Wheeling register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1878-1935, 1892-01-25
He ELECTED HAYES.
The Career OF the Late Chief Justice
Bradley-His Peculiar Recreation.

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Justice Joseph r. Bradley was a self
made man. His father was poor far
mer in the interior of New York and
young Bradley's earliest schooling was
that of the country teacher. He worked
in the summer and went to school in the
winter until he was sixteen, and after
this he taught country school and prac-
ticed surveying. His ambition to be
great sprouted with his being and a
story is told at Albany how citizen Of
that place. when young Bradley was
doing some rather mental work
for him, asked him what he
intended to do in life. The
future justice was then hardly in his
teens. He was backward with his an
swer and said that he hadn't quite made
up his mind whether he would be Presi-
dent of the United States or judge OF
the Supreme Court. This interested
mis- employer and he talked further with
the boy. He found him wonderfully
well informed, and he urged him by all
means to get college education II pos
sible. Judge Bradley saved enough
from his country school teaching to
send himself to college, and he grad
uated at Rutgers in 1886 at the age OF
twenty-three.
After graduating he studied law In
Newark, n. j., under Judge Hornblow-
er, late Chief Justice of New Jersey.
whose daughter he subsequently mar
ried. He took prominent stand at the
bar almost at once.
After practicing law for twenty years
he was chosen an Associate Justice OF
President Grant. 1t was charged that
his appointment was for the purpose of
securing a reversal of the previous un-
favorable decision on the Legal-Tender
act, but Chancellor Williamson, who
knew him well, said he believed Justice
Bradley did not go counter to his pre-
vious opinions in helping 10 the reversal.
THE ELECTORAL COMMISSION.
Judge Bradley will always be conspic-
nous in history as the man who gave
the eighth and decisive vote for Hayes
for President in the famous Eighy-to-
Seven Electoral Commission Of 1867, a
vote which brought the country peril
ously near to the brink of civil war.
The storm that broke upon his head
was one that it took strong man to
withstand, but Justice Bradley did stand
up before it with dignity. Whether his
vote was that of partisan or Of con-
scientious jurist posterity must deter
mine.
The charge was freely made at the
time that the Electoral Commission, ap-
pointed by Congress, each party choos-
ing certain members and these calling
to their aid others, including Supreme
Justices, was Republican conspiracy;
that Justice Bradley was selected only
after be had secretly promised to give
his vote in any event to the Republican
candidate.
By voting not to go behind the re-
turns from Florida, Louisiana and
South Carolina, Justice Bradley, with
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had q majority of the popular vote.
Justice Bradley's decisions appear in
forty volumes Of the Supreme Court de-
cisions.
HIS CHARACTER.
Justice Bradley had remarkably
ANALYTICAL mind and was one Of the
most skilful mathematicians OF the
present day. He amused himself in
working out geometric problems, for
recreation, and delighted in getting up
calendars showing at what hour the
moon will rise on January or February
9, A. d. 1850. He liked to figure ont
the day of the week on which the LIST
of Juue, for instance, will occur for a
thousand odd years or so, and he
thought in figures.
The origin of his mathematical tastes
came from his fathers library. Though
the old man was charcoal burner on
scanty farm, he had lot Of historical
and mathematical books, and young
Bradley conquered algebra without a
teacher in the intervals OF charcoal
burning. His mechanical and msthe-
NAUTICAL knowledge made him especially
strong in patent cases, which consti-
tute about one-ffth Of the Supreme
Court business.
Judge Bradley was rich. He lived
quietly at Washington, and he had one
of the finest libraries of the capital.
He was described as little dried up
anatomy of man not much over five
feet six in height. He had big nose,
sharp, bright little eyes, iron gray hair
and pair of tightly closed lips. His
skin hung in wrinkles, and all his fat
has long since gone to figures and judi
cial decisions.