Your little bit of Supreme Court trivia for the day:
wrote last week in the White Mountain Independent (in northeast Arizona) about the completion in October 1861 of the transcontinental telegraph. He reports that the first coast-to-coast telegram was sent by California Chief Justice Stephen Field in San Francisco to President Abraham Lincoln in Washington, D.C. The New York Times printed the message’s text. There were no emojis.
It was he who was sending the telegram, Field said, because of “the temporary absence of the Governor.” After noting “the completion of the great work” of the transcontinental telegraph, Field pledged California’s loyalty to the United States, some six months into the Civil War. The people of California, he told the President, “desire in this, the first message across the Continent, to express their loyalty to th[e] Union, and their determination to stand by the Government, in this, its day of trial. They regard that Government with affection, and will adhere to it under all fortunes.”
Less than two years after receiving the telegram, Lincoln appointed Field to the U.S. Supreme Court. To date, Field is the only person to serve on both the U.S. and California Supreme Courts.
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