The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1888-03-29

| Ohio, or Bayard, OF Delaware, whom he re-
garded as honest men. Nevertheless, after
| Boutwell,, Conkling aud Sumner had
vouched for Cushing's future, the Senate
| felt inclined to confirm him, aud he would
have been confirmed had it not been for
! Senator Sargent, of California, who rose
| Just as the vote was about to be taken, and
threw bombshell into the Senate in the
shape of a letter taken from the archives of
! Richmond 1t was copy of letter taken
| from the papers which Pickett, who had
been connected with the State Department
at Richmond, had carried off and sold to
! the United States government for $50, 600.
! 1t was a letter from Caleb Cushing, dated
| Washington, 1861, and it was addressed to
| Jefferson Davis, President of the Confeder
ate States of America. 1t was a letter of
Introduction, and it read somewhat as
| follows:
WASHINGTON, 1861.
Hon. Jefferson DdUiS, President of the Con-
Jederute States of 4nlericd
My DEAR SIR: This will introduce to you Mr..
| Archibald Roone who has long been Clerk in the
| Department of Justice at Washington and who
is anxious to link his fortunes with yours He
has recently patented valuable gun, which
! nave no doubt you can use TO advantage. and l
commend him TO you CALEB CUSHING.
After the reading of this letter a silence
fell upon the caucus, which was only broken
at the instance of Parsou Brownlow. who,
then i'll and unable TO talk, got Senator
| Lewis to make motion for him, and this
motion was; THAT this caucus of Republi-
can Senators now adjourn, and that the
Senate be convened i'll open session that it
may remove the political disabilities of
| Caleb Gushing, of Massachusetts. That's
al" There was laugh at this motion and
the caucus adjourned. Grant, on hearing
of the action, made no further movement in
| favor of Cushing and when Waite's name
was proposed some time later he received
| every vote cast and was unanimously con-
| tirmed. His nomination was discussed only
an hour, and during this time speeches were
made by Sumner, Thurman, Edmunds and
| Sherman
| Chief Justice Waite was a man of strong
friendships, and Judge Edgerton, of the
| Civil Service Commission, was the friend of
his lifetime. He dined with him regularly
every Sunday since taking his place on the
| Civil Service Commission. He met Chief
Justice Waite when he went to Ohio as a
land agent, about fifty years ago. Waite
was then young lawyer at Maumee City,
| a little town just out of Toledo, and Edger
ton was in charge of the interests of the
| Hicks Land Company, which owned a great
| part of Northwestern Ohio Edgerton then
received a salary of 81 900 a year, and
| Waite's fees were small and not numerous.
Judge Edgerton describes the trip the two
| took together in 1S41, and he says: II had
just been married, and my wife was at
| Hlcksvllle, town twenty-eight miles from
| Defiance. | met Waite at Defiance, and |
| proposed to him that he come over to Hicks
vile and spend Sunday with me and call
upon the bride. We started ON horseback,
but cold rainstorm came up and we were
drenched to the skin. We stopped at a
| cabin to remain over night. 1t was little
affair of one room and an attic. The pio-
| neer's wife hung up a blanket before the
| fireplace and behind this the future
Chief Justice and myself stripped and
dried our clothes. We Slept in
the attic, and the next morning,
upon pulling on my stockings, l fonnd a
| hole through which my big toe thrust itself.
| pulled of the stocking and turned it wrong
side out and put iU on the same foot. Again
the toe came through the hole, and Waite,
who was watching my agony, said: 'Why
| don't you put the stocking on the other foot
| and en- the little toe will be in the hole.
| tried this plan and found it a success, and
this began my admiration for Judge Waite,
which steadily increased as knew him bet
| ter.
Mr.. edgerton speaks in the highest terms
of Judge Waites intellectual ability. He
had, said he, "a fine memory and he was a
man of road reading and culture. Mr..
Peixotto, who painted the recent portrait
of Judge Waite for the Ohio Society, of
New York, tells me that Waite seemed to
be continually studying on his cases while
he was giving him his sittings, and that he
would frequently excuse himself and go to
his library, take down law book and look
! up a reference, and, in fact, Chief Justice
| Waite has been one of the hardest worked
members of the Supreme Court. The SUI
| preme Courts docket is over a thousand
| cases behind, and Mr.. Waite had felt that
| this burden of work ought to in some way
| be reduced. AS Chief Justice he had more
| IN n no or of ur+
and he considered every Monday the lot of
motions then submitted to the court The
| Chief Justice passed upon these motions
| alone, and many of them required much
| looking up of authorities He comes of a
| long-lived family, and had his system not
been run down with overwork he would
probably have thrown off the attack which
caused his death.
Representative W. D. Hill, of North
ern Ohio, was young lawyer when Waite
was doing some of his first practicing. He
| tells me that Waite was honest in his law
practice, and in his dealing with his clients.
He did not make cases, and in case he
| thought compromise would be to the ad-
vantage of his client he always made it, He
charged,small fees, and in one case which Mr..
Hill cited, for the writing of a brief for an
important case relating to Defiance county,
he charged only $50 where other LAWYERS
would have charged $1,000. Mr.. Hill
describes to me his first meeting with Judge
Waite. Il was.n said he, "a young
lawyer, and Waite had already
made a reputation. / had a case to
try in which he was the counsel for
the opposite side, and 1 went into the case
with fear and trembling. We took the tes-
timony in private, and when it was all col
lected we submitted it to the Judge. Then
Mr.. Waite asked me to go and take lunch
with him. | accepted the invitation. Dur
ing the lunch Waite told me that he thought
he could just as well settle the case as the
Judge, and asked me if l was willing that
he should fix the terms of settlement. |
replied that that was rather a strange
method of procedure, and that | would like
first to know the terms. Judge Waite then
made plain statement OF the justice of the
case, and found that his idea as to set
Element was exactly the same as mine
don't believe that he ever advocated the
cause of a dishonest client, and he seldom
charged large fees. He has some property
in Toledo, and a son, who is a lawyer