Show the led FOR REMOVING JUDGE SANDFORD I 1 what the leading papers think of it the following article appears in the salt lake herald of the dinst the herald does not expect to republish all that the newspapers of the country say in denunciation of the removal of chief justice sandford the undertaking would be too great for us so much has been said on the subject we havo reprinted many columns of editorial comment select ed from representative journals throughout the republic merely to show with what alarm the of public opinion view an attempt by t tl e executive to interfere with the duties of the judiciary and with what earnestness and determination such interference is resisted the indignation has been so intense that it is apparent that the people will not submit to the dictation the warning havin been sounded general hamson will never again assume the right to do what he has done in this case it may well bo imagined that he wishes he saw his way clear to the outcome of the present unwarranted action this morning the herald reproduces extracts from editorial articles in certain leading journals it will be seen that they are in the same vein as the many articles which have heretofore been printed in these columns the first is from the brooklyn eagle one of the foremost newspapers of new york mr george VV childs severely rebukes attorney general miller for his recent letter to chief justice sandford of utah informing the chief justice that he was removed be cause hia administration of the office iu harmony with the presidents policy mr childs thinks it was not the duty of the chief justice to consult the presidents policy but to interpret the laws and that such a letter as the one written by the attorney general is a direct blow at the independence of the judiciary he adds if there is anything of a nature to help the executive in this matter it had better be brought promptly to the front mr childs symptoms are dangerous there is no telling at what moment ho may become a on the instant the editor of the omaha herald under the bead the kind of material miller is was only justly severe on the president and the attorney general in the following the letter referred to which is omitted is the one in which miller said sandford was removed because his administration was abot afi harmony with the policy the president deemed proper to be pursued with reference to utah affairs mr miller attorney general by virtue of his former business relation with benjamin Ham sori and understood to be the presidents favorite candidate for the vacancy on the supreme bench baa not only aided in putting president harrison in a most unfavorable light before the country but has also given the people of the united states a timely conception of what miller on the bench would consider his anty construing the law into harmony with harrisons policy consider well a candidate whose views of the judiciary are such as to inspire such a letter as this it is easy to deduce that mr miller on the bench would act in consonance with the presidential policy and as he is pretty certain to be chosen that president harrison will encroach politically upon the national supreme bench as he has upon the territorial supreme bench in utah by removing sandford and making way for baoe the nashville american which is conceded to be one of the ablest and moat influential paper in the south devotes a colemn to the it in a clear manner and without abuse among other things it says if president harrison desires to maintain any show of respect for his professions and promises if ho wishes to throw any covering whatever over the indecent nakedness of his prostitution of the appointing power to the worst ends of the lowest hee hould instruct his cabinet core and heads of departments to observe some sort of discretion in their tub lie utterances concerning his policy in the face of the presidents declaration that he would make no removals for mere partisan reasons we have seen resignations demanded for the bluntly stated reason that the office was wanted for a republican and this coupled with a tribute to the character and efficiency of the officer whose resignation was asked taft most flagrant case however yet made public is the removal of elliot sandford chief justice of utah judge Sand fords resignation was asked ty the attorney general for the reason that he president thought the public interest would ba sub served by a change in the office this d mand was very vaguely worded but it conveyed a distinct intimation of misconduct or efficiency and judge sandford properly refused to comply with the request unless informed of the reasons for which it was asked saying that if charges had been preferred against him he could not afford to resign until they proved or disproved but that if his resignation was desired for political reasons boly he would promptly accommodate the president in his desire to this the attorney general made the following remarkable reply v in this matter the attorney general merely mentions the fact that papers are on filo complaining of the manner in which judge sandford has discharged his duties ant the nature of these charges whether they aro supported by evidence and believed to be true and whether they are in themselves of a character sufficiently grave to justify the removal of a judicial does not appear evidently the president and his at torney general attach no importance thereto for with this more incidental mention the letter proceeds to state that the president has become satisfied that our administration of the office was not in harmony with the policy he deemed proper to be pursued with regard to utah affairs the fatal indiscretion in this letter is apparent at a glance independently of all charges concerning the discharges of his judicial duties there is a variance on questions of policy judge sandford was quick to turn the blundering and stupid candor of the attorney general against him he replied that ho had conceived it to be his duty as chief justice to administer justice aej the laws fairly and impartially to all men and that if tho president had any policy other than this which ho desired a chief justice of the supreme court to carry out in reference to utah affairs he had done well to make a change president harrison as his own at torney general bears witness proposes to find other duties for a judge beyond those provided by law and covered by the oaths of office he must not feel that a just and equal administration of the law will bo regarded as a satisfactory discharge of his duties he not only has to interpret the statutes and dispense jus tice according to law but must make himself subservient to the policy outlines to him by the president what has a judge upon the bench to 30 with the presidents policy or any other policy except such as ho may find embodied in the constitution and the lawse it seems that the one paper in this country which has the audacity to openly justify and defend tho president foghis removal of chief justice sandford because the latter assumed his duty was to administer the law as he found it and harrison wanted the judge to follow another policy which should bo outlined at the white house is tho omaha bee other journals in their blind loyalty to the administration have floundered about trying to find excuses and explanations but in no instance has a justification been attempted save by the abee and its effort is brazen and outrageous in the extreme the omaha herald proceeds to answer it as follows the bee possibly with a lively ap irecia tion that it has favors to ask of larrison zealously rushes hot foot to the presidents defense in removing the chief justice of the supreme bend of utah it says during his senatorial term president harrison as chairman of the committee on territories had a distinctly marked policy upon utah matters which was after all only the policy of the conservative people of the country bent upon seeing the laws rigidly administered it was highly proper and manly in the president in removing judge sandford to state frankly and openly that as his policy in utah was to be on tho lines of a rigid enforcement of the laws he did not feel that judge sandford was the man for the place the average Eo publican organ is shameless in partisan matters and it is not surprising to find the bee brazenly championing instead of apologizing for such flagrant intrusion up on branch government as that which president harri bon has made A policy for the judiciary what policy is there other than the execution of the laws the judge on the bench should be kept above the coercion or influence afan administrative policy making him but the mouthpiece of the president isa is a usurpation and infringement upon the duties and privileges of a branch of the government which the drafters of the constitution created independent the toleration of such infringement is the yielding to an autocratic theory of government a one manpower a centralization of control which is a menace to republican institutions A president who claims and exercises the right to interfere in any manner with the and un position of the bench and to make the following of his policy the condition on which the judge shall hold olfina is not properly qualified to occupy the presidential chair to invade the political purposes is an unseemly usurpation such a one as should not be permitted the denunciation of the removal continues to occupy much space in the editorial columns of the leading I 1 of the counte of conraad they will get through with the affair one of these days but they intend that tho outrage shall be thoroughly aired first and the warning sounded so much has been said that it may be safely concluded that while president harrison may privately dictate a policy to be followed by a judge ho will never again confess that he removes a judge because the latter is not in harmony with the policy of the president attorney gen eral miller also would give half a years salary if he had not penned that famous letter to judge sandford perhaps the ablest democratic newspaper in virginia is the alexandria gazette in the issue of the dinst the editor wrote of the sandford removal and millers aspirations the supreme bench as follows attorney general miller who says the president will not knowingly ap 1 point any man to office who drinks or is given to profanity in his letter to judge sandford removing him from the place of chief justice of al so says the judge was removed be cause the president was satisfied that he was not his policy in respect of utah affairs ford says in his reply if the president of the united states has any policy which ho desires a judge of the supreme court to carry out in reference to utah affairs other than the one I 1 have pursued you may say 0 o him that he has done well to remove me most people believe that the duty of judges is to expound the law and that they have as little to do with politics presidential or otherwise as the caan in the moon but according to mr miller such a belief is entirely erroneous it is currently reported that the president intends to appoint mr miller an associate justice of the united states supreme he was his law partner when mr miller shall be a member of that court will his decisions bo rendered in accordance with other peoples policies what will the other members of that court think of their associate who says that liis reason for removing a judge was that tho judge referred to was not in harmony with the policy of the president another of the influential newspapers of the south is the jacksonville fla times union which devotes nearly two columna to the case in the issue of the heretofore the herald has quoted almost exclusively from the leading republican and independent papers of the north but this morning we reproduce something of the much that the south has said the times union says under tho head the judiciary invaded the american people have believed that the invasion of the judiciary by executive power was absolutely impossible under our form of govern ment they have imagined that long years of minor usurpation and corruption must precede any assault upon the very citadel of our liberties borne descended by regular gradations before the purple was finally knocked down to the highest bidder but for the first time in the history of our country a president preempts rily removes a judge appointed for life or during good behavior to make room for a pap sucker the willing and obedient tool of a narrow minded partisan master chief justice ellton sandford of utah was ap pointed by president cleveland anil has administered the law with such eminent ability and impartiality that the bar of salt lake republicans and democrats protested against the deep damnation of his taking off the salt lake herald of june 4 h publishes the facts and the correspondence spon dence which passed between the chief justice and the president and his subservient attorney general je a humiliating record the herald save here follows tho entire article letter and comments which appeared in these columns on the iab on which the times union comments more startling than itself is the presidents announcement of his policy which he wishes pursued in regard to the utah affairs it is not enough that an upright judge shall interpret and administer the law as the legislative department of the national government enacts it we now have a president choso whoso policy is to stand as the higher law if he may knock down judges in the territories and sat up puppets of his own imperious will what state what community is safe chief justice fuller of the united states supreme court may look out for his head also since it is said attorney general miller himself has a hanker ing after judicial veland appointed chief justice F he is a democrat president harrison no doub thas a policy toward national as ho has toward utah affairs the partition w broken down what shall hinder the president from further usurpation if the president and his attorney general can read that letter without a blush they must be lost to sensibility indeed there is not an honest lawyer in the united states democrat or republican who will not protest against this first invasion of the judiciary if we thought one leading member of that learned and noble profession could approve of it we should almost despair of the republic |