Lewisburg chronicle. [volume] (Lewisburg, Pa.) 1850-1859, 1851-08-20
Judges Of the Supreme Court.

. Judges OF the Supreme Court.
= The following proceedings of a Dem
cratic meeting held in West Chester,
. July, express our sentiments exactly; an
E. We commend them to the thoughtful COZ
i sideration Of every reader who values a
It upright and Independent Judiciary, or NJ
;. prcciates the weight Of responsibility whic
the amended Constitution has placed upol
each individual voter i'll the commonwealth
Ed. CuRoN.
The democratic party in this county wa
, not prepared to sacrifice the judiciary up
on the altar Of party, we were not prepare,
to place the Judicial power of the State il
the hands Of incapable or dishonest mel
merely because they were nominated by ;
Democratic convention, particularly con
trolled as that of Harrisburg, by combina
tions and bargains, resulting in the nomi-
nation Of some candidates unfit to be elect.
ed. Yet success in such conduct BY our
nominating bodies has SO emboldened the
bad men of our party whose sole object
would seem to be Office and power, that
they stop at nothing calculated to effect a
nomination, taking it for granted, that par
ty discipline and strength will effect an
election-and in this, heretofore, they
have not contided without reason. We
have to regret that on more than one occa-
sion, nominees improperly selected by cor
rupt means have succ eeded in securing
prominent offices through majority of
votes honestly cast in support of cherish
ed principles. Although such results are
always to be deprecated in offices strictly
political, the injury to the public interests,
whatever it may be to private morals, is
ceS.
Take for instance the Office of Governor,
management may effect the election of a
bad man. The Office is political-part of
the law making power abides with that of
fcer. Still its exercise for evil purposes
is more or less restrained by fear of Of
Tending the party to which he owes his
power, as well as by the power vested in
the Senate and House of Representatives.
Not so however with the office of Su-
preme Judge. His term of office is long.
His votes have no necessary connexion
with party. His voice may take the life,
liberty, property, or reputation of a citizen.
His judgments and DEGREES operating prin-
eipally on Individuals, however corrupt,
unjust or Illegal, excite sympathy in but a
small circle of too little power to intimidate,
or even successfully to reproach bold bad
man who may divide his responsibility
with better or worse men than himself, un-
der a law prohibiting the publication of
opinions and not requiring the
votes of the judges upon the respective ca
scs to be made public. True, unprinci-
pied men in any Office, are a curse, but
they are in no place greater evil to a
community than in the judgment seat
We rejoice therefore that party feal-
ty in the matter under consideration,
however willingly rendered, as it always
is by the Democrats of Chester county,
where great principles and measures ofg gov
ernment are dependent upon the result,
does not call upon US in this case to fall in
rank and do battle regardless of consequcn-
ces, at the dictation of body which has
its constituents and disgra-
ccd itself by some nominations " not fit to
be made" That democrats of the State
have accorded with us in our views of this
subject, We have the evidence in the fact,
hat it was deemed proper by our Central
Committee to separate the business of ma
King the judicial nominations from the Or
linary political nominations of the party,
or the avowed purpose of effecting the no.
of the best men upon our judi
.ial ticket True it is that the call Of the
Committee for 4 separate convention was
attempted to be countermandcd by SIN
ster influence in the city of Philadelphia,
ret this effort proved an utter failure, and
he majority Of the committee had the sat I
sfaction of seeing their worthy purpose .
anctioned by the almost unanimous voice ,
# an honest constituency. YeFwith all .
his prccaution TO preserve the nurity Of ,
he convention by decreasing temptation ,
nd diminishing the means for improper
ordinations and alliances, the same cor ,
upt influence which intended to wait up
n it at Reading, unfortunately found its a
ray to Harrisburg, there to bargain and '
orrupt, to trade and speculate in every Z