Editing Morrison Waite (section)

===Nomination===
[[File:Waite Chief Justice Nomination.jpg|thumb|alt= |Waite's Chief Justice nomination]]
President [[Ulysses S. Grant]] nominated Waite as Chief Justice on January 19, 1874, after a political circus related to the appointment. Chief Justice [[Salmon P. Chase]] died in May 1873, and Grant waited six months before first offering the seat in November to the powerful [[United States Senator|Senator]] [[Roscoe Conkling]] of [[New York (state)|New York]], who declined.

After ruling out a promotion of a sitting [[Associate Justice of the United States|Associate Justice]] to Chief (despite much lobbying from the legal community for Justice [[Samuel Freeman Miller]]), Grant was determined to appoint an outsider as Chief Justice and offered the Chief Justiceship to senators [[Oliver Morton]] of [[Indiana]] and [[Timothy Howe]] of [[Wisconsin]], then to his [[United States Secretary of State|Secretary of State]], [[Hamilton Fish]]. He finally submitted his nomination of [[Attorney General of the United States|Attorney General]] [[George Henry Williams|George H. Williams]] to the Senate on December 1. A month later, however, Grant withdrew the nomination, at Williams' request, after charges of corruption made his confirmation all but certain to fail. One day after withdrawing Williams, Grant nominated [[Democratic Party (United States)|Democrat]] and former Attorney General [[Caleb Cushing]], but withdrew it after Republican Senators alleged Civil War-era connections between Cushing and the [[Confederate States of America|Confederate]] President [[Jefferson Davis]]. Finally, after persistent lobbying from Ohioans, including [[United States Secretary of the Interior|Interior Secretary]] [[Columbus Delano]], on January 19, 1874, Grant nominated the little-known Waite. He was notified of his nomination by a telegram.<ref>{{harvnb|Kens|Johnson|2012|pp=1–2}}</ref>

The nomination was not well received in political circles. The former [[United States Secretary of the Navy|Secretary of the Navy]], [[Gideon Welles]], remarked of Waite that, "It is a wonder that Grant did not pick up some old acquaintance, who was a [[Stagecoach|stage driver]] or [[bartender]], for the place," and the political journal ''[[The Nation]],'' said "Mr Waite stands in the front-rank of second-rank lawyers." Nationwide sentiment, however, was relief that a non-divisive and competent choice had been made, and Waite was confirmed unanimously as Chief Justice on January 21, 1874, receiving his commission the same day.<ref name='fedjudcenter'>{{cite news | title=Morrison Waite | date=December 12, 2009 | publisher=Federal Judicial Center | url=http://www.fjc.gov/servlet/nGetInfo?jid=2474&cid=999&ctype=na&instate=na | access-date=May 21, 2012 | archive-date=May 7, 2012 | archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120507144937/http://www.fjc.gov/servlet/nGetInfo?jid=2474&cid=999&ctype=na&instate=na | url-status=live }}</ref><ref name="Oyez"/> Waite took the oaths of office on March 4, 1874.<ref name="Oyez"/><ref>{{cite web |url=https://www.supremecourt.gov/about/oath/oathsofthechiefjustices2009.aspx |title=Oaths of Office Taken by the Chief Justices |publisher=Supreme Court of the United States |access-date=May 22, 2012 |archive-date=June 6, 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20120606034351/http://www.supremecourt.gov/about/oath/oathsofthechiefjustices2009.aspx |url-status=live }}</ref>