Year: 1873

tioH III IcSdIu 70 the SelecuOn OF Cnlei ouS-
tice of the United States. If the person to be
elevated to that honorable position shall be
found eminently fitted to adorn it by his fame
as jurist by the calmness and impartiality
of his judgment and by the unsullied purity
Of his life, no one will heed whether he be
called from the Atlantic coast or from the
Pacific slope-from the hills of Maine or from
| the plains of Louisiana. When the high
political offices of the nation are to be filed it
is natural enough that sectional rivalry should
| display itself in the contest. The conflicting
interests consequent upon the vast extent OF
the country induce o jealous watchful-
ness lest one locality should be un-
duly favored at the expense of others.
The distribution of the patronage of
the government, and what is of more conse-
quence, the policy of an administration, must
be more or less influenced by the lifelong
sentiments and friendships of the President of
the United States. Hence in the nomination
for the Presidential Office it is not surprising
| to find the North and the South the East and
| the West, each in its turn claiming considera-
ton; nor can it be justly regarded as any in
dication that the union between the sections
is not firmly cemented. Everybody feels that
it would be in conflict with republican senti-
| ment should the producing States of the West
claim q monopoly of the Executive chair,
which has been occupied by Lincoln and Grant,
both Western men, since 1860, although the
Eastern, Middle or Southern States might not
be directly injured thereby. But in filling
the highest judicial position in the nation the
question of location may be safely ignored.
The popular mind should love to con-
template the Supreme Court as standing
aloof from political strife, and nothing
is more threatening to the permanency
of our republican government than the neces-
Sity which compels the honest journalist to
weigh political chances in connection with
the appointment of Chief Justice. Presi-
dent Grant has the whole Union to choose
from should he determine to select Judge
Chase's successor-as Washington chose Jay
and Rutledge and Ellsworth, and as Adams
selected Marshall-on public grounds alone,
apart from personal or political considera-
tons. No one will care from what State or
from what section the new Chief Justice may
come, provided the independence of the selec-
ton and the eminence of the appointee shall
give promise of the restoration of the Supreme
Court to the purity and dignity that distin-
guished it in the earlier and better days of the
Republic.


Of the six judges who have sat at the head
of the Supreme Court since the adoption of
the constitution one was from New York, one
from South Carolina one from Connecticut,
one from Virginia, one from Maryland and
one from Ohio. A citizen of New York was
the first to receive the honor of al lppoint-
ment as Chief Justice. The choice of Wash
ington was well made. 1t was creditable to
the President, honorable to the State and ben
efcal to the nation. John Jay, if not SO
great as Marshall or Story as jurist, pos
sessed marked qualifications for the high po-
sition in those trying days of the nations his |
tory. His character had been tempered in |
the red heat of the Revolution, and his patriot
ism was of that earnest and unselfsh kind
which distinguished the great men who !
won our independence. He was a
statesman in the best sense Of the |





as check upon more ardent but no less |
earnest patriots, in the first movements against |
the aggressions of the British government, in
the dark hours of the revolutionary struggle
and in the no less critical moments when,
victorious over the power of England, the
States were called upon to solve the problem
Of self-government and to lay the foundation
IF IL v,ubl 10 ha
more free than was Judge Jay from the slight
est taint of demagoguism. No thought of
faction could have found Judgement in o mind
which was filled with devotion to the best
interests of his country He was oftener on
the unpopular side Of question than on the
popular side, yet in almost all grave matters
his advice prevailed. When the rights and
liberties of the colonists were threatened by the
unconstitutional acts Of the British Ministry
Judge Jay counselled moderation in the mode of
remonstrance and resistance, and he origi-
mated the proposition for general congress
of the colonies before an agreement of non-
intercourse with England should be entered
into by any portion of them. BY this course
he placed himself in opposition to the popular
outcry, but his counsel prevailed, and the
light of history shows clearly its wisdom.
The first constitution of the State of New
York was mainly the work of his hands, yet
he refused to be o candidate for the Office of
Governor under that constitution, as he de-
clined all other political Offices, save when he
became convinced that the interests of the
country demanded his services The new
State government went into operation in
the latter part Of 1777, while the
clouds of war were still hanging
over the nation, and Judge Jay
accepted the position of Chief Justice of
fba Snprap,a Court of Naw York Tho