New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1882-02-25

THE NOlINA TON TO THE SUPREME BENCH
Guiteau has made Supreme Judge, as well
as a President; and he is not hung yet.
There is not human being in the country
so ignorant as to believe that Mr.. Roscoe
Conklng would have been awarded the high
est judicial Office in the gift of the President,
if a cold-blooded assassin had not first muir
dered the President whom the people elected.
For that horrible murder no man living is
thought by the people of the United States
more responsible than Mr.. Conlling himself
The President gave him five-sixths of the i'm
portant patronage of this State. He demanded
it all. On the nomination OF single man
whom he disliked, he declared war upon the
| Administration, fought it in the Senate till he
| found the struggle hopeless, then betrayed his
party and threw the Senate into the hands
of the opposition by resigning, and then
besought the State Of Ncw-York to re-
| turn him with letters of marque as n Ii
censed privateer, to wage war upon his own
| people Meantime on the day after his resig-
nation his disciple, Guiteau, bought his
pistol and the very physician who was after
ward called in to probe the Presidents wound
went about saying that Garfield deserved to
be shot.
Mr.. Conkling was beaten in his own State
in the contest he invited--Overwhelmin gly,
hopelcssly, disgracefully beaten. Legislature
of his own creatures dared not reflect him.
The people OF the State were as hundred to
one against him. When he returned, defeated,
from Albany, he could not have been elected
Road Supervisor or Justice of the Peace in
the strongest Republican County of the State.
Then Guiteau stole up behind Garfield and
fred his shot. And now the man whom Gui-
teau made President makes Roscoe COnking a
Judge of the Supreme Court of the United
States. These are the simple, historical facts,
known to everybody, undisputed by anybody.
| We recall them now, merely to set this ap-
pointment in the light of the attendant facts.
| If the nomination were otherwise a fit one,
something would be pardoned to the personal
friendship and personal gratitude of the late
| Vice President. But the nomination is, on
other grounds, VIGOROUSLY unfit.
a. Mr.. COnkling has no standing at the
bar to entitle him to be even thought of in
connection with the Supreme Bench. He has
had no considerable practice since his youth.
| lie has been retained. in no cases save those
| which came in the way of pay for political in
| fuence. The appearances he has made in
court have been such as to provoke the con-
| tempt and ridicue Of real lawyers. On this
point, in spite of the high position and great
| influence he had there has scarcely been
| divided opinion. No doubt he might have
| been a good LAWYER. But lie chose to devote
his active years 10 something else, and he is
| now too old to learn.
(2) Mr.. Conkling is unfit for the Supreme
Bench, or for any bench, because he is not
man of judicial temper. Everybody, friend and
foe alike knows him as an intense, red-hOt
partisan, who never sees or can see more than
one side of a question. There was absolute
accuracy in Mr.. Curtis's description of HIM as
person who divided mankind into two
classes, slaves and enemies. Such man may
do good service in some places, but he is no
more fit for Judge than lie is for a bank
note engraver or a Sunday school superin-
tendent
(3.) This nomination is grossly unfit. be-