New Orleans daily crescent. [volume] ([New Orleans, La.]) 1851-1866, 1854-01-03
75ECfSrO.Ns or THE SUPREME
y,5,,,p II TWEEN .auTHORTTY.

f1ur readers raisconcsive the grave purpose
which reneralIy Lies beneath the mirth We often
S lIse, If they imagine NE have made war of jests
upon Judge Cotton and his Jurisprudence, merely
10 entertain fhcm. We do not look upon ridicule
~ ths test 81 truth z but it is, towards some
Il people and their reasoning, almost the only ar
i gutnent 4ruth can deign to employ, inasmuch as
f6sy take for reasoning is not only un q
Il worthy Of Serious and methodical exposure, but
absolntely defes III, and is only fit to be confu-s
8 wa by the lash Of contempt Such is the effort
of Judge Cotton to vindieate BY authorities his
assumption that there are none which bind him,
!. For, az best, he could only cite presidents and
argue that they must be followed, in order to
Justify him in declaring that the decisions Of
tribunals Of the last resort have no binding.
force "a al inferior fudge, and that he shall, at
his pleasure, set up bis own conscience, not the
meaning of lava settled by its highest inter
prefers, for his sole guide These are doctrines
which, as Law, merit only laughter, not refuta-
tion; and we have treated them accordingly:
but when the sport Of thus dealing with them
shall be ended, we shall have some very sober
things to say to the people at large, as to the
causes which bring about such wretched and
preposterous effects as the confding the admin
( istration Of the laws--that solemn function
which is the great end and aim Of all Govern
ment ID such paltry and ignorant people as
fudge Cotton ought 70 have been known to be-
before he was elected to the bench. Before
coming TO this. however, we must exhibit there
manning authorities which Judge Cotton pre-
tends to cite, and show how far they are from,
in any manner, sustaining him; how precisely,
indeed, they do the contrary
The first reference is to Hennen's Digest, D.
S31, sec "a & The rule stare decisis is entitled
to great weight and respect, where there has
been, on any point of law series Of adjudica-
+ tions, all to the same effect: but single de-
cision, believed to have been unadvisedly or
enormously made, will be oyer-ruled" This,
We must remark, is as foolish or fraudulent on
authority as may well be: for, in the first place,
this citation was already embodied in his text
{ secondly, 1t is BY Hennen taken from VI Rob.
inson, 228, to which Judge Cotton presently re-
fers again, either because he did not examine
what he cites, or, when the plainest identity
was before him, had not sense enough to dis
cover it, or he repeats the reference, in order
to swell the apparent number Of his authorities,
thirdly the citation is false--the true text in
Robinson being really as follows s The rule
stare decisis is entitled to great weight and
respect, when there he's been. on q point Of Law,
series Of adjudieations, all to the same effect.
but when WE are presented with single de-
cision, which W. believe 70 have been unad-
syisedly made, it is incumbent on us to over
rule 1T, If We entertain different opinion on
the question submitted; fourthly, it is our
own Supreme Court that is here speaking: the
Supreme Court, which alone has potces to OYER
rule and reverse all decisions, even to its own.
The Court says, 1T is incumbent on as to over
rule (not that an inferior court may oyer-rule)
decision Of the same court, which they believe
to have been unadyisedly made. But, filthy,
the Court says it will be Incumbent on ID to
over-rule its own decisions which it believes un-
advisedly made; sohence Judge Cotton argues |
with folly that would be amazing but that it |
is his, that He shall oyer-ru1e decision of the |
Supreme Court, which has been ADyIsEDLY
made
Cotton is evidently such a lack-law that even |
here, IN this very plain case, he has not seen
what the very slightest tincture Of law or even
OF thought would have discovered to him !: |
namely. that an unadyised decision is not, judi
cially speaking. one which merely seems, to the |
subsequent reason of other judges Of eqnaI |
power, wrong, unreasonable in law, or against |
the evidence as reported, but is simply shown, |
by the report itself which preserves it, to have
been decided without such an argument, sitting |
and examination Of the matter as made 1T pos /
slble to arrive at q just conclusion from them.
Such case must be re-examined and if neces-
sary reversed. when new one comes up, in
volving the same state Of law and fact There,
nothing Of this sort happens but Lord Chief
Justice Cotton himself decides most unadvisedly, /
that . decision which should have laid down the
rnle for him, is unadvised, simply because he
did not advise it. Let us proceed to his next /
authority.
II is the opinion Of Judge Porter, in Martins
Reports (Breedloye u.s. Turner) which we have
already placed before our readers, as not only
most decisive against Judge Cotton himself, but
most solid and luminous. None except an er-
mined blockhead could ever have read such a
case, without perceiying that to invite people to
lock at was only showing them where his own
opinion was rendered supremacy ridiculous
The next citation is Of Smith Us. Smith in
Kill Louisiana Reports, 445 We thought we
had the book by us; but find that we have
omitted getting IT, We shall do SO to morrow.
Next stands Griffin Us his creditors, VI Ro-
binson's Reports, 225 This is the case which
we have already commented on, as cited by
Judge Cotton from both Hennen and Robinson,
and yet falsely cited. See above, as to the