The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1854-03-10
ELECTION OF JUDGES BY THE PEG
PIE.

lLIs
We learn that the Legislature Of this State,
before adjourning, passed the Bill fixing the
fourth Thursday of May 0he 25th) as the
time for holding the election for judicial Of
fccrs by the people, in accordance with the
amendments to the Constitution ratified ut |
the last August elections. The offices to
be filled embrace the whole judiciary of the
State; Judges of the Supreme Court, Attor-
ney General and Reporter for the State at
large, Chanccllors, Circuit Judges, and At
torneys General. Expecting 10 have very
little to say in our paper hereafter in regard
to these elections, We must ask our readers
to indulge US in few remarks at the present
time;
One Of the principal objections urged
against the change in the mode Of election,
was the alleged danger of party politics be-
ing dragged into the contest, and the choice
of the judiciary being more determined by
feeling of party bias and sense Of par
tsan service, than BY that high regard
for fitness and qualification on the part Of
aspirants demanded by the character, impor-
lance, and responsibility Of the stations
sought to be reached. We did not indulge
in such apprehensions ourselfbut some Of our
political friends did and MANY of our oppo.
nents. We believed tas!l!a.s people were as
competent to determine upon this as upon
other, though perhaps less important, mat
tiers; and that they would, in view of the re-
sponsbilities involved, take the very best
qualifications they could find, without regard
to politics, personal feelings, or any Of the
considerations that so largely enter into and
determine popular elections. At the same time
we were not inscnsible that designing men
would in these, as they do in all elections, seek
to array party feelings and endcavor to make
the choice of officers turn upon political
grounds. And it is to warn the people and
put them on their guard against all such at.
tcmpts that we now speak. As we said be.
fore, the Judiciary is the best, the last, the
only safeguard of the people-of life and
propcrty-thc power that shields and pro-
tects us-that draws the shcltering mantle of
the law around nl-thc poor, the rich, the
high, the low--it is the sentinel designed to
stand by our-door stills and our affairs, to pro.
tcct them from the assaults and Vaccinations
of the unprincipled and ruthless. How i'm.
th,r, hate ,l,o ,l, l.
judicial stations, whose high and responsible
duty it is to see that the law is faithfully and
impartially administered and its peculiar of.
fees not abused, should not only be qualifi.
ed in all respects, but should enter upon the
discharge of their duties feeling that they owe
their positions to a sense of merit existing in
the minds of the pcoplo-of confidence in
their capacity and integrity that they are there
upon the Bench, the presiding power in the
Temple Of Justice, by the force Of merit and
worthincss alonc-and not from previous po-
sition as party men, utilization with party
cliQucs or cabals, or from tho influence of
party politics or political predictions! The
experiment is new one in our Stationary,
J very many. doubted. and still doubt. the pro-
priety of the change, and believe it will even.
!uatc in some cases in placing incompetent,
perhaps corrupt, men in places where they
may work much mischief We believe our
Judiciary system has hitherto worked w.ii,an6
that the offices pertaining to the administra.
ton OF tie law have been ably and worthily
filled. In our own immediate section We
know the judicial erminc has been kept pure
and spotless, and if there has ever been a
member of the Bench in the State who soil.
ed his robes Of Office we are not apprscd of
it. And yet it was deemed advisable to
change the mode of filling these high and
important Offices, and to bring the elections
directly to the people, the head and fountain
of all temporal power. Whether the high
character of our Judiciary is to be maintain
cd, and whether any advantage is to be de-
rived from the change, must depend entirely
upon the elements that enter into the con.
test and the points upon which the claims of
candidates are considered and pressed. The
matter, however, is in the hands of the peo-
plc-the power they had delegated to the
Legislature has been restored to them BY
their own act, and il is for them to deter
mine whether the judicial elections hereafter
shall be an honorable contest between compe-
ten. men, or corrupt and disgraceful scranl-
bic Of mere politicians.