Continuing our examination of what is called the original Capitol building, we would stop next at the Supreme Court room, once the Senate Chamber of the United States. For quiet, harmonious beauty it is unequaled by any other room in the building.

It was designed by Latrobe, after the model of a Greek theater—a semicircular hall, with low-domed ceiling, and small gallery back and over the seats occupied by the dignified judges of the Supreme Court of the United States.

"The Bench" is composed of large leather upholstered chairs, with the chair of the Chief Justice in the center, and those of the Associate Justices on either side. In front of these is a table around which the counsel are seated, and back of a railing seats are arranged around the wall for spectators.

On the walls are the busts of the former Chief Justices of the United States: John Jay, of New York; John Rutledge, of South Carolina; Oliver Ellsworth, of Connecticut; John Marshall, of Virginia; Roger B. Taney, of Maryland; Salmon P. Chase, of Ohio; and Morrison R. Waite, of Ohio. Back of the judges is placed a number of graceful Ionic columns of Potomac marble, the white capitals copied from the Temple of Minerva.

The Standard Guide of Washington pictures the present court in this way:

In this hall Webster answered Hayne, and here Benton and John Randolph made their great speeches. On the left side of the Senate stood Calhoun in many a contest with Clay and Webster on the right.

One day Calhoun boasted of being the superior of Clay in argument. He said: "I had him on his back; I was his master; he was at my mercy."

Clay strode down the aisle, and, shaking his long finger in Calhoun's face, said: "He my master! Sir, I would not own him for my slave!"

It is said to be the handsomest court room in the world. Every week-day from October till May, except during Christmas and Easter holidays, just at twelve o'clock the crier enters the court room and announces: "The Honorable Chief Justice and the Associate Justices of the Supreme Court of the United States," at which everybody, including visitors and lawyers, stand. Just then nine large, dignified old gentlemen, led by Chief Justice Fuller, kicking up their long black silk robes behind them, enter the room; each, standing before his chair, bows to the lawyers, the lawyers and spectators bow to them, then all are seated.

The crier then opens court by saying: "O yea! O yea! O yea! All persons having business with the honorable the Supreme Court of the United States are admonished to draw near and give their attendance, as the court is now sitting. God save the United States and this honorable court."

After this quaint little speech business begins.

The members of the court wear gowns like the ecclesiastical robes of the Church of England. This began in early days when this country took English law and customs for pattern and precedent.

The seats of the judges are placed in the order of the time of their appointment, the senior judges occupying seats on either hand of the Chief Justice, while the latest appointments sit at the farthest end of each row.

This order of precedence extends even into the consulting-room, where the judges meet to talk over difficult cases, the Chief Justice presiding at the head.

Our country is justly proud of its judiciary. The Supreme Court of our country is the last rampart of liberty. Should this court become corrupt our free institutions will surely perish.

The Supreme Court of the United States has, however, made some grave mistakes—witness the famous decision of Justice Taney—but, for the most part, time has only verified their decisions.

The men who have sat here have not only been fair representatives of the legal knowledge of their day but also men of unimpeachable integrity and of the highest patriotism. Many of them have been devout Christians. Some on the bench at present are among the best church workers of Washington.

Courts are conservative bodies. Conservatism produces nothing, but is useful in preserving that which enthusiasm has created.

This Supreme Court room has been made further memorable as being the place in which, in 1877, sat the Electorial Commission which decided the Presidential contest as to whether Hayes, of the Republican party, or Tilden, of the Democratic party, should be the Executive of a great nation for four years.

In the fall of 1876, when the elections were over, it was found that the result was in serious and dangerous dispute. The Senate was Republican, the House Democratic. Each distrusted the other. It was feared that on the following 4th of March the country would be forced to face one of two series dilemmas: either that the country would have no President, or that two would-be Presidents would, with their followers, strive to enter the White House and take violent possession of the government. Men would have shot the way they voted. On the 7th of December, Judge George W. McCrary, a Representative of Iowa, afterward in Hayes's Cabinet, later a circuit judge of the United States, submitted a resolution which became the basis of the Electoral Commission. Three distant Southern States had sent to the Capitol double sets of election returns—one set for Mr. Tilden, one set for Mr. Hayes. On these nineteen votes depended the Presidency for four years.

If they were counted for Tilden, he would have two hundred and three votes and Hayes one hundred and sixty-six; or, if counted for Hayes, he would have one hundred and eighty-five votes and Tilden one hundred and eighty-four. The States whose certificates of election were in dispute were Florida, Louisiana, South Carolina, and Oregon.

The members of the Electoral Commission were selected either as representatives of their party, or men considered the embodiment of honor and justice. The Commission consisted of five Senators, five Judges of the Supreme Court, and five Representatives from the Lower House of Congress. The attorneys were the leading lawyers of each party. The Cabinet, leading Senators, Congressmen, foreign Ministers, and distinguished people from all portions of the country, were present. The wit, the beauty, the writers, the wisdom of the country assembled in this room to weigh the arguments, and at last to hear the decision that Rutherford B. Hayes was rightfully to be the President of the United States.

This tribunal, and the wise patriotism of Mr. Tilden and his party, saved the country from a bloody civil war.