Alexandria gazette. [volume] (Alexandria, D.C.) 1834-1974, 1894-02-20
The New Associate Justice.

1ut LOuIlidtiOu W WV
Yesterday of Senator E. D. White. OF
Louisiana, to be Associate Justice of the
United States was mentioned in the
GAZETTE of that date. The Senate
at once went into executive session and
confirmed the Supreme Court nomina-
ton of the President without referring
it TO a committee. Occasion had never
before arisen for passing upon the fit
ness OF a Senator for the office of su-
preme Judge, but there had been many
instances in which Senators had been
appointed to other places, and it has
become the custom, not unbroken,
however, to confirm without reference
to committee.
In his speech in executive session,
Senator Hill said:
"While it is true that Judge Whites
selection is most admirable, and one in
which l most cheerfully acquiesce, it is,
perhaps, equally true that the people of
New York, in their local pride, will re-
gret that the President did not see fit
to make a satisfactory appointment
from the hundreds of competent law
yers and distinguished jurists in that
great State whose nomination would
have provoked no opposition what
ever, and who would have adorn-
ed and honored the highest court
in the land. 1t may be asserted
as a fact that almost any one of the
forty Judges of the Supreme Court of
New York State, or any n of the pre-
sent federal judges there residing,
would have been acceptable to the
Senate, had the President, in his wis
dom, seer fit to honor any of them by
a nomination. There is no dispute up
on this point; but the Presidents choice,
in mis- opinion, seemed to have been
limited to a select few, for reasons best
known to himself. l do not propose,
on this occasion, to add a single IN
pleasant remark to the unfortunate con-
test which has occupied u attention
for the past six weeks owe the two
nominations which the majority of the
Senate regarded as unsuitable and OBJ
jectionable. I do not retract a single
word which l urged in successful OPP
position to their confirmation. These
contests have passed into history-there
Let them be judged.
II believe that the State Of New York
was entitled to the judgeship; and had
the senators from that State been con-
suited, as they properly should have
been, and as courtesy and usage re-
quired, a satisfactory selection from the
numerous eminent members of the bar
of my State could easily have been
made. You we'll known that the SEN
ators from New York have NJ candidate
of their own. Their action was not in
duenced by disappointment. They
pressed no tavorites upon the attention
of the appointing power, but whatever
action they took vas impelled by their
self.respect and their loyalty to the peo-
pies interest which they represented,
and to the regular democratic organiza-
ton to which they belonged. The Pres
ident, in the exercise of the sole discre-
ton which the Constitution vests in him,
has seen it fit to go outside of New York and
outside the circuit where the vacancy &C.
Cured, and has honorei the Senate by the
appointment of one of its distinguished mem-
beers from the far-distant State Of Louisiana,
and while this action may, perhaps, justly
be regarded as 4 slight TO our circuit and to
New York. or a reflection upon its distln-
guished judiciary, any member of which
would have adorned the highest federal court,
yet we may congratulate ourselves that so adj
mirable a selection has been made, and re-
feet that. after all. the question OF the To-
cality or residence is a matter of little cOnse-
quence compared with the other considera-
tons involved in the choice for so exalted a
station. / an entirely satisfied with the pre-
sent outcome
Edward Douglas White will take his seat
on the Supreme Bench as the youngest OF
justices. and, with the exception of Justices
Field and Harlan, he will have entered at an
earlier period in life than any of the other
justices, and will have the exceptionally long
term of twenty-One years to serve before re-
tirement. He was born in the parish of La
Fourche, La, and was forty-eight years OF age
last November. he is q man of striking ply
steal character. tall and robust, OF rather florid
complexion, high forehead, a square firm chin
and mouth, marked by character and decision.
His movements are quick, without show of
nervousness. and betray the great energy
which is one Of the characteristics of the man.
.Justice White was educated at Mount st.
Mary's. near Emmittsburg. Md, at the jos
nit College in New Orleans, and finally at
Georgetown College, d. c. He entered the
confederate army, and after the war was adj
mitted to the bar Of the Louisiana Supreme
Court. and practiced his profession during the
troubled years following the reconstruction
period. In 1874 he began his political ex-
perience as a State Senator.