Phillipsburg herald. [volume] (Phillipsburg, Kan.) 1882-1905, 1891-04-09
THE SUPREME COURT.
How This Most August Body In the world
Is Free from Political Influences.

How This Most August Body In the World
Is Free from Political Influences.
The President recently appointed {
| justice of the United States District
Court, Judge Henry B. Brown, of the
eastern district of Michigan, to the Su.
preme Court Of tie United States. Not
long before he promoted Justice Brewer,
of the United States Circuit Court. to I
place on the same bench.
These two appointments tend to con-
| firm tendency, already marked, to re-
eruit the Supreme Court by drawing
members from the two lower federal
courts.
The Circuit Court, (which was created
in 1869 to relieve the pressure of bust
-ess upOn the Supreme Court. consists
of ten justices. The District Courts
are fifty eight in number, and there is
one judge for each district.
The Supreme Court, besides being a
body of the higest dignity and import
ance, is remarkable for the character OF
permanence which it possesses.
Its justices hold their Offices for life,
and though the United States Senate is
also permanent body, being renewed
merely by new elections of individual
members, its membership has not, in
fact, the character of permanence which
marks the Supreme Court.
No other body in the world surpasses
the Supreme Court in this quality of
permanence. Four lives of its members
span the entire continuous period of the
existence of the Republic under the
CONSTITUTIONS period of almost 102
years.
Justice Stephen ]. Field, who is the
senior member of the court, was APP
pointed in 1868 by President Lincoln.
When he came IN he found upon the
bench Justice Wayne, of Georgia. who
had been a justice since 1885, when he
was appointed by President jackson.
Justice Wayne, in entering. had found
Chief Justice Marshall, appointed by
President Adams in 1901, still npon the
bench, and one of the original justices,
William Gushing, appointed 1889 by
Washington, was still in service when
Marshall was appointed, and continued
IN service nine years afterward.
These four terms of service are by no
means the four longest of justices of the
supreme Court, but are simply those
which overlapped one another in the
history Of the court. They not only
have measured the span of the Repub-
AO cAASIcAC03 DuI Ahf6 thirteen years
to spare.
Justice Story served exactly as long
as Chief Justice Marshall upon the
bench-thirty-four years. For twenty
four years, from 1911 to 1895, these two
nlustrious men sat in the court together.
For sixty-three years, from 1901 to
1864, the Supreme Court had but two
chief ustices-AIarshall and fancy.
Several Presidents have had no op-
pOrtunity to appoint justice to the SUI
preme Court, though that has not been
the case with any President who has
served full term.
This peculiar character of permRnence
is eminently fitting. The Supreme
Court is itself a substantial guarantee
of the permanence of the Republic, since
its power of passing upon the constitu-
tionality of acts of Congress removes
causes of dispute which might other
wise be dangerous to the Union.
No one President, party, 1or decade
constitutes it, and it is not subject to
passing movements and passions. The
President takes his oath of Office from
its chief; and to influence its decisions,
or to affect its character save by at the
most two or three appointments, is be-
yond his power. Youths Companion.