Worcester daily spy. [volume] (Worcester [Mass.]) 1850-1888, 1857-03-28
Upurpattons OF the Judiciary The
Remedy.

evils arising out Of the endorsements OF the Ja-
dicaTy, is to guarantee to the juries their full
right to pass upon constitutional and legal points
in their verdicts in all criminal prosecutions. But
there is another remedy of coordinate import
ance, which should be pressed with equal zeal
until the object is attained, viz: The election Of
judges for stated pariods of time, by the people
or, at least 70 commence with, their appoint
ment foy term Of years only, with the capacity
of re appointment if their conduct has been ap-
proved. Is such an idea deemed TOO radical or
revolutionary I" in this age Of degenerate :. De-
moqracys1 We have to reply, that it is exactly
the femedy recommended by Thomas Jefferson,
the great father of Democracy, as acorreetiye OF
the alarming entertainments which he foresaw. in
his time, the life-lsase federal Judiciary would
make upon the other departments Of the govern
ment, upon popular rights, and upon the rights OF
the States. Said Mr.. Jefferson, writing from Mon
ticeilo, Jan. 10, 1921, to Archibald Thweat =
II am sensible of the inroads daily maxim G
by tho federal judiciary into the jurisdic-
ton of its co ordinate associates, the State gov
ernments. The Legislative and executive branch-
es may sane times err, but elections and depend
ence oiH bring them to rights The Judiciary
branch is the instrument which, working like
gravity, without inteTmission, is to press us at
last into one consolidated mass = : IF Con-
gress fails to shield the States from danger, so pal
g1a5le and so imminent, THE STATES MUST SHIELD
THEMSELVES, AND MEET THE INVADER FOOT TO
FOOT"
In letierto c. Hammond, Aug 30, 1921, Mr..
Jefferson said - a D. ssa.b
d It has long been my opinion, and Ihave never
shrunk from its expression, that The germ Of Dis
solution OF our federal government is in the con,
stituion of the federal Judiciary. An irresPonsi-
Bile body flor impeachment is scarcely a scare
crow,l working like gravity BY night and by day,
gaining little to-day and little tomorrow, ad.
uancing its noiseless step like thief over the
field Of jurisdiction, until all shall be usurped
from the States, and the government Of all be
consolidated into one.
In asubsequent letter to Judge Johnson, dated
March 4, 1923, Mr. Jefferson said;
II cannot lay down my pen without recurring
to one of the subjects of my former letter. for in
truth there is no danger, apprehend, so great
as the consolidation of government by the
noIseless, and therefore unalarming instrument
atty Of the Supreme Court This is the form
in which federalism now arrays itself and this
principle of consolidation is the present principle
distinction between the Republicans and FEEDER
ists.'s
According to this, the late decision of the SUI
preme Court in the bred Scott case, is but old
federalism run to seed for what is there left Of
State rights, or popular liberties, after its en-
forcementf
As remedy for this danger of the concentra-
ton of power and authority in the Judiciary, Mr.
jefferson recommended the policy of making
judges elective, for terms of four or six years
and renewable on good behavior" ''This (said
he) viii bring their conduct at regular periods
under revision and probation. Mr.. Jefferson also
lad a.
any time on the address Of a majority of both
legislative houses.
To illustrate the degeneracy to which modern
Democracy has become reduced, we quote the
following comments from the Richmond Enqsar
ST,the leading Democratic organ of the South,
on a proposition which would have met the hearty
appreciation of Mr.. Jefferson, were he now liv-
ing, viz; the popularization Of the Judiciary;
I" The election of the Judges of the Supreme
Court by the people, is henceforth to be one of
the aims of the Abolitionists, for acquiring the
means of having the Constitution construed ac-
cording TO their own fanatcal ideas of law If
they accomplish that end, the strongest bllloark
of the South will have been swept away, the last
bond of union will have been broken. But, be-
fore they can achieve that dark design, the
HALLS OF CONGRESS WILL ECHO 9TH,
Err SOUNDS THAN THE VOICES OF
MEMBERS"
The honest confession contained in the above
extract, that the Supreme Judiciary, as now con.
stituted, the strongest bulwark of the South,
is proof enough of the charge brought against
them by Mr.. Jefferson, in 1920, in his letter to
Thomas Richie for fifty years the proprietor and
editor of the Enqatrer, in its better days, that
''the Judiciary of the United States is the subtle
corps Of sappers and miners constantly working
under ground to undermine the foundation of
our eOnfederated fabric, encroaching upon the
fights of the people aud of the States, by making
Just such Infamous extra judicial decisions as the
one in the bred Scott case. Mr.. Jefferson wrote
to Mr.. Ritchie Of these judges, in language which
will bear repeating
"rhey are constituting our Constitution from
coordination Of general and special govern
ment to general and supreme one alone This will
lay all things at their feet. We shall see if they
are bold enough to take the daring stride five law
yers have lately taken. If they do, then, l will
say that against tbs every man should raise has
voice. and more, should uptift his arm.
Having found from experience that impeachment
is ami mpracticable thing, mere scare,crow, they
consider themselves secure for life; they skulk
from responsibility to public opinion the only re
manning hold on them under practice first in
troduced into England by Lord Mansfield. An
opinion is huddled up in eonclave, perhaps by
majority Of one, delivered as if un 1nimous, and
with the silent acquiescence of lazy OF tirhid as
sociates, by crafty chief Judge, who sophsti-
Gates the law to his mind, by the turn of his own
reasoning" 4l
In letter to NJ. Coray, dated Oct 81, 1928, af-
ter recommending, IS a remedy, the appoint
ment Of the judges for term of years only, their
re-appointment or reelection to depend upon
previous conduct, MIR. Jefferson said:-
A ~ AZ.
judiciary bodies we're supposed to be the most
helpless and harmless members of the govern
ment. Experience, however, soon showed in
what way they were to become the most dam
gerous; that the insufiency of the means pro-
vided for their removal, gave them freehold
and an responsibility in office that their decs'
ions, seeming to concern individual suitors only,
pass silent and unheeded by the people at large
that these decisions, nevertheless, became law by
precedent, sapping, by little and by little, the
foundations Of the Constitution, before any one
has perceived that that invisible and helpless
worm mas been ousily employed in consuming its
substance. In truth, man is not made 70 be trust.
ed for life, if secure as our Judges arel against
all liability 10 account"
The threat contained in the extract from the
Richmond Enquirer, quoted above, that the
South viii resort to disunion rather than submit,
10 the carrying out Of these ideas of Mr.. Jetfer.
son, is characteristic Of the degeneracy Of the De
mocracy Of this day.
The speech Of D. F. Parker Esq, Of this city
against the repeal Of the jury bill, evinced gres
research aud care in lis preparation, and is wei
spoken Of BIZ those who heard H. We shall pub