Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1875-12-30

1 ldlT compensation BHdt Quiet peO-
| ple working as hard as did, were making 1t
was enough to command any legal talent in
the circuit that the people would elect.
thought the Republican party had sins enough
| to account for, aside from the reputation of
augmenting salaries and voting for and receiv-
| ing back pay But if the people of this circuit
| think they ought to pay $500 for dignity"
| should be Judge for another term, | will be
| able to purchase a complete outfit in that
| line gold headed cane and buttons, kid
| gloves and carvat tied with all the art of
| Count D'0rsay. $500 per year for dignity"
and $1,000 if the legislature will allow it !
The Judicial aspirants who are willing to spend
| the peoples money in this way viii surely
| favor sooaomy in running the court machinery
| But how does it come to pass, if the ambush
| ed editor of the Advocate had no special dis
| like to your humble servant, that he refers to
what he considers fatal objection to me- He
alleges no special objection to ang one else
| MANY of ais decisions have been taken up
| by appeal to the Supreme Court at Madison,
and large proportion of them have been re-
/ versed This is vital matter and will some
careful attorney furnish us the number sus-
tanned and those reversed, and we will pub.
| lish them TO the end that the public NAV
be informed"
| Now, Mr.. Editor, here | should demand
| that the people should not stop with mere
| numbers. The matter shall not be settled in
this way They give me the credit of being
the nrst Circuit Judge in the State who
adopted the habit of writing out and filing
decisions with the Clerk.
| There is a class of cases that can go from
our State Court to the Supreme at Washing-
ton. "a large proportion" of these State
decisions have been reversed. 1t would be
1 Sc 70 6 a /;
not compare their judgments with those over
ruling them. Count the overruled decisions
of our Supreme Court, if they out number the
| cases sustained, then down with our Supreme
| Court, expel them from their seats Is not
| this logic for you? Hundreds, yes thousands
| of my fellow citizens as jurors, as by-3tanders
| and attendants upon the courts have held,
| have listened to the law as have explained it
| to uries and applied it to the facts in the
| case, and / call them to answer if what | have
| written did not recommend itself to the I'M
| biased understanding as reasonable fair and
| Just The Judge that succeeds here is worthy
of his position in the highest sense; if he fails
in this respect he brings both the law and
| himself iuto disgrace and dsrepute.
| Now, sir, this is a wide field. l am egotis-
| teal enough, sanguine enough enthusiastic
| enough to believe that in this circuit the
modes have adopted in the administration
| of the law have, as a general thing, made too
| deep and favorable an impression on the
public mind to dread any reaction approved
| six years ago by four counties out Of FIVE, and
| even where the Democratic party was in the
| az cendent, they must as a rule be adopted by
any candidate who expects the people to sup
4 port him. The careful attorney" engaged
| on the reversed decisions must not be limited
| to mere enumeration. He should show what
| the decisions were that were reversed, and
| what have regarded and written as the law,
| whether it corresponds with natural Justice
| aud reason whether when statute has to be
construed, it is interpreted as far as the letter
| will permit, in furtherance of actual justice.
| But am not willing that shall be tried by
/ the number of reversed or affirmed decisions,
| be they few or many. Their honors at Madi-
| son will tell you they would suffer under such
an enumeration of their judicial sins, perhaps
/ to a greater degree than any one of the Circuit
| Judges When you undertake this sort of a
comparison you must consider that Supreme
| Courts often override their own previous
| decisions. Enquire of Major RouEtree, of
| ri atteville, whether his experience does not
prove this, | can point you to instances
/ where the Supreme Court has overrued de-
/ cisons | have made, and afterwards has re-
| traced its steps and adopted what | regarded
as the law SO can other Circuit Judges show
| like instances. You must also remember that
| in all litigated matters there must be two sides
otherwise there would be no possibility of
contest. In most of such cases the court,
| whether Circuit or Supreme, will find strong
preeedents and opinions supporting the con>
| fiictng positions. All that the Court can do
in such case, to yindicate its honor, learning
or wisdom, is to select and sanction that rule
4
judge shosg s gs asnd thorough
| knowledge of the condition, habits and occupa
| tons of the people enables him to foresee the
effect and operation Of what he promulgltes as
law Within certain limits, in the choice of
conflicting rules the Judge is simply a legs-
lator
The judicial system Of our own State and OF
| some Others as think, is so constructed as to
/ widen the differences between the Circuit and
| supervising Courts. The latter courts are
localized at the State capitols, hedged iE by
| formidable rows law books old and new, al
| most wholly dependent on the members of the
| bar for their knowledge of the world outside
| of their own calling As a necessary conse-
| sequence, their judgments will exhibit legal
research, familiarity with authorities, expert
| ness in that terse and sharp logic that secures
|
| which they live and have their being Far re-
moved from that scene where their judgments
| are to operate, they cannot, like the Circuit
| Judge, who is familiar with the condition and
| habits and transactions Of the people, adapt
| and adjust abstract rules to the ever shifting
| phases of the living age So as a general fact
| the rulings of the isolated court will display
| learning and length but will lack that natural
| fitness and correspondence with the conditions
| and consciences of men, the chimes and music
| of which we call Justice
The proofs OF this assumption are 50 abund-
/ ant aud so characteristic that no one can doubt
it, or fail to see the true cause of the increasing
| divergence between nisi prius and Supreme
| Courts overruling them. Nothing can be settled
between tribunals surveying the law from such
| adverse stand points. Take one instance
among fifty Look at he 9th Wisconsin, page
| 902, where Judge Cole gravely decides that
colt four years old with its mother, could not
be regarded as "span of horses, "and therefore
was not exempt from execution to poor man
under our statutes. But could not that colt
have become horse and at last been ssspann-
ed with its mother" By parity of reasoning
two cows may be exempt but two calves
could not be. It requires a good deal of
learning to make such decision Ineligible
TO all Circuit Judges. Juries when told of
the law will avoid it by bubbles as ridiculous
as the decision ITSELF Who denies Judge
Coles honesty, his capacity and general re-
gard for what is right? The Judge may so
decide in his learned retirement at Madison,
but am sure he would not have so decided
when he was an humble Justice of the peace
in Potosi Could Circuit Judge in the
hearing OF an intelligent jury of the county,
men whose common sense would at once give
natural Interpretation of the law, suggested
by the known condition OF the class it was
designed to protect; could /, as an original
proposition, so declare the law to jury and
after that calculate on their respect or regard
for my legal opinons.on any subject?
And could point out other decisions of
that Court of more serious nature that | am
satisfied no Circu Judge would have dared
TO sanction as an original proposition. Here Is
laboring man who spends his time and what
money he has or can borrow in making i'm
provements on 40 acres of land he intends
| q. ia Ruf snmoh0dU 6pdS