New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1847-05-27
The Tammany Judges.
myz

Among the conmonest Of Literary jokes is that
peroesrsted by the friend of self imsgined poet,
ia retorning the verses sent him for critical admira
tion, to which he simply appended this pithy dis
itch;
sThe part you stols ike the best;
Take courage then, and aeat The rest"
In a kindred spirit, we would earnestly inquire
why the representatives Of party which can com
msnd such excellent raw material for Judges as
Eisha p. Harlbut and Henry P. Edwards should
attempt TO force down the threats Of this community
all our Judges, Of the Circuit, Superior and Com
mon Pleas Courts7 Better men than these new
candidates we ask DO party TO nominate and so oil
Vice Chancellor SANFORD whom they propose to
transfer TO the Superior Court but was there no
more good timber where this came FRONT Could a
party which numbers among its adherents such
lawyers as Charles o Conor Z. Is. Cutting James
T. Brady, c. b. Moore, c. g. Ravens. &c. &c fndbut
two men out of Office on whom to bestow ten Judge
ships7 Or were the qualifications of our present
Judges so transcendent that they must first be all
surely provided for before the claims of anybody
else could be considered WHAT'S the explanation
Of this result VIII any be givenl
To our mind, looking at the whole business, from
the hasy and Struggled passage Of the act continu-
ing. or rather revivng, our old Courts when the
best portion of the Bar, with a great majority OF
the people Of our City who gave the matter a
thought, earnestly demanded UNfroRh Judicial
organization for our City, homogeneous with that
of the residue Of the State,-the ambiguous and
highly exceptionabe terms of that act with regard
10 Fees--and the nominations by which it has been
followed-we pronounce it one Of the most disrepu-
table Juggling intrigues we ever heard of The
Judges in place wanted TO hold on, and to tighten
their grip; they did not choose 20 trust their
to another Legislature, which might take time to
inquire into the whole system Of administering jus
tice in our City Hall, and might give the People
time 10 overhaul their reckoning and select new
Judges IL deemed desirable. So an act is hustled
through and Convention got up, the old Judges
rcnominated { all my pretty ones at one fell
swoop,J on the calculation that the apathy of the
voters will enable them to slip in and laugh at all
exposures Of abuses for six or eight years to come
Will the People be so played With Who that
considers cares a button about the politics OF the
men who are to be our Judgesf Who that knows
what has been the obstnacy growth and flagrancy
of Judicial abuses in our City will vote to keep
tnetr perpetrators III OiuCti Ouy NOhsluti III"
the sacred Bench Of Justice has been degraded into
a faro bank at which the People were compelled
to play and to pay while the dealers by their ar
bitrary rules stocked the cards as enormously TO
win-where the vital testimony of witnesses, the
most transcendent efforts of counsel were liable to
be interrupted aud stiGed by the iinsleoi coin as
Judge dropped the fees into the money box to be
divided with his colleagues-and then say whether
it would be right to elect all these Judges, In
Gliding the very Oldest and most hardened offend
ers to the places which ought to know them no
more for everl
We know that the ties and the machinery OF
Party are powerful, and that the few who have an
interest In the wrong always active, while the
many who ought to redress it are listess and SUI
pine but we still hope that the election OF these
Judges will be vetoed by the People. If there be
one or two of them whose hands comparatively
clean, it may do to make them monuments OF popu-
lar clemency; but to elect them 10 q body is to
consecrate Abuse and sanctify Oppression. Let
not the People so blazon their own seryility and
incapacity.