Arizona republican., 1904-04-09
The Bench and the Presidency.

It is pointed out by the New York Sun that should the democratic nation al convention nominate Chief Judge Parker of New York as it's presidential candidate. he will have the distinction of being the first judge on the bench to be so honored.
 The first judge to be voted for in any national convention as a presidential candidate was Judge John Mclean. who was an associate justice of the su- preme court of the United States. He was an Ohio man. and his name was brought before the convention which nominated Fremont in 1856. He had been known as a Jackson democrat. He received nearly two hundred votes in the convention.
 His candidacy was the result to considerable extent of his dissenting opinion in the celebrated Dred Scott case. His opinion, notwithstanding his previous political utilization, made him popular with the republican party, which at that time was In it's infancy.
 One of the most notable candidates from the bench for the presidential nomination was Salmon P. Chase. chief justice of the United States supreme court. He was appointed by Lincoln. In 1868 he was a candidate for the nom ination.
 It will be recalled that in a letter which he wrote some time before the democratic national convention. Chief Justice Chase said that while he had acted with the republican party since it had come into existence he had never wavered in his loyalty to the principles of democracy.
 He failed in his purpose. The failure was not only the disappointment of his public life. but 1t dashed to pieces the social ambition of his daughter, Kate Chase Sprague. one of the most gifted women in the land.
 David Davis, also a justice of the su- preme court, was frequently mentioned for the presidential nomination. from 1870 until the meeting of the conven- NASAA wv SNt1Ao AahGA MilAIll COlliIlllllGO the democratic party to the candidacy of Horace Greedy. The candidacy or Justice Davis was still being fostered by his friends, and, it is said, with his consent, when Samuel J. Tilden's nomi- nation put a quietus to the presidential hope of the jurist from Illinois, who re- signed frcm the bench to become sena- tor.
 There were two presidential candi- dates who had sat upon the bench be- fore their nominations. One. Andrew Jackson; the other, Stephen A. Doug las, was defeated
 The young man in politics may not recall that Jackson was United States senator from Tennessee and that m 179S he resigned his seat to accept an apointment to the supreme court bench of his state, a place which he held for six years.
 John Adams was elected q member of the supreme court of Massachusetts during the revolutionary war. but his duties as a member of the continental congress prevented him from qualify ing.
 Martin Van Buren, as a member of the senate of New York was ex-officio judge of the court of errors, which at that time was composed of certain members of the senate and judges of the supreme court of the state.
 Stephen A. Douglas was the only presidential candidate in the history of the country who carried the title of judge during his candidacy. He had been a member of the supreme court of Illinois three years when he quit the bench to engage in politics.