I am, very sincerely yours,
"Stephen J. Field."
DOCUMENTS REFERRED TO IN JUDGE FIELD'S LETTER
[Justice Bradley to the Newark "Daily Advertiser" and the Electoral Commission.]
The Sun gives Bradley's letter in full as follows:
"'Stowe, Vt., September 6.
"'Editor "Advertiser."
"'Sir,—I perceive the New York Sun has reiterated its charge that after preparing a written opinion in favor of the Tilden electors in the Florida case and submitting it to the electoral commission, I changed my views during the night preceding the vote in consequence of the pressure brought to bear upon me by Republican politicians and the Pacific Railroad men, whose carriages, it is said, surrounded my house during the evening. This, I believe, is the important point of the charge. Whether I wrote one opinion or twenty in my private examination of the subject, is of little consequence and of no concern to anybody. The opinion which I finally gave was the result of my deliberations without influence from outside parties. The above slander was published some time since, but I never saw it until recently, and deemed it too absurd to need refutation. But as it is categorically repeated, perhaps I ought to notice it. The same story about the carriages of leading Republicans and others congregating about my house was circulated in Washington at one time, and came to the ears of my family only to raise a smile of contempt. The whole thing is a falsehood. Not one visitor called at my house that evening, and during the whole sitting of the commission I had no private discussion whatever of the subjects at issue with any person interested on the Republican side, and but few words with any persons. Indeed, I zealously sought to avoid all discussion outside the commission itself. The allegation that I read my opinion to Judges Clifford and Field is entirely untrue. I read no opinion to either of them, and have no recollection of expressing one; if I did, it could only have been suggestively, or in a hypothetical manner, and not for committal of my final judgment or action. The question was one of great importance to me, of much difficulty and embarrassment. I earnestly endeavored to come to a right decision, free from all political or extraneous considerations. In my private examination of the principal question, about going behind the returns, I wrote and rewrote the arguments and considerations on both sides as they occurred to me, sometimes being inclined to one view of the subject and sometimes to the other, but finally I threw aside these lucubrations, and as you have rightly stated, wrote out a short opinion, which I read in the Florida case during the sitting of the commission. This decision expresses the conviction to which I had arrived, and which after a full consideration of the whole subject seemed to me a satisfactory solution of the questions; and I may say that the more I have reflected since, the more satisfied have I become that it was right. At all events, it was the result of my own reflections and consideration, without any suggestions from any quarter, except the arguments adduced by counsel in the public discussion and by members of the commission in private consultation. As for the insinuation contained in a recent article published in a prominent periodical by a noted politician, implying that the case was decided in consequence of political conspiracy, I can only say that from the peculiar position I occupied on the commission I am able positively to say that it is utterly devoid of truth, at least, so far as the action of the commission itself was concerned. In that article the writer couples my name with the names of those whom he supposes are obnoxious to the public odium. The decencies of public expression, if nothing more, might well have deterred so able a writer from making personal imputations which he did not know to be well founded.
"'Yours respectfully,
"'Joseph P. Bradley.'
"New York, September 6th.