The Daily clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1866-1888, 1878-01-25
The Right of the People TO Eject
Their Judges.

SOttM, TO the present Juuiclai SYSTEM,
we must confess surprise at seeing him
enter the arena and participate with the
zeal of partisan in the discussion of the
question whether the mode of Executive
appointment shall be substituted for the
system of election by the people. Wei
have stated, again and again, that our
advocacy of the elective system is based
upon the fundamental principle of the
right of the people to select their own
agents, and has no reference to the per
sons composing the present Judiciary.
Indeed, we have no doubt the people,
with an eye keener to the fitness of
things, and more discriminating than
politicians are inclined to credit them
with, would make choice of some of the
very Judges who now occupy the bench,
if the adventures who framed the Con-
stituton had vouchsafed to them the
privilege of selecting for themselves.
We maintain, that to confer upon the
Executive Department the appointment
of Judges is violation of the funda
mental principle of our political system,
that the several departments of the
Government should be co-equal, each
independent of the other. We presume
even as learned a jurist as our Holly
Springs cotemporary will bow before the
superior wisdom of Judge Sharkey (who
by the way was always sustained in his
high office by the people at the polls.
What said he upon this very point?
Let us quote his language employed in a
somewhat noted decision with which the
editor of the South is no doubt familiar !:
cit is duty to prevent the encroachment
of one department of Government upon
another. The Importance of keeping
them separate not only an one thing but
IN all others, is universally admitted to be
q feature of government essential to liberty"
| During the administration of Governor
Ames we had striking illustration of the
consequence of violating this feature
Essential to liberty" One of the
grounds of his impeachment Ia measure
by the way, which was vehemently OPP
posed by the South,) was that the Elk
ecutive had employed the power with
which he was invested by the Con-
stitution to intimidate and control
the Judiciary in the discharge
of their almost sacred functions. No
better example need be furnished of the
dangers of the present system which was
forced upon the people at the point of
the bayonet by the carpetbag oligarchy.
1t was notorious fact that, under Radi-
cal rule, Judges were, with few excep-
tiops, selected with reference, not to their
fitness, but to partisan considerations.
IF there has been an improvement in our
judiciary, the fact is due to the victory
which was wrought by the people them
selves, who, according to the reasoning
of some pers ons, are not fit to be entrust-
ed with the selection of their Judges
How illogical and absurd! If they
can make the Governors who create the
Judges, why are they not capable of max
ing the Judges also ?
The South says it will not do for the
people to elect their Judges because the
negroes have been invested with suffrage
1t does not deny the right of the whites
to participate in their selection; but it
proposes to deprive them of this inalien-
able privilege because of the incorpora-
ton of the new element into the
body polite. The same reasoning
would deprive them of the right
to participate in the choice of
Governor, members of the Legisla-
ture, and in fact all other officers. The
negroes are permitted to vote in these
eIections-they are ignorant and inca
pable-and therefore, the whites, though
they have shown their capacity, must be
denied the privilege, in order to pre-
vent the former from participating. This
is the whole argument. 1t might as
well be applied to one branch of the
Government as another. Carried to its
logical conclusion, there is but one re-
suit. 1t is destruction of free govern
ment and the erection of despotism ON
its ruins. Now, practically, we do not
think the effect will be as the South APP
prehends. If the intelligence and expe-
rience and sovereignty of nature of the
whites are to give shape to the Govern
ment in one department, they are equal
ly capable of controlling it in all.