The Rock Island Argus. (Rock Island, Ill.) 1877-1885, 1877-07-07
COUNTY IUDdEsHIP.
AN ADDRESS TO THE VOTERS OF
ROCK ISLAND COUNTY;
BY the Bar.

county bar held 10 the Court House, |
Thursday, July 5. 1877.
On motion, Il. G. Connolly, Esq, was
called to the chair and Chas. w, O'Neil
was made secretary of the meeting.
The committee appointed at former
meeting to prepare an address to the peo-
pie of this county on the subject of the
coming election for Judge of the County
Court, consisting of Hon. G.. w, Peasants,
Lewis and VIM. III. Gest, presented the
following address, which was on motion,
accepted aud approved as being 10 &C
cordance with the sense of this meeting:
To the voters Of Rock Island County:
The members of Rock Island County
Bar respectfully submit the following
statement to the voters Of the county,
setting forth the reasons why, at the forth
coming election for County Judge, a
lawyer of experience in the practice of his
profession, should be elected to fill that
Office. And, while the importance and
delicacy of the task thus undertaken is
clearly discerned, we wish to say, at the
outset, that this statement is not presented
in the interest of the Bar alone. nor of any
particular member Of the Bar, nor of any
person or class of persons, but Of all the
citizens of Rock Island county in common,
feeling assured that the members of the
bar can have no interest in this matter
that is not equally the interest of every
other citizen.
In the earlier history of the state, when
it was but sparsely settled and the amount
of property involved in the decisions of
what is now known as the county court
was not 50 large, nor the questions of so
intricate character as latterly, the Office
was known as that of Probate Justice of
the Peace" With only such limited juris
diction as,was then conferred upon Justices
Of the Peace, and its additional limited
jurisdiction over the settlement Of estates.
probating of wills, ETC., it was considered
that such Office, like any Office of Justice OF
the Peace, could be filed by any person of
integrity and ordinary business qualifca-
tions. Hence it grew to be the habit, 10
this county and elsewhere, to elect to that
Office persons without reference to their
legal education or qualifications. After
ward, the name of the office was changed
to that Of County Judge, and the Probate
Justices Court to that Of County Court.
Though the powers of the County Court
have been increased, from time to time,
with reference to some of the matters over
which it had jurisdiction, its duties have
remained until recently, substantially the
same; yet, the amount of business has
greatly increased; and in the degree that
the estates coming before it for settle
ment have grown in magnitude and COM
plexity with the increased population and
wealth Of the county, so have its decisions
grown in Importance.
But, during all this time, the Judge Of
this court had only the right to try such
civil and criminal cases as could be tried
by an ordinary Justice Of the Peace, and
could only render in such cases such judg-
meDt as could be rendered by such Justice.
Hence, from the organization of the Coun-
ty Court, men without special professional
qualifications have frequently occupied the
position Of County Judge in this county.
IL has not been generally understood,
OF else ignored, that the questions of law
arising upon the probating of wills aud the
administration Of estates Hereunder, the
sales of real estate by administrators, execu-
tors aud guardians, and the many questions
involving the title to a large amount of
lands within the county, which are of daily
occurrence in that court, are among the
most intricate and difficult questions known
to the law, and to q correct disposition Of
which must in many instances be brought
profound legal learning, else error is the
result and future litigation inevitable.
1t is here, in the duties of such Judge
that the qualifications of honesty anC
business ability alone fail, They will nc
more enable him to solve correctly these
questions than honesty and good sense
alone will enable him to calculate the tint
o! an eclipse, compound prescription, Of
perform a skillful operation in surgery
The litigation of the present grows out o
ha franunpt1nua rs ha and bof n
the future will largely come from the trans
actions Of the present: and where a cour
has had to deal almost exclusively will
the rights of minors, insane persons anC
trustees, such as executors, administrator
and guardians, which cannot be deter
mined except by strict compliance with
not only the spirit, but the letter of tn,
law, the importance of legal accurac,
cannot be over estimated. The hardship
growing out of the unsettling of estates
and the assertion Of claims by minors ant
other persons under legal disability, afte
such disability has been removed which
have long since been supposed settled, ar
fraught with the most serious cOnseQuen
ces, for they usually come years after tn
transactions out Of which they grow arr
finally ended, when correction is impossi
bic, and there is nothing to be done, bu
for innocent administrators executors
guardians, purchasers or heirs, to suffel
for errors over which they had no control
but which were made by the very order O
the court itself, While it is true tina
such errors cannot always be avoided, it il
the duty of every one to make them al
few as possible, by putting into the offict
ofCounty Judge person of requisite lega
education and experience. However it j
not on the past of this court that thi
statement is designed to bear, but upon it
future.
In 1872 n radical change was made il
tho County Court. Its jurisdiction was 81
extended that most civil cases involving
not over $780, and all criminal cases wher,
the punishment was not imprisonment il
the penitentiary or death, might be trieC
in that court. 1t was made a court will
like rules of pleading and practice as thu
Circuit Court. And though ut that timt
given an extensive civil and criminal juris
diction, it still, to great extent, retained
its character as a Justice Of the Peace
court, for appeals were allowed to the Cir
cult Court from its judgments the same a
from Justice of the Peace, and the Cir
cult Court was required to try the case agaiI
upon its merits, thus making it easy in al
that class OF cases 10 secure two trials upor
the merits by simply taking an appeal, anC
necessary, for all who desired to have thei
cases disposed of without the expense o
two trials, to begin in the Circuit Court il
the trst instance.
The last Legislature, however, enlarged
this jurisdiction, so as to include civi
cases involving one thousand dollars ant