[lentulusgracchus]

Where they failed is, Lincoln and Seward put together a regional political machine that captured the executive and legislative branches, and Lincoln was able to use the appointment power to impose his views on the Supreme Court (as witness Salmon Chase's bogus opinion in Texas vs. White, which was political boilerplate -- had Chase been a real judge, he'd have recused himself in the first place).

[Bigun]

I suppose that given what had so recently occurred when that case came before the court that no one was about to raise any questions as to propriety of Salmon Chase’s participation even though the conflict of interest questions should have been, to say the least, glaring.