New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1873-06-02
BUSINESS FOR THE SUMNER.

After the political excitement of the past six
months we are promised Summer OF great
calm. The Legislature has adjourned and we
! have no more jobbery to fight at Albany. The
City Government is recognized, the few Offices
which yet remain to be filed offering no
excuse for very bitter contest. Louisiana is
quiet, for Mr.. Kellogg has at last been made
to see what was expected of him, and has filed
a formal requisition for troops. IL is good
time for dispassionate discussion. Measures
will have an unusually fair chance now of
being judged by their intrinsic merits. We
can forget partisan advantage awhile, espe-
cially since, in the prevailing Generalization
of parties, nobody can tell exactly where par
tisan advantages lie. For us in NewYork
there is abundant work to be done during this
golden interval between the passions of two
campaigns Two subjects of the greatest i'm
pOrtance press upon our consideration, and all
good citizens must desire that in their treat
ment party lines may be absolutely disre-
garded.
The first is the question of an elective judi
ciary. This is to be settled at the next Fall
election. The unfortunate Constitutional Com
mission of 1867, which failed in so many other
judiciary fairly on the road to accomplish
ment. 1t framed an amended judiciary arti-
Gle, which was adopted at the general election
of 1862 This article provides that at the gen
eral election of 1873 the following questions
shall be submitted to the people, /. "Shall
the offices of Chief Justice and Associate
Judge of the Court of Appeals andiof Justice
" of the Supreme Court be hereafter filed by
" appointment 7n and, 2. "Shall the offices of
"the judges mentioned in sections twelve
"and fifteen of article six of the COnstitu-
" tom superior Court and Court of Com
mon Pleas of the City and County of
New-York, Superior Court of Buffalo, City
Court of Brooklyn, and County Courtsl, be
thereafter filed by appointment The re-
suit of the vote on the Judiciary article in
1869 is a significant Indication of the popular
sentiment on this subject. The Tweed Ring
was till powerful in New-YOrk politics. and
was of course opposed to any change; but
while there was a majority of nearly 10000
against the Constitution as a whole, and a
majority of 10000 for the Democratic State
ticket, the majority in favor of the judiciary
amendment was nearly 1000. That the pro-
posed change will be adopted next November,
if the attention of the public be fairly stimu-
lated, and adopted by much more emphatic
vote than that of 1869, hardly anybody seems
to doubt.
The second question is the disposition of the
amendments suggested by the new Constitu-
tional Commission, and just passed upon by
the Legislature which adjourned last week.
These amendments must be submitted TO the
next Legislature, and if they pass that body
they will then be put to the popular vote at
the general election of 1874. But the discus
sion of these changes must not be left to the
lawmakers at Albany. We have seen enough
this session TO convince us that any valuable
reform must be wrung from the Legislature
by the pressure of an overpOwering public
opinion. Several of the most important
amendments of the Commission have already
been stricken out, and the most important
of all-the clause restricting special legislation
TO very few subjects, and those safe ones
has been so robbed and mutlated that it is
now of little worth. There was an excellent