Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1868-06-20
dEM2HES APPEAL.
rIIrLAu OF CoNrRnPTs.

Criminal Court Of Memphis in certain
cases Of contempt. We declined, be-
cause the cases were then on the eve OF
being heard in the Supreme Court OF
Tennessee, and IL it sustained the rul-
ings below, to protest was useless, and II
i it reversed them, unnecessary.
We see it stated that the Supreme
Court has decided that there are no pun
ishabIe contempts of Court in Tennes-
see, except those specified in the Stat
utes. We endeavored, when the cases
were pending in the Criminal Court, to
convince the Judge of that Court that
such was the law; but he refused to be
convinced, and published long opinion
to the contrary.
That the law was as it is now decided
to be by the Supreme Court is so demon
strably undeniable, that no Court can be
excused on the ground Of Ignorance for
deciding otherwise. A Judge capable Of
not only deciding, but gravely arguing
to the contrary, must be, for some res-
son or other, 80 utterly beyond the
reach of reason and logic, as
to be an unfit and incompetent
magistrate, to whom it is neither
safe nor decent nor humane to
entrust the power of decision in cases sf-
feeting the liberty snd life OF the citizen,
We should not be unGhsritsbie
il We were to say that Judge
Hunters private interest snd personal
grievances in the matter warped his
Judgment and caused the uttefancs by
| him Of the nonsense Of his opinion. Fer
the man Who can sit, and hear patiently
and decide impar1aly, case OF con-
tempt in which he has had every possi-
bIe peoyocation to anger and revenge,
must be almost more than human; and
no man who has any regard for his own
reputation as just man, ought % con-
sent to sit in such a case. such an adj
ministration Of justice is a sscrilege.
An unjust Judge is a great criminal.
He who undertakes to judge another
when by the moral Law, the law of Right
and WFong, he cannot rightfully do it,
usurps one of Gods prerogatives, that ne
may by exercising it DO an gnjqst and
iniquitous thing.
Judge Hunter would be universally |
held to have done a scandalOus and dis
reputable act, The had sat as Judge, and
decided in his own favor slit between |
himself and Mr.. NJ. c. Galloway tor /,
money, or an action for libel brought
for his own profit by himself. |
What is the importance and value Of
money to 3 man, compared to the pleas
ure Of furnishing, the yresking of re-
venge, the vindicatiOn Of Chsracter9 |
The reputation Of a man is his dearest |
possession; revenge is one Of the most |
indomitable and energetic passions
that agitate the human heart. The4n- |
huence Of the two, or else an utter inca
pacity to distinguish argument from non
sense and logic from babble, can alone /
account for the conclusions to which |
Judge Hunter came. and the extraordi-
nary argument by which he deduced |
those conclusions from authorities that |
lead every impartial and intelligent |
lawyer TO conclusions the antipOdes Of
his.
In either case he is UnHt 10 be q |
Judge in the latter, much more so than |
in the former; for it is not probable that |
be would often be prejudiced or partial, |
there being nothing in most cases that
come before him to cause this: while
the utter want Of the logical faculty, and |
that mental blindness that iBcapRcitstes |
q man to distinguish Truth from Error |
and argument from rigmarole, wholly |
dissnable him 70 perform the duties Of a
Magistrate and Judge, Sad must make |
his administration of the law and Sis /,
conclusions as to facts mere series of |
errors. blunders, peryersions, wrongs
and bitter aud cruel injustiees; amid |
which il ever = correct decision
appesrs, it will be the result OF accident. |
Some men are affected with what is !
termed oolour-blindness, the effect Of
which is that one cannot distinguish red |
from green, and another, blue from pur-
pie. A person with the sense OF sight |
thus defective would be much such q
PAINTER as he must be a Judge, who
could so bring himself to the conclusion
that the Statute Of Tennessee adopted
tho whole English law Of contempts, as
made by the Judges and ChancellOrs,
when the contrary ls too plainly true to
be denied with a grave face b. any re-
spectacle lawyer.
Wsdo not say these things out Of any
lll-wlI to Judge Hunter, whom We do
not know. But nothing is so important
in q State as the pure, impartial and cor
rect administration of justice The
officer who sppoints an unfit or ineompe-
tent Judge, does his utmost to inflict In.
jury on the community, to rob men OF
their rights under color OF Judicial Sc
ton, and TO jeOpardize the liberty and
lives Of persons accused ofcrime. There
Is nc wsy TO punish it, but it ought to be
felony without bsnsht Of clergy. 1t is
in the impartial and just administration
of civil and criminal justice, that the
liberties OF men In free States consist
In these, Infinitely more than in themere
right to vote, which to the individual is
for the most part Of little real value. Eng
land with its Courts whose Justice and
learning none are SO shameless ss 10 dis
pute, and its magistrates fit to be the
successors of Holt and Hale and Hard
wicke and ROmers and Stowell and
NiehOl and Grsnt,-with those Courts
and magistrates whose dignity, wisdom
and impartiality are the truest glories of
the realm, is, because the springs of
Justice there are undefiied and the rights
Of the poor are Of equal consideration
with the rights of the rich, and errors
and bluDders are not the constant causes
of judicial robbery, the country really
and essentially the freest in the world
for there the civil and political rights