Douglas made an impassioned speech to the lobby, charging the Court with having deliberately suppressed its decision on the paramount issue, in order to disarm criticism and to avert the impending reorganization of the bench.[126] He called loudly for the passage of the bill before the legislature; and the lobby echoed his sentiments.  McClernand in the House corroborated this charge by stating, “under authorization,” that the judges had withdrawn the opinion which they had prepared in June.[127] Thereupon four of the five judges made an unqualified denial of the charge.[128] McClernand fell back helplessly upon the word of Douglas.  Pushed into a corner, Douglas then stated publicly, that he had made his charges against the Court on the explicit information given to him privately by Judge Smith.  Six others testified that they had been similarly informed, or misinformed, by the same high authority.[129] At all events, the mischief had been done.  Under the party whip the bill to reorganize the Supreme Court was driven through both houses of the legislature, and unofficially ratified by Lord Coke’s Assembly in the lobby.

Already it was noised abroad that Douglas was “slated” for one of the newly created judgeships.  The Whig press ridiculed the suggestion but still frankly admitted, that if party services were to qualify for such an appointment, the “Generalessimo of the Loco-focos of Illinois” was entitled to consideration.  When rumor passed into fact, and Douglas was nominated by the Governor, even Democrats demurred.  It required no little generosity on the part of older men who had befriended the young man, to permit him to pass over their heads in this fashion.[130] Besides, what legal qualifications could this young man of twenty-seven possess for so important a post?

The new judges entered upon their duties under a cloud.  Almost their first act was to vacate the clerkship of the court, for the benefit of that arch-politician, Ebenezer Peck; and that, too,—­so men said,—­without consulting their Whig associates on the bench.  It was commonly reported that Peck had changed his vote in the House just when one more vote was needed to pass the Judiciary Bill.[131] Very likely this rumor was circulated by some malicious newsmonger, but the appointment of Peck certainly did not inspire confidence in the newly organized court.

Was it to make his ambition seem less odious, that Douglas sought to give the impression that he accepted the appointment with reluctance and at a “pecuniary sacrifice”; or was he, as Whigs maintained, forced out of the Secretaryship of State to make way for one of the Governor’s favorites?[132] He could not have been perfectly sincere, at all events, when he afterward declared that he supposed he was taking leave of political life forever.[133] No one knew better than he, that a popular judge is a potential candidate for almost any office in the gift of the people.