The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1889-06-22
MILLER AND THE SUPREME COURT.

Inc newspapers WILL undoubtedly Gull
clude their structures on the Presi-
dent and his attorney general on &C
count of the irregular and unlaw-
full removal of Chief Justice SANFORD
but it would seem that they were in nc
hurry to 'let up" on the business. Perhaps
the intention is to keep the outrage fresh
in the public mind until Congress meets,
when that body will take charge of the mat
ter. At any rate there do not as yet, ap-
pear any sign of discontinuance of the
discussion. This, however, is not the
proper word for there is no discussion no
editor of intelligence and responsibility
finding courage to defend the executive and
his verdant and subservient judicial
adviser Everything in the nature
of defense which has yet
appeared is the declaration, in effect,
that as Utah is peopled largely by MormOns
and as Judge ZANE hates the Mormons
with all the bitterness of his nature, the
President was justified in replacing a man
who entertained higher regard for the
law than he did for mems hates and preju-
dices. We respectfully suggest that this
line of reasoning doesn't convince very
much or very many. Its effect is not
favorable to the President. On the con-
trary, it makes the case worse for the execu-
tive, in the minds of those people who think
there is in the whole world no such thing
as justice, and who entertain the opinion
that the one branch of the government
which should be free from politics
and political dictation is the judiciary.
Having received many evidences that the
local public has been interested and enter
tanned by the many columns of editorial
comments from leading journals which THE
HERALD has reproduced, we republish, this
morning. extracts from other newspapers
bearing on this matter. On the 10th in
slant the Washington correspondent of the
St. Louis Republic wired to his paper more
than a column of the HARRISON MILLER
SANFORD case. 1t having been published
that morning that Mr.. MILLER would GER
tainly be nominated to the supreme court.
the correspondent said the nomination
could not be confirmed. I'm the first place
the administration is not over popular with
the Senators, and in the next place only a
few of them believe that MILLER is big
enough to be a supreme court justice
Many Of the lawyers of the Senate-Re
pubncans and Acknowledgement at him
when he was made attorney general, but
they held that the President had the right
to appoint his own immediate official
family, and that the Senate should not in
terfere. But the supreme court justiceship
will be another matter, and when The Sen
ate is confronted with MILLER for the place
made vacant by the death of Justice
MATTHEWS, look out for some lively tines
The correspondent goes on to say:
In this connection a little correspondence that
recently took place between Chief Justice Ell
LOTT SANFORD, of Utah, and the President
will be Of interest. 1t appears from this cor
respondence that the President has policy
which he expects the judiciary TO carry out Tor
him, and the lawyers OF the Senate Will find the
attorney general so willing 10 fall in with the |
President in carrying out judicial policy thatlt
may prove TO be an unwilling body before which |
to lay the nomination Of Mr. MILLER to be a |
member of the Judiciary Chief Justice SAND |
FORD has been presiding in the Utah supreme |
court. He has been an acceptable Judge to |
Republicans and Democrats alike, except |
TO Judge ZANE, and those persons who |
thought that the United States ought to run |
the United States according to policy instead
of according TO law. The first lntimatiOn that |
Judge SANFORD had of the Presidents inten |
lions was the receipt of letter written May TO- |
by Acknowledgement MILLER in which he was |
directed by the President to advise Judge SAND !
FORD that in his opinion the public interests |
will be subserved bya change in the Office of |
chief justice of Utah, and this being so he will !
be pleased to receive your resignation as chief |
justice.
There was fight over Judge SANFORD in |
Utah and upon receipt of tins request by the ,
President for his resignation, Judge SANFORD |
consulted with his friends To have retired
W.thOut murmur ard without apparent reason |
would have furnished the opponents OF the |
judge with an opportunity for declaring that all
the accusations they had made against him
were admitted.
In order to learn whether there was any reason
10 be assigned for his displacement, Judge SAND
PORD wrote a letter on May Il to Attorney
General MILLER, as follows: &
Judge SANFORD also informed the attorney
general that he had considered the matter of re
signing in March last, but that letter of re-
signatlon prepared by him had been withheld by
urgent solicitation of Republican and Demo
cratic members OF the Salt Lake bar.
But il seems the President had decided on his
removal, and the answer of the Encouragement
went back to Judge SANFORD the same day
that he was removed This letter is certainly
remarkable. If anything was needed to prove
the assertion Of the friends of the President
that Mr.. MILLER is no politician, this onght to
supply the want. He wrote = The
startling discovery that the President has
4 policy for the judiciary has not yet ap-
parently attracted attention ont of Utah
In monaTches where the King or the prime
minister appoints the judiciary II is commonly
charged that the KING or existing adminlStra
ton of prime MINISTER can use the judiciary for
their own purpose; but in this country it has
always been the belief that our govern
ment was composed of three separate and in
dependent branches, the executive, the legisla
tive and the judicial. Under HARRISON and his
tool, MILLER, however, il seems that the execu-
tive Of the United States is now making an eff
fort to control the judiciary, at least fix
policy for the control Of the judiciary. Judge
SANFORD was not accused OF falling short Of or
of exceeding the laws He was not accused OF
being an unjust judge. The bar OF the territory
and OF the rest OF the country will naturally
wonder whether the President will have a pol
ICY for Judge ZANE that will be superior to the
law.
It has struck some people here who have seen
this correspondence that the President,
by his removal Of Judge SANDFORD and the (
appointment OF Judge ZANE TO carry out a
policy, has suggested that the courts may be
made dangerous and deSpicable as the creatures Z
of the laws. No doubt MIILER's letter notifying
Judge SANDFORDsof the administI atoms policy
for the government OF the judiciary Will rece We
careful reading by the Senators of the United |
States who will be asked by and by to advise
and consent TO the appointment of MILLER to :
supreme court iusticeship. The suggestion that |
the President can properly dictate a policy for |
the supreme court OF Utah may be followed be
fore long by the appointment OF somebody who
will consent 10 the dictaton of policy Tor the
supreme court OF the United States. If the s
President may dictate policy for the Utah i
court there does not seem To be any good reason |
why he may not run the supreme court at
Washington to carry out a more extensive |
policy. Judge SANDFORD did not leave the
bench without sending few words to the Presi-
dent. 1t was not an impudent or an ugly letter I
in its language, but still ii is safe TO say that 1t
did not cause the President any great amount of |
pleasure when he perused it. This cOrrespon- | Y
dence between the administration and the late |
chief Justice OF Utah was not furnished here at
Washington, but was reached by way OF Utah. | :
Here is what Judge SANFORD wrote as he left
the bench:
mn II, NF,s.. |