Lincoln on the Supreme Court

This week's (11/07) New Yorker has an article on Lincoln. I found this passage (p. 132) timely:

He [Lincoln] appointed him [Salmon Chase] Chief Justice of the Supreme Court in December, 1864. "We cannot ask a man what he will do," Lincoln said to a Massachusetts congressman, "and if we should, and he should answer us, we should despise him for it. Therefore we must take a man whose opinions are known."