The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1903-07-19

neighbors. the Justice was from ooin9
that symbol OF Justice with one weight
and one measure for which he allowed
himself to be imposed upon the Commits
sion. II says:
We are aware that In your action you
have incurred virulent partisan censure'
The road to fictitious greatness. to pre-
tence instead OF reality. lay in the other
direction. The trial must have been Sc
we're, as the temptations you avoided and
the difficulties in your path were great
we the more congratulate ourselves that
Newark and New Jersey, In the persons
OF yourself and Senator Freiinghuysen,
have had 80 large and noble an Office in
the adjustment OF controversy 30 solemn
az that of the right Of State to vote for
the Presidency by its own methods and
independent Of the dictation and surveil-
lance Of Congress. The tendency OF the
House OF Representatives to usurp judicieI
and executive functions ia danger Jar
greater than any mere change Of party rule. v
II would seem from this letter to have
been quite the accepted view In the Judge
domestic and social circle that he deliber-
ately entered the commission in sleeps
clothing to rid the Republican party OF a
clause Of the Constitution and of candidate
which together threatened the Augean
Stable at Washington with q visit from
Hercules.
In spite Of his professions OF the sacred
ness Of the Constitution always and under
all circumstances" he seems to have esti-
mated the one he had sworn to obey very
much as voltaire estimated good resolu-
tions, az only made to be broken; at least
where the interests of the Republican party
were at stake
regret that the pertness Of Judge Brad
ley's son in presuming to defend his fathers
conduct in descending from the bench OF
the Supreme Court to serve on the Elec
toral Commission at the expense OF MIR.
Tilden should have made this criticism Of
the fathers conduct not only matter OF
justice, but OF duty to the memory OF one Of
the most justly eminent statesmen which
this country has yet produced.
Patriotism has perhaps no stronger claim
upon any citizen than that he should duly
appreciate, protect and defend the Con-
stitution under which he lives and the
rulers who are invested with its power, 30
far as and wherever and whenever they
deserve or need defence and protection;
and for that reason / was gratified with the
admirable portrait you have made Of an
ideal Court OF Justice. But, my dear Mr.
Choate, you need hardly be told that as
much evil may be done by exaggerating
the merits and strength ana usefulness OF
an institution or public policy as by under
rating them The mason who is about to
climb ladder with load Of brick on his
shoulders does not wish to he told that the
rungs Of the ladder are abundantly strong
to support him. If they are not.
do not suppose that you ever believed
that Mr.. Hayes received majority OF the
popular vote Of the United States in 1879,
or that the electoral vote Of that year was
ever constitutionally counted. Nor do I
believe that any one who thinks he can
politically afford to doubt, still doubts, IL he
ever doubted, that Mr.. Tilden was the
choice Of the nation for the Office which was
given to Mr.. Hayes.
You, or rather some friend OF yours not
so good a lawyer, may say for you that
the five gentlemen taken from the bench OF
not constitute or represent the Supreme
Court; they were but 80 many individuals
chosen for their learning and judicial az
perience. Unfortunately for this theory
they constituted majority OF the Supreme
Court and enough, when united and sitting
in banc, to decide any question that could
come before il; and it was precisely this
judicial contingent that did deprive the
nation Of it's choice for the Presidency in
1877
But it is not here question OF the great
fraud of which our people were the VIC
Tins, but whether the Supreme Court was
as innocent of any participation in that
fraud as your silence upon the subject
might lead your English audience and some
of your American readers to suppose.
II innocent. does not your exegesis
require little elaboration on that point
II not innocent, then serious notification
Twenty-six years have elapsed since
this violation Of the Constitution was perpe-
trated. During that period more than
half the people then living have gone to
their account. and considerably larger
proportion Of those who fancied themselves
to be beneficiaries Of that crime--time
enough for the baser passions in which
it was conceived and which it gratifled
to subside to the temperature Of reason
and justice ls it proper or wise that such
reproach upon the character Of the party
with which your name has always been 80
honorably associated-a party whose record
glows with some OF the most lustrous memo
rails of our own or indeed Of any nations
history-that such reproach should 70
unchallenged as II condoned. and should
be informally incorporated into and as
simulated as part of the constitutional
history Of the Republican partyf IL not,
to whom II not to you, and such as you,
must its honorable members look for it's
purgation?
But there il far greater national interest
at stake than the character of the Republican
party. Is this frailty Of our Supreme Court
Of Judicature, which in cases of dispute IL TO
determine the legal rights OF forty-five
sovereign States and eighty-odd millions
OF inhabitants, to be winked at? Is no one
of its members to be told to go and sin no
more' Is its waywardness In 1877 to be
accepted Az a tradition of that court and in
due time frozen into a judicial precedent,
that whenever ut the session OF Congress
following a popular Presidential election
there happens TO be majority in the lower
a Senate favorable to the Administration
"a situation which may occur before any
OF us are two years older--then that all