The Athens post. [volume] (Athens, Tenn.) 1848-1917, 1858-09-24

friends dispair our candidate for the Judge.
ship shall soon he purified aud consecrated
on the stump, preparatory 10 a seat on the
bench. Let us look to our nsighhorinr STATE
oil Kentucky and take eneouragement9thers
the stump aud bench are married and given
10 maria e-there. candidates for Judge are
nominated by party conventions. and traverse
their districts making political speeches
There, politics and Jurisprudence have locked
hands aud adopted the motto of the once
glorious old monwealth-'united. we
stand, divided. we fall"-.there, thew have
recently witnessed two candidates for Clerk
q Inc Court Of appeals, making speeches
ABOUT Lecompion, etc, etc, in nearly every
county in the STATED Could any monkey
snow nave been richerl Why didn't these
candidates for Clerk, instead of discussing
Leeompton and such questions. debate the
long mooted question, "whether popular cleo
tons should be decided by internal sueges
TONS or the bias Of Jurisprudence They
might have settled it.
Let us wait patiently in Tennessee, then,
until the great system natures. Not only
shall the bench after awhile be redolent of
the odors Of the political barbecue, but we
shall advance still higher. We shall have
our candidates pledging themselves in the
musings to decide questions of general i'm.
portanee IN certain way, and people voting
according to such pledges. Questions of law
shall be decided by vote of the people and
an appeal taken from the Supreme Court to
the next regimenta muster. Judges shall be
called to account for deciding questions con-
trary to the will of the people-for "vox
populi, vox dei"-and how dare even Su-
preme Judge to run counter TO the voice Of
God. Hear how the Union and American
chuckels at the prospect of this great Demo
cratic millennium. "Gods! how these fellows
shake when they see the huge paws Of the
people rufile the sacred ermne, or used to ell
evate or depress candidates for its aonors T.
Well, let them shake" That's there's De
mocracy in its unaduterated purity. They
want to see 1.-THE huge paws. r1ffie the sacred
erm''he" They want to drag every thing
'sacred'-every thing holy into the filth and
mlre and pollution of partisan politics. One
would have thought that the red and reck ees
hand Of its mad agrarianism would have
spared the independence of The Judiciary--but
no--if n Judge shall be left free to decide
questions of law that come before him. unse-
duced by the hope of reward and unintimi-
dated by the fear of punishment-"they are
above the people'-"they are an aristocracy"
huge paws" must ''ruffle their ermne"
and be used" to pull them down. Verify,
we would be surprised at this doctrine and
this language, if we did not remember that
Thomas Jefferson-wbom they all claim as
their great author-was an inveterate foe to
an Independent Judiciary. Mr.. Jetfel son, in
letter to VIM, Is. Giles, dated April 2Oth
1907, in speaking of the acquittal of Aaron
Burr, uses this language, (the italics are my
own, 1.-THE nation will judge both the of
fender and the Judges for themselves, If a
member of the executive or the Legislature
does wrong. the day is never far distant when
the people will remove him. They will see
then and amend the error IN oar Consultation,
which makes any branch Independent Of the
nation" All, how it would have delighted
his heart to see the "huge paws ruffle the "a
cred ermne" Andrew johnson would cut
the pigeon wing on the very top Of Jacobs
ladder to see the sight, and tlN Union and
American would play the fiddle while he
danced. How forcibly does the above Ian
guage of Democracy remind us of an event
Of recent date. Mr.. Seward, IN recent
speech in the Senate, abuses the Supreme
Court for the bred Scott decision. and says
that his party intend to amend the Constiiu
tion and remodel that Count. lie sees that
"error in our Constitution, which makes one
branch independent of the nation" lie wants
the nation to hold that branch responsible, or
to use the words Of the Union and American.
he wants the "huge paws to rufile the sacred
ermine' while he excaims, show these fel.
| lows shake u
How we'll does the fanaticism Of abolition
Ism and agrarianism of Democracy agree in
trampling in the dust those great conserva'
tive elements of our government. wisely IN
! corr Mt cd into our Constitution iy our Int