Memphis daily appeal. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1847-1886, 1870-05-06

Criminal Court Judge----J r
Auy-GenT Criminal o5u~t-LUKEE WRIGHT.
Instead of a " bushel of arguments, we
give the APPEAL, in answer to its article
of Yesterday, an extract, with which 1t
ought TO be familiar:
And the idea OF electing Whig, Democratic,
Know-Hothing or Radical judges, and pledg-
ing the people Of any side 70 them oy nonl-
nations, is mOnstrous. What would g0hn
Marshall have said TO running as a wing
candidate for Judge! We want no Judges
pledged 10 any party by means OF anomlna-
ton OF party. A peoples convention 70 select
Judges may be convenient and roper But
aapaFtV convention, involving questions
which NAV come I'D for adjudication, ought
- 80 ~ TsIT for sncb . puTpOse. There are
limits for party nominations when ought 70
be observed, and there are rules OF FAIRNESS
for conventions which are indispensable.
But. those given, the nominations OF cOnVen-
tons are obIigatory-AppeaI, Isl Uh.
independent journalism is too much for
the APPEAL to accomplish all at once. II
is swinging to and fro like the
of an old Dutch clock. Its test OF DemOc-
racv is 50 unique that il is a hopeful sign
for the future Of that paper.-AUGtdnche.
We understand our neighbor as de-
filming his position to be "independ-
emit" and neither Democratic o
Radical. That is all well. Nobody
has a better right to publish a schol-
arly, American, literary, scientific
and miscellaneous journal than him
self, and we wish him great success in
his new enterprise. We asked him to
say whether he would support the
ticket of the Convention, on the pre-
sumption that the AUalaHche was a
Democratic journal, and on the further
presumption that, though, like the
APPEAL, the AUdLdHche had discount
tenanced q partisan nomination for
judges, it would also like the APPEAL
prefer Democrats against Radicals.
The APPEAL accepted, and supports
the ticket Of the Convention, not on
the ground of a partisan nomination,
but on the ground that the ticket
presented was by the fairly expressed
will Of the white people, who in this
county happen to be almost univer-
sally Democrats. A man, therefore,
who glOrie5 in being on the side of the
Democrats, will find no particular
thunder in it, unless it is the credit of
standing with white citizens on the
side wherein there is a majority Of
five to one. 1t is no swinging to
and fro like the pendulum" to oppose
a particular party nomination as such,
and then support the nominees who
may be selected by men almost, or
perhaps exclusively members of a
party. We EVE said we should re-
iect nominations which might be
made by Democrats, especially when
there was no possibility that a selec-
ton we could accept should be made
by any other respectable body of the
people. The late convention was to
all intents and purposes a peoples
convention, Notwithstanding ii was
composed of Democrats and nomi-
mated Democrats. The object we had
in view was gained by the OPP
position we made. That object
was to obtain a nomination of judges
not " pledged to any party by means
of a nomination Of party" The nomi-
nees Of that convention are under no
pledges except to discharge well the
functions Of their offices, and dispense
justice impartially. That then is as it
should be, and just as we desired it
should be.
3ut, TO beat this ticket, either Radi-
Gals have been selected or Radicals
will support Radicals as such or other
candidates who run on the pretense
Of independence. And that which we
condemned and desired to preventand
did prevent in the Democratic party, is
precisely what the Radicals are doing
in running partisans and indepen-
dents, not because they are better men,
but because they desire for their own
party purposes to beat a nomination
Of Democrats, which has been by some
unwisely announced as Democratic. 1t
is now the Radicals who are seeking
to put partisan judges on the bench, J
and not Democrats. And it now
therefore becomes the privilege and
the duty of every Democrat as such J
TO checkmate the Radical purposes I
and defeat them in their attempt to !
bring the Judiciary into a political :
scramble. By keeping the Demo {
cratic party in the right as to this !
matter, we have done more to sus- ,
tain it, and to put Radicals in the
wrong, and TO elect suitable men 20 :
The judiciary, than we could have |
done by a more seeming adherence to /.
party, when it meant nothing. r
Democracy calls for an intelligent S
support and not a blind one. In l
party matters it is OF grave !
Importance that men should faithfully Il
with their respective Organiza- il
tons. But it wonld do 20 harm TO \
remember that men must be led and y
not driven, and that every crack of !,
your party whip may stimulate the a
iOrces of your adversary quite as e
much as it does your own; II, indeed, l
he antipathy TO being driven does :
not turn even more to your disad- Il
vantage. p
We seek TO drive nobody. We
have not changed our view that the
judiciary should be kept out Of the
mlre Of politics. We support the r.
Of The Convention as good t.
men; and we oppose antagonist can d
nldates because no other pretense for G
supporting them remains 10 the Radi-
party but the accomplishment OF v
partisan ends. In this, though we al
are more to be right than to be con- n
we are consistent and those =
who object to partisan nominations n