The office of Circuit Judge
was accordingly offered to Mr. William G. Russell. I wrote
to Nelson, asking him to consider my first letter on the subject
as not having been written. Mr. Russell replied, declining
the place, and saying, with great emphasis that he was sorry
the President should hesitate a moment about offering the
place to Judge Lowell, whom he praised very highly. But the
President and the Attorney-General thought that it should
be offered to Mr. George O. Shattuck, a very eminent lawyer
and advocate. On inquiry, however, it turned out that Mr.
Shattuck, who was in poor health, was absent on a journey,
and it was so unlikely that he would accept the offer that
it was thought best not to diminish the value and honor to
Judge Lowell of the place by offering it further to another
person. Accordingly the place was offered to Judge Lowell
and accepted by him.
General Devens than said to me: "I have been thinking over
the matter of the District Judge, and I think if a man entirely
suitable can be found in the Suffolk Bar, that the appointment
rather belongs to that Bar, and I should like, if you have
no objection, to propose to the President to offer it to Mr.
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