stanley Mathews for Supreme
Court Justice"
And such a Republican paper as the
New York Times says
Inc general uOpeiulHcSS Anu SOO4 WIN
with which the new Administration was
greeted, and which babe fair to grow strong
er so long as its record continued free from
serious blemish, makes the feeling of disap-
pointment more grieVous that 1t has already
committed a sad and inexcusable error IN
renewing the appointment of Mr. Stanley
Mathews for the vacant place on the SUI
preme Bench"
Col McClure's Philadelphia Times
treats the appointment az an affront to
the common-sense and patriotism of the
country. 1t says:
General Garfield justifes the severest i'm
putations that have been made against him
as a man of moral back bone in affrontlng
the moral sense of the country by reviving
the discreditable nomination of Stanley
Mathews for a place on the Supreme Bench.
Nor can he be said to sin without light"
The St. Louis Republican, which
judges the acts of the opposition with
as much. moderation as any other Demo
cratic paper in the Union, says +;
''The objections to making Mr.. Mathews
a member of the Supreme Court OF the
United States have been frequently stated,
but will bear repetition. He was originally
nominated, not because of his special fitness
for the position-though his legal qualiiica-
tiOns are probably sufficient-but on ac-
count of his intimate personal relations with
Mr.. Hayes, and the peculiar services render
ed the latter during the Presidential con-
spiracy. He might be a much ADLER lawyer
than he is, but if he is and had not lived in
Ohio, had not been the confidential friend OF
the executive, had not contributed largely
to the success of the fraud of 1857, his
name never would have been sent to the
Senate. To put such man on the Supreme
Bench is offering premium to violent and
unscrupulous craftsmanship, and 1T Is putting
that parisanship where it can do the most
harm. Mr.. Mathews is known to be oppos-
ed to the Thurman Act in regard to the pay
ment of the Union Pacific railway indebt-
edness. The company is contesting the va
lidity of this Act, and will undoubtedly
carry the case to the highest tribunal for
final decision. Mr.. Mathews cannot be an
impartial judge in that case, and if he assists
in the decision must assist on the wrong
side, and perhaps make that side successful,
which would involve the loss of millions to
the government,
The foregoing are substantial grounds
of opposition to a nomination which was
wholly unfit to be made. The N.
Y. Sun, which is unused to mincing its
words, protests against the pollution of
the Supreme Court Bench by such an
appointment, says;
Ofthe immortality and essential corruption
ofStanley Mathews's conduct in the memo.
rable secret negotiations which led up to the
contamination of the Electoral Fraud,
there never was and there never can be a
shade of doubt And it is matter for serious
reflection concerning the remarkable deca-
dence of public morals, when Democratic
Senators who never cease to dehounce that
Fraud as the inftSmy h7yvrsd HISTORICAL
parallel calmly ignore it in the consideration
of the case of Stanley Mathews, this hawk
er of base bribery, this correspondent Of
forgers, this emissary of fraud.
If reports from Washington be true,
the nomination of this emissary of fraud
will not pass muster with the present
Judiciary Committee though it has a
majority.