Year: 1874

| The following IS the letter OF CaleD


Cushing, requesting the withdrawal of
| his nomination:


To THE PREsIDENT-SIR: Anima-


ted by the sense Of profound gratitude
for the honor you have done me in


nominating me to the high office of
Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of
the United States, and perceiving that
the continuance of my name before the
Senate may be the cause or occasion of
inconvenience to yourself or your po-
litical friends there, respectfully re-
quest you to withdraw the nomination.
Permit me to add that the charges of
disloyalty to the Union and the Con-
stitution which have been brought
against me in this connection are ut
terly destitute of foundation in truth


or in fact. I Indignantly repel the inn
putation. In all the time anterior to
the commencement of hostilities in the
Northern States my political life in
whatever relation of parties was gov
erned by the single dominant purpose
of aiming to preserve the Threatened
integrity of the Union, and to avert
from my country the calamity Of its
disruption, and of consequent fratri-
cidal carnage. How could such a pur-
pose be promoted otherwise than by
political association or personal inter-
course with citizens of different States,
including those of States professedly
disaffected to the Union? Should the
only possible means of laboring to pre-
vent civil war be stigmatized as dis
loyalty to the Constitution But i'm
mediately on occurrence of the first
act of hostility to the Union being
struck in the State Of South Carolina,
I took my stand with the Union and
its government. publicly announced
my adhesion to them in the most un-
equivocal terms. I rendered my SER
vices to the government in the field or
in any other way which might testify
my fidelity to it, and have contin-
ued from that day to this, as we'll in
official as in unofficial actions, to tread
in the path of unswerving devotion to
the Union, whether during the actual
progress of hostilities against it or in
tue subsequent events of its reconstruc-
ton, and Of the successive amendments
of the Constitution rendered necessary
by the changed conditions and rela-
tions of the several States of the United
States and of their respective inhabi-
tants. The recent amendments of the
Constitution, each and all of them as
they were in turn adopted, and the
legislative acts for their enforcement,
and for accomplishing reconstruction,
had my cooperation, and have sup
ported them constantly, if not in polit-
ical debate, for which my comparative
Iy reserved habits of life afforded neith-
er occasion nor opportunity, yet in
legal opinion or in the courts and in
counsel or discussion with officers of
the government, members OF Congress
and private persons, entertaining the
same general respect for these amend
ments as for other provisions Of the
Constitution, and also rendering the
special observance due to them as the
just and necessary incidents of the re-
construction of the Union. While my
nomination was undergoing considera-
ton in the Senate it would have been
unbeseeming for me to speak in ex-
planation Of my acts or my opinion, but
now with relative Indifference to what-
ever else may have been said either
honestly or maliciously to my preju-
dice, it belongs to my sense of public
duty, and it is my right to re-affirm
and declare that have never in the
long course of not inactive life done
an act, uttered q word, or conceived
thought of disloyalty to the Constitu-
ton or the Union.


I have the honor to be, very respect
fully, G. CUSHING.


NEW HAMPSHIRE PREPARING FOR