St. Landry democrat., 1879-07-26
The Courier and the Judiciary.

former. and giving cur it'tSoho l"l 81
doing, This seems to have somewhat
excited our venerable neI9hbof' 'he
Courier and accordingly on SATURDAY
last we were treated to a leader OF
rather a lecture, nearly column III
length, reviewing our article and au-
yocatins an appontivc judiciary. The
views entertained by us and those enter
tanned by the Courier, are dIanetricai'y
opposed and serve only to Illustrate the
homely, but true saying thaS ooc'o's
will disagree.'
In the meantime, after publication OF
our article and before the appearance
of the Courie,'s, Of last Saturday, the
question of the judiciary, came before
+he State convention. That body, to
ouote the Couliers language, the
peoples representatives, chosen uN'cl'S
from their midst, fully imbued with
their wishes, and only dcsirous OF giving
expression to them in the new consti-
tution," provided for uiVlsloh ol tn"
;udicial department under the 1"tUre
ornonic law, into d Supreme Court,
Circuit Court, District Courts ana
Justices of the Peace. OF these the
Governor, with the consent OF the
Senate, is to appoint the supreme
Judges; the Circuit Judges, are 10 oc
rlccfrd by the IegisiatWe, /" Jo'Ht session.
,rbjIxt !liat;ict Judgcs 0m} .Nag'Sf'dtcs
u,e to be elected directly By TIE p"op'e.
Hence. no doubt, the Courier has
suddenly walked up, to realize the tact,
that the question Of an elective or ap-
nointiye judiciary, at the time our ar
ticle appeared w0s an open one, anu tilaI
we did not stand alone Ill advocating
an elective Judiciary.
The Courier may not consider our
views orthodox, but we reckon llie
convention did, as we understand 1t
was only by compromise, that the
whole system of Judiciary was not made
elective. Our only regret is, that 1t was
not the Courier to the contrary not
vithstanding.
The hest and most conclusive answer
to the opponents OF the eiectlvejudicla'y
svstem, is to be found in tie oT&anlza-
ton Of the Supreme CONT under tEe
constitution of 1852. The Supreme
rourt under that constitution was cleo
tive and was organized with Hon. lhos.
S];dell, as Chief Justice; Hon. Z. oor-
hies, A. NJ. Buchanan, A. n. ogdan anh
!. G. Campbell, Associate Justices.
Amongst these will be found the names
of some of the most distinguished law
vers in Louisiana. In 1854 Judge Camp
bell resigned and WAS succeeded by lion.
TT. M. Spofrord, an illustrate jurSt anu
scholar. In 1855, Hon. f. I. AeTrlck
was elected Chief Justice, to ill the
vacancy caused by the resignation OF
Chief Justice Slidell. There is perhaps
! but one ether name more illustrlous, Id
the iuridical annals OF s-oul3iaDay than
that Of Chief Justice Merriek. In 1854,
Judge Ogden resigned and the people
elected Judge J. n. Lea in his stead.
He too, was an able lawyer and an ac-
comnlished scholar and gentleman.
When Judge Lea resigned, Judge Cole
was elected in his stead. Judge Land
roDlacea Judge Stofford aud subse-
oyeutlv Hon. Albert VOORHEES, and
Judge Duffel we're elected to the Su-
preme bench These were the Supreme
Judges we had under the elective sys~
tem of 1862, and most assured|y they
will corasDave favorably with any OF
those appointed, especially those ap-
pOinted under short tenure ct office.
It is not because Judges are elective,
that incompetent men sometimes find
their way to the bench. 1t depends
on another cause, viz; short tenure of
office. Elect Judges during good be-
havior, and pay them we'll, and then no
trouble would be found in placing the
highest integrity, coupled with the best
talent on the bench. Tho greatest
mistake the convention has made, is in
making the tenure of the judicial Office
SO short.
The voting population Of many par
isLes in Louisiana, as the Courier says
NAV be a " semi-civilized set of barba-
rians," though we don't believe word
Of it, and yet we had rather risk them
to select judges, than to buid up a one
man power in our State. The conven-
ton we will observe, en- pGssaRt, die
not believe in the existence these " semi
civilized barbarians" amongst our voting
population, because, if it had, it woulf
have placed some qualification on thu
right of suffrage.
A careful reading and re-reading O.
the Courier's leader Or lecture, has only
confirmed lis in The belief expressed il
our former article, that those who donb
the capacity of the people to elect al
their officers, are those who are afrait
of the people, because they doubt if tht
people will honor them with their suf
frage, when they solicit Office. Bn
grant for the sake of argument, that tli
4 Courier is right when it says "that il
many parishes of the State, especially
the Southern portion, an ignorant a'rt
se,ni-barbarioss constituency hare the con
trolling eo'ce, yet it furnishes DO argu
nlent against the elective system. /
these semi-ignorant and semi-barba
rious voters arc sufficiently strong t.
elect their iudees. what hinders then