The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-12-19
THE NEW JUSTICES.

It will be remembered with little
difficulty that great, prolonged and su-
per-loyal howl from the north went up
when the great and good GROVER nom
mated L. Q. G. LAMAR for the important
and dignifed position of associate justice
of the supreme court of the United States.
The press of that section and most Of the
people claimed that it was a mistit appoint
ment; that LAMAR was simply brigadier
in the Confederate army, skillful pollti-
tician and an orator of more or less mag
netism, and that was all. In none of the
crafts of the statesman or the subtle ge-
MUS of the profound lawyer was he con-
ceded to be equal to the great honor pro
posed to be placed upon him. See how
greatly even those who sit in judgment by
reason of long experience and acquired
acumen can be mistaken. In their deter
mination to make light of the man, they
make light of themselves, for the reason,
among others, that they signally overlook
that memorable contest in the House of
Representatives little overa dozen years
ago, when on a point of national law
LAMAR contested with BLAINE and seized
him as a blooded terrier does a
rat and all but shook the life out of him,
leaving him, as one correspondent ex
pressed il, a ''mass of quiyering helpless
ness" He then and there showed his su-
periority as a legal and parliamentary
debater over the present secretary Of state;
and since he has been on the bench of the
supreme court, he has commanded the at
tention of that body and the admiration Of
the bar by the manner in which he has
conducted himself and the real profundity
of his official acts. The great trouble was
that some northern people professed to
fear that Mr.. LAMAR would inject some
states rights or other southern principles
into his rulings, and thus contribute
toward undoing what the war had accom-
plished.
Not only has the gentleman
dissgreeably disappointed his polit-
ical enemies as Representative, Sen
ator and Judge of the supreme court,
but his conduct has been such that all the
surprise there has been in the case has
come from others. For instance, the New
York Evenfng Post, in comparing President
HARRIsoN's nominee for the supreme
bench. Judge BREWER, with Justice LA
MAR, makes the singular statement that
1.-THE decisions rendered by the new north
ern Republican appointee, Justice BREWER,
on the bench of the circuit court, indicate
that he is much better staterights man
than his southern Democratic colleague"
Judge BREwER's repute in the legal world
rests upon two decisions. In the first he
held that as consequence of the Iowa pro
hibition law, the state was bound to REIN
burse distillers for their loss in plant
which became useless under the law. The
other was the decision limiting the power
of the state railway commission in fixing
arbitrary traffic rates for the railways.
Some of these days the northern people
will find out that there was good deal of
patriotism, courage and ability in the south
during and after the great struggle; and
they will also find out if they have not
already that all who endorse the doctrine
of individual independence and state
sovereignty do not live beyond the border
which divides the north and south.