Daily globe. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1878-1884, 1881-04-01
THE STATE RAILROAD BONDS.

n Fe,U Precedents that Oar Judges Might
apply to Themselves.
To the Editor of the Globe.
In the spring of 1871 the President of the
| United States, Grant, appointed one of the
ablest judges of his time, Samuel Nelson, on
| the part of the United States, as one of the
| commissioners in joint high commission
and plenipotentiares' to frame a treaty with
Great Britain concerning the settle.
ment of all causes of difference be-
| tween the two countries" which or.
| iginated mainly by reason of the dcpredations
| of the Alabama and other armed vessels of the
| rebel navy upon our commercial vessels, and
the judge without hesitation left the bench,
where his presence was greatly needed, the
court being then in session, and acted as such
commissioner, in response to the call of his
country, for that is aUhat the appointment
meant, and for several weeks devoted his
whole time to the business OF
making what is known as 1.-THE Treaty
of Washington" In pursuance of this
! treaty "a tribunal of arbitration" was con.
stituted by the two governments to meet al
Geneva, in Switzerland, at the earliest conve.
nent day, after being named, and one of said
arbitrators was Sir Alexander Cockburn, lord
chief justice of England, who sat at the ap
pointed time with the other arbitrators, tc
whom was referred all the claims, generally
known as the alabama CLAIMS"
| In 1S77 several judges of the
supreme court of the United States
sat upon commission known as the electoral
commission, which, as they must have known
would and did subject their action to severe
| and disagreeable criticisms, nor did they de.
cline to act because of that, nor because GIN
the first instance it is the duty of the legisla
ture to determine whether 1t has the constitu
tional power'' to declare who was elected
President, nor because it could mot delegate
this duty to another tribunal"
| The presidents above related, and many
others that might be cited, may not have
weight with our judges, but ill have with q
fail to comprehend and be satisfied with the
reasons as given by your correspondent in The
GLOBE of the 2Sth inst. why the
judges decline to sit as tribunal for the
| adjustment 'of the Minnesota State railroad
bonds" Many will fail to see that they would
sit in any capacity save as arbitrators, referees
or commissioners or that there is anything s.,
exalted or sacred in the Office of a judge as tC
exempt him from the performance of a great
public duty, however disagreeable it may be
when the whole body of the people through
| the legislature and executive deliberately re-
quest it. The question is not
nor perhaps does it much ma.
| ter, as to how they are to decide
1t is to be presumed that their opinion and
finding woull be respected by the courts and
people for what they would be worth, and
that they would be right, but they would not
necessarily be conclusive, because they woulJ
not be Judicial, as they would be If made by the
same judges sitting as a court.
The people are not, nor will they be. sat
isfed with the reasons given by
your correspondent. They want better
ones, such as that judge is legally disqualified
10 sit on the bench and could not give an i'm
partial opinion, or he must plead illness OF
himself or his family, or some other equally
good reason. Because the legislature itsell
shirked the responsibility of deciding a con-
sttutional question it does not follow that a
judge should decline to tackle it. And If nc
better reasons than those mentioned
are given for the refusal of the judges to act
reasons will be assigned them as numerous as
the people themselves and as various as the
fertile imaginations of men of every shade
of opinion upon the policy of the law may
invent. Whatever their opinions upon that
or other questions, the people do not like to
| be snubbed by their own servants, through
| the legislature or the executive.
Nor A BONDHoLDER.
81. PAUL, March 30, 1881