The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 27, July 1923 - April, 1924 Page: 247
344 p. : maps ; 23 cm.View a full description of this periodical.
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Bryan-Hayes Correspondence
myself as an independent gentleman, and wholly a nonoffice-
seeker. I am afraid you have lost me my reputation!
Voluntary, zealous support of me for so elevated, so noble a
position of those who have taken such interest, will always remain
grateful to me and a source of just pride, and it can not result
injuriously.
I shall not be disappointed. I have been all the while, as you
know, like John Wilkes, when his friends were pressing him for
Parliament, very little of a Wilkesite!
Put in the place, I would have consecrated myself, to its great
duties. But with sincerest misgivings for my judicial reputa-
tion, and more, for that contentment and those surroundings of
true, domestic happiness which I possess in large measure, and
should regret in any degree to sacrifice.
To be on the Supreme Bench of the U. S. and prove a third or
fourth rate Judge, does not greatly attract me. My place at the
Bar, and among the lawyers of our own loved Texas, is more
grateful to me than that. Lifelong devotion to my tasks has
given me good position here, but how I could meet the great re-
quirements of truly honorable service of the Supreme Bench I
don't know.
Mr. Webster once said with reference to filling a vacancy on
the Bench, in answer to the suggestion of the qualifications of
various lawyers for the place, "No, there is but one fit man for it."
And when asked, who? added, "the best lawyer the country
affords."
That only describes the high and imperative standard the office
should exact. There is no mathematical or other mode of mak-
ing such selection. Still, it should be the one object.
And, if friends had not brought my name forward, it is an
aspiration I should never have volunteered.
I am not familiar with the history of Judge Johnson of
Georgia. He is no doubt a very able man. But I supposed his
life had been almost wholly political. In his old age he is on
the Circuit or District Court of his State--not, I believe, the
Supreme Court. I have not connected him, from any outside in-
formation-with the juridical men, the able lawyers of his State.
(May be so. I merely am not aware of it.) I have been a dili-
gent reader of the U. S. Supreme Court Reports since I was a
young lawyer. His abilities have certainly carried him very247
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Texas State Historical Association. The Southwestern Historical Quarterly, Volume 27, July 1923 - April, 1924, periodical, 1924; Austin, Texas. (https://texashistory.unt.edu/ark:/67531/metapth101086/m1/253/: accessed April 25, 2024), University of North Texas Libraries, The Portal to Texas History, https://texashistory.unt.edu; crediting Texas State Historical Association.