Court Integrity Quotes
Hughes constantly allowed that it was improper for a sitting Supreme Court justice to be a candidate for the Presidency. But the Republican Party was badly split between the progressives and the conservatives. Each likely candidate had been on one side or the other, and was therefore unacceptable to the wing he had not supported. Hughes was one of the few Republicans who did not take sides in the 1912 schism as he was a member of the Supreme Court. His neutrality and his absence of any political statements in recent years made him a very attractive Presidential Nominee for Republicans. But his luster would wear off quickly if he let the Republicans know how he stood on any of the issues splitting the party. The only way that he could avoid saying anything was to maintain that he was not and should not be a candidate. Therefore he was nominated. However, to avoid losing one of the wings of his party, he had to essentially take a position on very few issues in the 1916 campaign. He just criticized President Woodrow Wilson and the Democrats. See {642634} for how the Wilson forces turned his avoidance of issues to their advantage.
