By common consent of the entire profession they are among the ablest judges who ever sat on the Supreme Bench.

In my opinion Mr.Justice Bradley has had no superior, save Marshall alone, on that court, in every quality of a great judge.

I doubt if he has had, on the whole, an equal, save Marshall alone.
They have both joined in opinions since their appointment in very important political questions, in which the policy of the party to which they belonged was not sustained.

An offer to them of these vacancies in their circuits was the most natural and proper thing that could have been done.
There was no Republican lawyer in the country, of any considerable prominence, so far as I know, who questioned the constitutionality of the Legal Tender Act, of distinction enough to make him thought of anywhere for a place on the Supreme Bench.

So far as I now remember, there is but one instance of an appointment by the President of the United States to the Supreme Court of a man not belonging to his own political party.