The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1888-02-17
A SAD SPECTACLE.

a SAD SPECTACLE
what the New York Ind.psnseat .
Thinks Of LamaFs Appoiatmsnt.
We have opposed the confirmation Of
Mr.. Lamar by the Senate. not because
he is Democrat, nor because he is a
Southern man. but for other and bet
ter reasons relating to his legal quail
itications for the Office and his record
in the past. 1t strikes us as simply
astounding that man who had never
been admitted to practice in the SUI
preme Court Of the United States.
who had never argued case in the
Supreme Court of his own State, who
has no general reputation as an able
and learned lawyer, who for the last
thirty years has for the most part been
mere politician. who never got his
living out of the practice of the legal
profession. who was never engaged in
a conspicuous law case. and who. taken
at his best, is not above the standard
Of an ordinary lawyer. should have
been selected by the President and
confirmed by the Senate, as an Asso-
ciate Justice of the Supreme Court Of
the United States, to participate with
the other members of that court
in considering and determining
the great questions of law that are
constantly coming before it, and to
hold the Office for life unless re-
moved therefrom by impeachment
Mr.. Lamar is on the very confines Of
old age. being more than sixty years
old, and, in the ordinary course Of
nature, will not live long enough to
learn from practice what he ought to
have had before becoming member
of the Supreme Court. This court is
not school for the education of law
yers and judges. but tribunal to use
eminent abilities already acquired and
fitting the incumbent for the service.
And when we turn to Mr.. Lamar
political record before and since the
war. to what he has said in the Senate
and in the House of Representatives,
to his rem arks about jefferson Davis,
and to his unquestionable acqriescence
in what is known as the i" Mississippi
plan" of Democratic politics to which
he owes his own promotion. and in
which he has been participant. We
can not but think that this record. il
taken by itself, ought to have. been
considered as very serious objection
to his nomination and confirmation.
We say frankly that any man. having
such record, ought not to be mem
Der of the Supreme Court of the United
States. Let him be member of the
House of Representatives if the people
choose to elect him. or Senator il
his own State chooses thus to honor
him; but let him not be one of the
Justices of the Supreme Court for the
whole nation. This is our sense of the
fitness of things
The President, in search of the right
man. leaped over all the district and
circuit judges of the United States in
the Southern States, and all the distin
guished members of the bar in these
States; and turning back to Washing
ton and his own Cabinet, he found, il
a politician of some notoriety. especial
ly in Mississippi, but not an eminent
lawyer of National reputation. just the
man he wanted. and sent his name to
the Senate. The confirmation of thi:
nomination, in the circumstances pre-.
ceding it and those attending it, pre-.
sents sad spectacle to the country.
We hope never to see it repeated. One
such spectacle is surely enough for Q