Public ledger. [volume] (Memphis, Tenn.) 1865-1893, 1870-05-31
Supreme Judges.
To the Rditor Of the Ledger:.

10 the EuitOI VI Tue LrHRer'
Having in the late Judicial election
performed your work SO well, and con
tributed so largely to the gratifying re
sultwhich has been attained, We canno
consent, with your permission, tina
your columns shall long remaiI
idle, or the influence Of your valu
able paper be long unfelt in giving
the proper direction to the public mind
in the important judicial election which
yet remains to be made in this State
We refer TO the election Of Supreme
Judges in August next.
In the reorganization Of our State
Government, this is a question Of the
first Importance; that we have our ablest
purest and best lawyers to preside in oui
Court Of the last resort The question
is one Of great delicacy, and we mnst be
gin early, and discuss this matter SC
thoroughly that every voter in the State
will be impressed with its importance
and the delicacy of the trust reposed in
him. We cannot hope to impress the
negroes, nor those who. affiliate with
them, with these views; and hence the
Importance of every respectable man
being thoroughly aroused to a sense Of
his duty.
We want men sans peur ct sans re-
prDebe," but we want men-we want law.
yers-of patient, laborious habits, Of
study and thought; men who have been
schooled in the profession, and who have
the marks Of the traces upon them; who
take as naturally to, long complicated
records, to any tedious briefs, and to
musty libraries as fish does TO water.
All this comes of habit, and without il
we have neither learned lawyers nor re-
spectacle opinions. Nor does it follow,
for the attainment Of these ends, that we
must take from among the members of
the profession men as old as Mathuselah.
On the contrary, it is best that we avoid
extremes. " IN medals res, fntissimis
ibis"
The young men have not had the time
10 acquire the knowledge or experience
to fit them for positions like these. The
old men have not the Yigor Of mind or
body for the labors incident 20 the bench.
We must take men in the vigor Of man
hoou mth "hO hoM nave Tic Audlhh VI
the collar, showing that they are no anna
teurs in the profession, but have been
constantly in the harness from their no
vitiate. A spasmod'c pursuit of the law,
intermingled with interesting little polii-
ical episodes, or excursions in the tempt
ing fields Of railroad enterprises, or, per
haps, in the sweet fields of literary en-
joyment, is not favorable to the highest
professional attainment III
We want men whose success attes.s
the possession Of ability, and its appre-
citation by their contemporaries, for, after
all, there is no more reliable test Of merit
than suecess-men who, in public and
private life, maintain q character for
purity and integrity-men Who, last,
though not least, have not been. from the
earliest recollection Of their frieads, can.
didates for ofiice-a kind of cancerous
affection Of the body polite, which we
would like TO see lifted out to the bone.
Now, how are we 10 secure all these
ends2 We must have convention.
The number Of aspirahts already points
inevitably to that as the only solution.
We must come TO this, or, worse. Rad.
ical bench.
How, then. IS this convention to be