Year: 1873

BE Etlledt


The HERALD has already placed before its
readers the opinions of several of the leading
members of the New York Bar on the
question of the Chief Justiceship, and has
made public the views of number of
influential citizens as to who would be
the most desirable successor OF Judge Chase
on the Supreme Bench of the United States.
To-day we give the sentiments Of Judge Brady
on the subject as expressed in an interview
with an attache Of this paper In them will
be found the re-echo of the key
note which has been sounded again
and again-the embodiment of the idea,
prominent in all sound minds, that the
man to be selected for this high office
should be one entirely free from political
prejudices and above all ambition for polt-
ical preferment But there are some other
thoughts suggested by Judge Brady's remarks
which are deserving of serious consideration.
We are told that in his Judgment there is
much force in the suggestion already put
forth in the press that the selection
of a successor to Mr.. Chase will depend mainly
upon the result of the approaching election in
this State-in other words, that the position
of Chief Justice will certainly be bestowed
by the President upon Roscoe Conkling, pro-
vided the republicans elect such majority OF
the State Senate as will insure the choice of q
republican successor to that by the next
| State Legislature This conclusion implies
that the Chief Justiceship is indeed to be
made political Office, and that the selection
of the head of the United States Judiciary is
to be guided not by considerations of capacity,
but by the question of political expediency.


When We look back seventy years, to the
early and pure days of the Republic, we find
| that John Marshall, the man who above all
others, raised the decisions of the Supreme
| Court of the United States into position which
challenged the criticism and enforced the
respect of the legal profession in all parts of
the world, was chosen for the Office he so ele-
vated and adorned, not only without his own
solicitation, but against his own earnest pro-
test He had even urged the appointment of
another for the position; but President Adams,
impressed with the Importance of placing a
pure and thoroughly independent man at the
head Of the Judiciary of the nation,
sent the name of John Marshall to the Senate,
and it was unanimously confirmed. The
wisdom and patriotism of the choice were SUBJ
stantiated by subsequent history, and not the
least gratifying of President Adams triumphs
must have been the knowledge that by pro-
| noting such man as Marshall to the Chief
Justiceship he had won for the decisions
of the Supreme Court of the United States
worldwide renown; that its adjudications of
prize law became code for all future time,
and that, in the words of o distinguished jur-
ist ''over its whole path learning, intelli-
gence and integrity shed their combined
lustre" We have witnessed since that
time a gradual but certain descent
from the high principles which secured the
elevation of John Marshall to the Bench. We
have seen the appointment of Taney to the
Chief Justiceship as personal reward from
the President to devoted and subservient ad-
herent, and we have known the evils to which
such favoritism has led. We have beheld
the elevation of Judge Chase, as a mat
ter of political expediency, to the same
high position and the degradation which
political ambition has brought upon the
Supreme Bench. We are now threatened with
even deeper shame, for we are coolly told
by clear-minded, unprejudiced and impartial
observers that the appointment of Chief
Justice rests upon the uncertain chances
of State election; that if the republicans
happen to carry the New York Senate
this fall Roscoe Conkling will put on the
ermine, but that if they fail and there should
be the prospect of the election of democratic
United States Senator, the Oneida county
politician will continue to serve his party in
the Senate Chamber instead of on the bench.


When we reflect upon these things when
we find such able, clear and pure men as Judge
Brady endorsing the opinion that the mere
| hazard of State election is to decide the
question of who shall be selected by the Pres
ident of the United States as the head of the ju-
dietary of the nation, we can begin to appreciate
the nroads which Cesarism has made among
our people. Half century ago the discus
sion as to the probable appointee to the Chief
Justiceship would have turned upon the quail
fcations Of those whose names had
been mentioned in connection with the
high Office. We should have heard
opinions as to the ability of this or that citi-
zen to fill the position with dignity and credit,
and we should probably have been called
upon to use persuasive arguments to induce the
most capable and desirable man to accept the
appointment. As in the case OF Chief Justice
Marshall, the Office would have come to the
chosen individual, not only unsolicited, but
against his expressed desire. 1t would have
been the task of the President to force
the Office upon competent and de-
sirable person, and not to force an
incompetent and undesirable person into the