358
GENERAL
GRANT'S
ADMINISTRATION.
A t the election of 1872, I voted at Groton in the morning, and i n the afternoon I went to New Y o r k , to find that General Grant had been reelected by a sufficient majority. On the morning of the next day, I left the hotel with time for a call upon General D i x , who had been elected Governor, and for a call upon Thurlow Weed. General D i x was not at home. Notwithstanding the criticisms of Thurlow Weed as a manager of political affairs in the State of New Y o r k and in the country, I had reasons for regarding him with favor, although I had never favored the aspirations of M r . Seward, his chief. When I was organizing the Internal Revenue Office i n 1862-3, M r . Weed gave me infor mation in regard to candidates for office i n the State of New Y o r k , including their rela tions to the factions that existed—usually Seward and anti-Seward—and with as much fairness as he could have commanded i f he had had no relation to either faction.
say that President Grant was attached to Judge Hoar, and, as far as I know, his at tachment never underwent any abatement. Whatever bond there may be i n the smoking habit, i t was formed without delay at the beginning of their acquaintance. While General Grant was not a teller of stories, he enjoyed listening to good ones, and of these Judge H o a r had a large stock, and always at command. General Grant enjoyed the society of intellectual men, and Judge Hoar was far up i n that class. General Grant had regrets for the retirement of Judge Hoar from his cabinet, and for the circumstances which led to his retirement. H i s appoint ment of Judge Hoar upon the Joint High Commission and the nomination of Judge Hoar to a seat upon the bench of the Su preme Court may be accepted as evidence of General Grant's continuing friendship, and of his disposition to recognize it, notwith standing the break in official relations.
A s I had time remaining at the end of my call upon M r . Weed, and as I had in mind M r . Stewart's message at the Cooper Union meeting, I drove to his down-town store, where I found him. He received me with cordiality, but i n respect to his health he seemed to be already a doomed man. He was anxious chiefly to give me an opportunity to comprehend the nature and magnitude of his business. A s I was about to leave, he took hold of my coat button and said: " When you see the President, you give my love to him, and say to him that I am for him and that I always have been for him." Still holding me by the button, he said : " Who buys the car pets for the Treasury ?" I said : " Mr. Saville is the chief clerk, and he buys the carpets." M r . Stewart s a i d : " Tell him to come to me ; I will sell him carpets as cheap as any body." When I repeated M r . Stewart's message to the President he made no reply, and he gave no indication that he was hearing what I was saying.
Judge Hoar's professional life had been passed i n Massachusetts, and he had no per sonal acquaintance with the lawyers of the circuit from which Justices Strong and Brad ley were appointed. Strong and Bradley were at the head of the profession in the States of New Jersey and Pennsylvania, and in truth there was no debate as to the fitness of their appointment. Judge Hoar was not responsible for their appointment, and I am of the opinion that the nominations would have been made even against his advice, which assuredly was not so given. Judge Strong, as Chief Justice of the Supreme Court of Pennsylvania, had sustained the constitutionality of the L e g a l Tender act, and i t was understood that Bradley was of the same opinion. A s the President and cabinet were of a like opinion, i t may be said that there could have been no " packing " of the Supreme Court except by the exclusion of the two most prominent lawyers in the circuit and the appointment of men whose opinions upon a vital question were not in harmony w i t h the opinion of the persons making the appointment.
GRANT
AND ATTORNEY-GENERAL
HOAR.
The public has been invited to accept sev eral errors in regard to Judge Hoar's rela tions to President Grant, the appointment to the bench of the Supreme Court of Jus tices Bradley and Strong, by whose votes the first decision of the court in the L e g a l Tender cases was overruled, and the circum stances which led to the retirement of Judge Hoar from the cabinet. F i r s t of a l l I may
A s to myself, I had never accepted the original decision as sound law under the Constitution, nor as a wise public policy, if there had been no constitution. B y the de cision the government was shorn of a part of its financial means of defense in an exigency. When the Supreme Court had reached a conclusion, Chief Justice Chase called upon me and informed me of that fact, about two weeks in advance of the delivery of the opinion. He gave as a reason his