St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1880-11-19
The Defeat of Judge Barrett.
lFrom the montpelier Journal


supreme court yesterday the enemies
of Judge Barrett succeeded in etfectlng
his displacement by large majority.
We fully believed that the high posi-
ton which the learned judge had at
tanned by nearly quarter of century
of faithful service would have condOned
any faults simply of manner, and that
he would have been left to complete
his record after the manner of his emil
nent predecessors and associates. But
the unanimity with which the members
of the bar and also of the Legislature
from Windsor and Windham counties
opposed his reelection prevailed with
the Joint assembly, in spite of the uni
versally admitted eminent ability and
spotless integrity of the venerable
Judge. We think the transaction Sc
rious mistake, but we judge upon gen
eral principles and without knowledge
of the specific grievances upon which
the opposition was based.
From the st. Adams Messenger
Judge Barrett was defeated through
the efforts of members of the Windsor
county bar, assisted by powerful com
bination of lawyers and men from other
L
orous and protracted campaign were
that his judicial manners were offensive
to the members of the bar, over whom
he presided in county courts. No crit
icism was made upon his conduct in the
supreme court. 1t was a case of a
prophet not without honor save in his
own home. The lawyers who were
personally aggrieved were mostly mem
bers of the Windsor county bar, though
this bar was not unanimous in opposing
him. The Windham bar, where he
has held county court during the long
time he has been on the bench, were
almost unanimous for supporting him
for reelection. But outside of Windsor
county there were many representatives
and senators who thought it was not
right to force upon the bar of that coun-
ty judge who was personally Obnox-
ions. Nothing was urged against him
to impeach his great ability and learn
ing as lawyer aud judge or his judicial
honor. Senator Bridgman expressed
the substance of the argument, outside
of personal opposition, in saying that he
had very reluctantly come to the con-
clusion that such strong opposition to
nisi prius judge had terminated. The
Central Vermont railroad company had
nothing whatever to do with his defeat.
1t took no part in the canvass for OF
against him. His displacement will be
a serious loss to the court of the state.
He is the author of many of the most
able and learned opinions on the most
important cases of the supreme court
of the state, which have given the
opinions of this court such high repu-
tation all over the country, and viewed
in the light of the general public inter-
est, we cannot help thinking that it was
a mistake to retire him in this summary
manner from the high position which
he had attained by nearly a quarter OF
a century of faithful service.
From the Springfield Republican,
The defeat of Judge Barrett just at
this time and in this manner throws a
cloud over the independence of the
bench. Judge Barrett is a man of I'M
questioned legal ability, of judicial
While he is charged with undue severi-
ty of manner at times toward the bar,
we never have heard any instances
cited where there was not some ground
for it or which exceeded the strictness
of Chief Justice Gray, or of Judge Lord
upon the supreme bench of Massachu-
sets. We are compelled to look deep
er for the causes which have been at
work against Judge Barrett, and there
are other circumstances which certainly
give an unfortunate complexion to this
result. Judge Barrett rendered the
decision of the supreme court of Ver<
mont Il year or two ago in the great
Vermont Central litigation as to the
character of the trusts imposed upon
the Smith party of managers. That
decision took ground contrary to the
opinions of Judge Royce, acting as
chancellor, without deciding fully and
satisfactorily the question of priority of
liens. Consequently a new case was
made up and argument was heard be-
fore the full bench. Without consulta-
ton, as we understood, his associates
asked for Judge Royce's opinion. 1t
was given, sent around to the other
judges, disSented from and the court at
its present session at Montpelier has
been expected to CONSULTATIVE at Il
common conclusion and settle the great
litigation. The magnitude of the val
ues at stake may be understood from
the fact that the judges are to decide
the priority of the various liens which
have been placed on the Vermont Cen
trail and Vermont and Canada roads.
If the court holds with Judge Royce
that the trust debt, or the debt created
by the managers is the first lien above
the immediate and ordinary expenses
of operation, then this trust debt be-
comes at once the best obligation rest
ing on the property. This trust debt
amounts to several millions, and, if it
is valid, all other liens are of small val
ne. On the other hand, if it is invali-
dated, the other liens hold good.
Now just as this vast litigation is
coming to a head occurs the biennial
election of all the judges of the supreme
court. This manner of choosing the
judges has never before, to our knOwl-
edge, been allowed to trench upon the
independence of the bench A re cleo
ton has rarely been refused, and no
judge of high legal attainment was
probably ever dropped for acerbity of
manners. But now the game apparent
ly was to throttle the bench by "spot-
ting" the man who represented most
individually the anti-Smith view of the
law. To give color to the objection
of Judge Barrett's local unpopularity
at home and upon his own circuit
(Windsor county,, Senator Hugh Hen-
~ of that county nominated Royce as
first associate justice, in behalf, as he
said, of more than three-fourths of the
members from that county. Senator
Stafford of St. Adams read letter from
Royce, disappearing the use of his name
against Barrett's, but this had no effect
upon those who designed to unseat a