New-York tribune., 1873-06-28
The SELECTION or JUDGES.

The SELECTION or JUDGES.
A pure and honest Judiciary is absolutely
necessary to the stability and permanence ot
our institutions We may survive Executive
jncapacity and Legislative corruption IL we
keen the Bench pure and the ermine unsnl-
lied. What corrupt courts may do we have
had some experience of in New-York, and our
neighbors in Philadelphia are now learning.
When the dry rot of political corruption and
degeneracy has struck into the Judiciary, the
last prop goes, and the fabric must fall. How
to keep it pure and honest and above re-
proach is the question. Manifestly an elective
judiciary is failure. Experience has taught
us what common sense before had pointed
out. that tho Judge upon the bench must be
entirely Independent of the citizen at the
bar. lie must be under no obligation to
him for favOrs past, az for support at
the polls, and in no remOtest sense dependent
on his good will for favors in the future in
the shape of denomination and reelection.
An elective judiciary with life tenure would
be better than one with shorter term, since
the sense Of dependence would be removed
from the mind of the judge, if after having
been once elected he felt certain of his place.
is uncertainty and weakness itself. The jul
dical officer who has given up his professional
practice and is dependent upon his salary for
his yearly income, when his term expires
must either be candidate for reelection, or
be turned out of Office with no business to
fall back upon. His circumstances compel him
to seek the suffrages of the peOple-to come
down from the bench and ask favors of those
whose causes he is to sit in judgment on.
decent elective judiciary under such circum-
stances is almost impossible.
A Bench appointed by the Legislature is no
better but liable to be much worse than one
elected by the people. A correspondent of
THE TRIBUNE this morning indicates some of
the difficulties that beset the system of legis-
lative appointments as shown in Connecticut.
In that State the judges are appointed by the
Legislature for term of eight years, but the
practice of reappOntment at the expiration OF
such official term has so generally obtained
that it is virtually life appointment. But
with tho appointing power in the Legislature
there grows up an inevitable tendency to
making seats upon the Bench objects of polit-
ical intrigue and Of legislative barter and sale,
Of practices in which men who are tit for ju-
dicial positions will not engage but which pet
tifoggers and cheap politicians make d business
of. The consequence ia second and third-rate
lawyers are sent TO the Legislature-and it
seems they have one notable case of this kind
in Connecticut-whos sole object is to intrigue
for judicial position. They lower the dignity
and tone of the Bench, they corrupt the Legis-
lature, and they demOralize the people. There
is in the Legislature no sense of responsibility
except it be that loose vague notion of party
responsibility which is sometimes set ,up and
there is consequently no inquiry az to fitness
or capacity The man of all men who is best
qualified for the place-whO has kept aloof
from mingling in party politics and partisan
strife, who has fitted himself for such
duties by close and diligent application
to his profession, and whose very
preparation for the judicial Office has kept
him out of politics-is the last man upon whom
the choice of Legislature of politicians would
fall. Their selection is usually tho man who
is prominent in politics and has done the party
some service, when his very prominence is proof
that he has not fitted himself for the Bench
by proper course of preparation and study,
and his party connections show that his habits
VI Hls udIniHBt anu iSSOCidIlOnb
are such as to unfit him entirely for the duties
of judge.
We are gradually coming back, we believe,
TO the old and the conservative notion regard
ing the mode and terms of judicial appoint
ments: to wit, making them Executive ap-
pOintments, with life terms, subject, Of course
to impeachment for misdemeanOr. That sys-
tenn puts the appointment into tho hands of
one person who has all tho responsibility of
selecting fit and proper men. IL gives the
Bench itself character for stability and per-
manence, which, If there were nothing else,
would promote its capacity for usefulness and
elevate its dignity and tone, and it would re-
move 30 far as possible tho selection of
judges from tho arena of low local and
personal party politics The tendency in
those States which have an elective judiciary
with limited tenure. is TO corruption in