image 1

December 11, 1869.

Hon. Lyman Trumbull,

Chairman of the Judiciary Committee,

U. S. Senate.

Sir:

The President directs me to acknowledge the receipt of your letter of December 10, 1869, requesting him to furnish your Committee with the recommendations for Judges of the Circuit Courts in the respective Circuits, including those of other persons as well as of the persons nominated, and that he will furnish you with the ages of the nominees, if he has them—and instructs me to say, in reply, that a compliance with your request does not seem to him proper, or consistent with his official duty. In making a selection of officers of such high position, it can hardly be necessary to suggest, that he has not been governed by applications from persons who wished the appointment, nor confined his range of choice to those persons who would be willing to apply, or have applications made on the behalf—but has endeavored to ascertain by every means in his power, who, in his judgment, were the persons who ought to be nominated. He has no official information as to the ages of the gentlemen whose names have been sent to the Senate, and as he believes, no information not readily accessible to the committee.

Very respectfully, &c.

E. R. Hoar, Attorney General.