The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1872-03-28
The "syhig" EGuits.-Thc Late Judge
William Daniel.
For the Dispatch.


For the Dispatch.
In characteristic and significant editorial
in the Hhig of the 18th instant, headed
"Justicc with Mercy" find the following
sentence: In former times they (the people
of Virginia) had judges who did not consider
equity incompatible with law There was q
Pendleton, venerable nomen, who detied the
reproacheS of the journalists, and enforced
from The bench the substance of right. The
late Judge William Daniel was another of the
same type, who had the 'sagacity to perceive
and the moral courage to execute substantial
Justice. Those who remember such dis
pelscIs of Justice, no doubt, would hail their
return And this is addressed to the rep
rescntatives of Virginia in her law-nmking
body, the law-givers in State where the
judges are sworn to support the Constitution
Of the United States and the State of Fi-
ginia, and faithfully enforce the duty ofjudge-
Il State in which three out of five judges of
the Court of Appeals may (by constitutional
cnactmcnD declare any lac null and void
by reason Of its repugnance to the Federal
Constitution or the Constitution of this
State"
Judqes cannot make law-cannot Gen
force the substance Of right'-cafulot eek
ecute substantial justice "-accordinS to this
writer's crude ideas.
|. "Thc Constitution and laws Of the
United States made i'll pursuance thereof
shall be the supreme lar Of the land, and
the judges in every State shall be bound
thereby, anything in the Constitution or laws
of any State to the contrary notwithstand-
ing"
,. 1.-The common law of England, so far
as it is not repugnant to the principles Of the
,,,I ;t,,f, oc
State, shall continue in full force within the
same, and be the rule Of decision, except in
those respects wherein it is or shall be utter
ed by the General Assembly"
g. 1.-THE decisions OF the courts are the evil
dencc Of what is common law,' and the
Judges are sworn "to determine, not accord
ing to their own private judgment, but &C.
cording to the known laws Of the land; not
delegated to pronounce a new law, but to
MAINTAIN and eXpound the old one, so as to
keep the scale Of justice even and steady, and
not liable to waver with every new judges
opinion"
!. "Thc system Of our courts of equity
is Il labored, connected system, governed By
established rules and bound dozen 6y prece-
dents, from which they do not depart,
although the name Of some of them may be
liable to objection" Neither the chsncellor's
conscience, nor his opinion, nor his private
Judgment, any more than the "length of his
foot" or The condition Of has prirdte affairs,
can be the "rule of his decisions"
Now, every honest man who is such judge
in this State knows what his duty is accord
ing to the above rules for bis decisions, and
knows he is sworn to decide accordingly. |
do not propose to speak of Judge Pendle-
ton, but | knew Judge Daniel. He was
man of most eminent sense OF justice, of
powerful intellect, and lawyer learned in
his profession.
And now undertake to yindicate his re-
putation as man, lawyer, and Judge
common law and equity, from the imputl-
ton cast upon his memory by the idle talk
of his "sagacity to perceiya and moral cour-
age to execute substantial Justice"
lie was great judge (his intellect was q
wonderful one) because of his eminent sense
of justice, his accurate knowledge of and
veneration for the great principles of law
constitutional, common law, and equitable
his critical acumen, his knowledge of human
nature, and his accurate and discriminating
learning Of "precedents and the decisions of
the courts" whose authority 1chen shopn to
erist he never "detied" or disregarded.
The mere obiter dictG of Journalists" or
OlutlS Ncle LdhtIl lUI NlIdL lIlcy were worth
upon examination. "Authority," in the sense
of the courts, he respected as any conscien-
tious, upright, and learned judge must, if he
regards the obligations of an oath Of office.
Judge William Daniel cannot be quoted in
encouragement of facile legislators and
judges, OF for making the bench in Virginia
II theatre on which liliput lawyers, instigated
by newspaper stimulants, are to displiytheir
skill at l" enforcing the substance of right"
and "eXecuting substantial justice " accord
ing to their limited conceptions on those
subjects, Irrespective of their oaths and the
constitutions and recognized laws of the
land.
He was great judge, in the sense of that
term in the better and purer days of the Re.
public, worthy the imitation, in the deci-
sion Of causes before him, of any and all
successors. A "legist" in the honorable and
true sense Of that word, learned, pure, hon.
est, and infertble. Any rule of action on
the bench inconsistent with this only proper
standard of qualification as a judge, il ascri.
bed to Judge Daniel, no matter for what
motive, does him great injustice, as 1t does
every upright, conscientious, and learned
man who ever occupied that exalted position.
1t Is the duty of n judge to "decide ques-
tons and disputes In q court of Justice 40
,cording to lQao." He Is neither an umpire,
arbitrator, or referee. And having aseer-
TUNED what is The lar, it is his duty to decide
foo iacS1 v IL ~ kIo.