Show new NEWS I 1 TT eop tale of the supreme court george F parker tells how president cleveland offered the chief tice ship to john G carlisle before naming fuller it has always been the popular presumption that since the time when john marshall was appointed chief justice of the united states that Is the legal title for the office of chief justice of the supreme court only one person has ever declined the offer of the chief senator roscoe conkling of new york it was widely published at the time of the incident that president grant had offered the post of chief justice to senator conk ting ling the letter in which the off offer er was made was preserved as one of the choicest of the papers which came into the possession of senator conk ling a literary executors but the popular belief that senator conkling is the only man who ever re fused to become chief justice of the united states Is erroneous and I 1 have for my authority tor for this statement mr george F parker the blog eapher of grover cleveland a close friend of mr cleveland 8 for nearly 30 years and one of the few friends ad bitted into perfect intimacy with mr cleveland mr parker not no t only tells here tor for the first time in print who the other man was who refused the chief but also how it came about that melville W fuller became chief justice of the united states afeei the death of chief justice morrison Morr lson R walte waite in the latter part of mr cleveland Clev elands s first adminis tra tion said mr parker mr cleveland after giving much thought to the nom nation illation of his successor decided to name john G carlisle tor for the post provided mr carlisle revealed a wil lin gness to accept the honor mr car lisle at that time was speaker of the house of representatives and mr mir cleveland had come to entertain a very high regard for him as a parlia men tarlan a legislator and a lawyer having arrived at this decision by taking counsel wholly with himself mr cleveland took the first to place before the speaker of the house his desire to place him on the supreme court bench berich and in the highest place on that bench mr car lisle greatly appreciated the tentative offer but he decided that it was not expedient tor for him to accept it very likely he had in view a political ca reer of a different kind one with a vista that reached to the white house itself but this much is certain had he been willing to accept the office he and not Melvi melville lleW W fuller would have become the country count rys s chief jus tice in 1888 nor I 1 presume Is it generally known that after mr carlisle declined the chief the president for some time seriously thought of ap pointing to that great office the late james C carter of new york then regarded as the leader of the ameri can bar in whose office associate justice charles E hughes received his first experience in active legal practice but finally after he had also seriously thought of calling ed ward J phelps home from the court of st james to take the post he turned to melville W fuller of chi cago what definitely determined mr cleveland to select mr fuller tor for chief justice were certain re presenta eions made to him by members of the supreme court they said to him that a man to be successful as chief jus tice of the united states should have in addition to great legal learning and a high judicial capacity great execl five ability under chief justice walte waite they delicately intimated great lawyer though he was the business of the supreme court had lagged so that it was about three years behind the docket mr fuller had been recommended to president cleveland not only as a very able lawyer but also as a busl ness man manof I 1 of unusual capacity had he chosen a business life instead of the law his sponsors declared and ably correctly he would have gained distinguished success as an executive how the nomination for that place wae was offered to governor boles of iowa by william C whit ney and declined the only democratic governor the state of iowa has ever had since the organization of the republican party was horace boles doles now in his eighty fourth year mr mir boles doles was elected governor in 1890 and reelected re elected two years later and two years after he had left the gubernatorial chair he was second in the balloting for prest dent by the democratic national con bention which gave mr bryan his first presidential nomination in recognition of the initial tri of mr boles doles over iowa a lican host governor boies doles through his friends the late moses M ham and jennis J richardson of daven port iowa was urged and consented to take part in what was expected to be the largest political banquet ever held up to that time it was fixed tor for the evening of december 23 1890 in new york city and was looked upon as the beginning of the democratic national campaign of last days AD fays of great I 1 lawyer knowledge that he had hereditary disease of eyes checked evarts career in senate and drove him from public life no man since the days of the civil war ever entered the united states senate with greater prestige than did william M evarts for years he had been recognized as the leader of the american bar he Is 14 to be numbered among the few great lawyers who are assured of permanent recognition of bis his career he had been the spokesman for the nomination ot of william H seward tor for the presidency of 1860 during the civil war he had been sent on a diplomatic mission to england by pres ident lincoln As president johnson a senior counsel he did much to secure johnson 9 acquittal in the great im peach ment trial he ile had beben actor ney general in johnson johnsons s cabinet and secretary of state under hayes he ile had served as the leading counsel for the republicans before the electoral commission appointed to decide the hayes tilden presidential election he bad had been chief counsel for bis his country before the famous geneva court of arbitration and the cause for which he pleaded bad had triumphed thus when in 1885 mr evarts was elected united states senator from new york ork state this selection was loo looked apon upon as a matter of national importance and great things were ex pecked of him both by the senate it self and the country at large but mr evarts had not been in his seat in the senate long before his c colleagues 0 lle agues began wonderingly to whis p per 1 r among themselves saying has t this h ls great man found himself in an unfamiliar place are his abilities ex clu elusively those of a great lawyer or diplomat 9 he seems to be lapsing in to a spirit of indifference more and more it was noticed that mr evarts was becoming almost a lay figure in the senate chamber and it was frequently although quietly said that his service as a senator would probably prove to be an anti climax to his great career it was observed that when he entered the chamber he occasionally felt his way to his seat he ile seemed feeble he was carefully attended at last it was assumed that the change was due to ill health after senator evarts retired front from the senate in 1891 he gradually be gan to disappear from the places which had long known him finally it became known that he was confined to his house he lived in a roomy old fashioned dwelling which faced vesant square in new york and lay in the shadow of st georges church gradually he was confined to bis his room and at last to his bed then his friends knew what he had known when he was in the senate that he was a victim of an hereditary disease pt of the eyes a malignant physical taint which was in the koger roger sherman blood from which also mr evarte evarts cousin the late senator george F hoar car of massachusetts suffered and it was this affliction secretly brave ly borne that had caused him to seem like another man when senator never was an invalid more patient than this heroic figure when he was brought to bed in the summer with the window open he could hear the murmur of the city and the children as they played in the square the fragrance of the blossoms he perceived and greatly enjoyed so that he could with mental vision picture forth the coming of the spring and early sum mer but friends reported that after all he was finding his greatest consolation in the unobscured mental vis ion ton which was left him by means of it be he could picture forth the men and incidents of the historic events with which he bad had been associated and thus consoled thus occupied with the varied and fascinating mental like nesses of men and historic scenes the great american at last passed into perfect sleep copyright 1911 by E J edwards all rights reserved it was this qualification and this chiefly that led mr cleveland Gl eveland af after ter his talks with members of the su preme court to appoint melville E fuller chief justice and it gave him no small degree of satisfaction after wards when he learned from members member 4 of the supreme court that under chief justice fuller the executive arrangement of the supreme courts business had been so adequately perfected as to enable the court no longer to lag la in the disposition of cases 0 copyright 1911 by E J edwards all rights reserved story of vice presidency enc 1 l vr ay you should have seen governor boles doles when he arrived in new york said sald to me a member of the democratic national committee of that year he was in much distress ot of mind and he revealed the reason when he asked us it if it would be proper tor for him to appear at the din ner in a business suit he ile t own such a thing as a dress suit he was much relieved when ve e told him that there would not be the slightest objection to his business suit then he asked if he might read his speech he ile said he had tried to commit it to memory but it was wai of no use and finally the governor ap feared to be very happy when we told him why of course you can read your speech it proved to be a great speech the subject was farmers and the tariff and it attracted so much at that william C whitney and the others who were directing the machinery for the nomination of cleveland two years hence were not surprised when they learned that it had resulted in a flae fine presidential for governor boles ahat would not down it was the only thing of consequence that an noyed mr cleveland s friends of course the iowa democracy elated by its gubernatorial victory and almost carried off its feet by the expectation that an iowa dem dent crat would be nominated for the prest dency sent to chicago in the sumar r of 1892 a magnificent host ten thousand persons in all and made much political noise but file he noise did not avail after mr Clev cleveland elands s nomination on the first ballot some of those who ho bad had directed the campaign met in william C whitney s room mr whit ney said that under the circumstances it would be expedient to say to the iowa delegation that it governor boies dotes would accept the nomination for vice president it would be made probably by acclamation emph emphasize asiz ing the last two words thereupon a courteously and gen crousby worded communication pre pie pared by mr whitney was sent to the iowa delegation only a few mo ments were required for the reply mr whitney received it he was told that governor boles doles under no circum stances would consent to take second place upon the national ticket none of those who were present can forget the queer almost bewildered wil dered expression which came to mr Whit whitney s face but time pressed there must be a second choice for the vice presidential nomination so we turned to adial E stevenson of illinois and speedily learned that there would be no rejecting of the offer on the part of adial or his friends and because he was a sort of hobson hobsons s choice adial adlai stevenson became vice president of the united states to the day of his death mr whit ney always bad had i t strange suspicion that governor boles doles was not con suited and that his friends were so disappointed over the outcome of the presidential contest that they re pud ted offhand the vice presidential nomination it seemed to mr whit ney that it if such a distinguished dem as thomas A hendricks of indiana would accept a democratic nomination tor for vice president or if bast noble roman alien allen G thurman of ohio were willing to accept a like nomination as he did governor bo do es friends might well have lowed their pride and accepted mr whitney s offer Copy rigl it mi 1911 by E 3 adwards all AU reserved |