The Salt Lake tribune. [volume] (Salt Lake City, Utah) 1890-current, 1910-11-20

|
I "'Marshall. Taney, Chase, "
fl:
explanation. Three years before the
! Marylander had been made secretary
of the treasury by Andrew Jackson, for
| the express purpose of carrying out the
president S plan of removing the fed
era' deposits from the United States
bank. II was recess appointment, and
when the senate met in "a. the nomina-
tion was promptly negntived. Taney
thereupon sent his resignation to the
White House, and it was accepied-bnt
the work for which he had been ap.
pointed had been done, In January,
'36, there occurred vacancy on the
supreme bench and Jackson again sent
Taney S name to the upper house, which,
still hostile, again withheld its sane
ton Then came the death of Mar
shall and, the political complexion OF
congress having somewhat altered. Jack
son for a third time nominated Taney.
There was. as might have been expected.
a bitter fight over the ratification of
the appointment. Henry Clay himself
leading those opposed to it, but the pres
ldent won his way. % votes to Is, and
:, Roger B. became the fifth of the
federal chief justices. It was. at the
time. openly charged that jackson was
merely paying his debt to the southerner
In placing him in so high a position.
and that the whole affair offered the
most extreme instance Of the spoils sys.
tenn.
Ushered inro Office in the face of y
opposition, Judge Taney's twenty .ei ght
Years were marked by the most hostile
criticism, eliminating In '57, when he
pronounced the decision, in the case of
the slave Dred Scott, that negroes
were so far an inferior race that they
had no rights which the white man was
pound to respect. and that they might
Justly and lawfully be reduced to slav.
cry for his benefit Nothing in its
previous legal history has ever so in
hamed the entire country; Horace Gree
ley, speaking for the north. declared
he was puzzled TO decide whether law,
humanity, or history is most faprantly
defed in the opinion. To say then
that Mr.. Taney is chiefly remembered
for his Fugitive slave decision is
but to state the fact, though it is to be
added with emphasis that he proved
hlnlseif I'm spite of this, if you choose)
u really great jurist, and that his fame
has grown largely during the generation
1864 -
Chase and Waite.
With Salmon P, Chase the pendulum,
SO far as the view of slavery was con-
cerned, swung to the other extreme of
the arc. For thirty years the Ohioan
nad been strong abolitionist, ever
since, In 1886, he had seen the Gin
einnati Offices of the Philanthropist
aestroyed by a pro-slavery mob, and
lie had acted in the defense of ruua-
way slaves so many times Gncmdino
the famous Van Landt case lust be.
iiors the outbreak of the war; that he
naq come TO be known popularly as
the attorney general for runaway mig.
gers. As his immediate predecessor 5
name is for all time linked with that
OF Dred Scott. SO is Chase's with
PRESIDENT johnson IS, for it fell TO him
trial of chief executive the country
has known. He is remembered. too,
as one of the four "big men, whose
names came before the Republican ma.
flonal convention at Chicago in 1860
Chase, Cameron, Seward and Lincoln,
1t was the last named who placed this
one.tlme opponent at the head of the
highest tribunal in the land, there to
build for himself Il lasting reputation
as brilliant exponent Of "the ma.
tional view
Morrison R. Waite IS appointment by
General Grant in 1874 had been fully
justified by the appointee splendid
achievements at Geneva, two years be-
fore. when, with Caleb Cushing and
William M Evarts. he had represented
the interests of the United States be-
fore the international tribunal which
was called upon to arbitrate our Ala
bama claims against Great Britain or
middle height, broad -shouIdered, com.
pactiy built and erect of carriage, with
manners as graceful and genial as his
Will was firm and his thought decisive,
Mr.. Waite had stood well forward ms
one Of the great figures at the confer
ences. Seated upon the supreme bench
the country 'llooked to him for a
tenure of office that should be careful
and Upright. safe and estimaben (to
quote from an editorial Of the day
in the New York Tribune), and it
found him this and more. The man g
administrative ability was wonderful;
none of his predecessors more steadily
or more wisely superintended the bust
ness Of tho court than did he for the
fourteen years between 1874 and 1883.
Fuller Was Not for Sale.
of Melville Weston Fuller's incum-
bency of the responsible post, which
came to him in 1888 at the call Of
President Cleveland. is one of large
service accomplished with skill and in.
teority. The turn Of a handful of
votes in tho state of New York in 1884
would have made Mr.. Blaine chief ex:
ecutive of the land instead OF the great
Democratic leader, and in that case
a chance so small and so close that one
can realize the keen Joy Nathaniel
Hawthorne would have taken in point
ing out the widening circles of
it's resulting divergencies-some man
would have been placed at tho head
of the bench Of n point Of view wholly
different, historically and economically,
from Mr.. Fuller; man of quite diff