Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1881-07-30
Ndnraslr, fsltciLgcnrer.
SATURDAY EVENING. JULY 30. 1881.



Lated copy we reprint the salient points
OF an address delivered at the late CON-
mencement of a Virginia college, by
Hon. Daniel Agnew, for fifteen years a
Judge and for three of them chief JUS
tice of the supreme court of Pennsylva-
MIA. 1t needs no key in reading Judge
Agnew's address to discover that it was
written for this latitude, and that is one
reason why we publish considerable
portion of it in full, and why the tardi-
ness with which it appears will not dull
the freshness of it. The venerable jurist s
views on government and the dangers
arising to it from the different social
conditions Of the governed are forcible
and entitled to respect, but they are
more trite than the latter portion Of his
address, which brings us face to face with
the more easily remedied evils which
menace the government, arising out of
the way in which it is administered.
Judge Agnew's views Oh the conflict of
races, and the unnaturalness of misceg-
enation are Vivid and interesting, but
he leaves us somewhat appalled, by a
serious prospect for which. he seems to
offer no relief.
1t would he unfair to say that the lat
ter portion of this address, relating to
the domination Of political Oligarchies,
the aggressiveness Of corporate power
in collusion with political rings and the
infirmities of the judiciary, was a
reflex of the authors personal
and political grievances. There
can he no doubt that his own ex-
perience opened his eyes to the charac-
ter and extent of some of these abuses
Of and dangers to our government. 1t is
alOpen secret in Pennsylvania politics,
where alas the ermine of its judiciary
has to be dragged, that Judge. Agnew,
after originally intending to retire at the
end of his term, had been induced to he
Il candidate for denomination i'm response
to the urgent appeals of his party man.
ayers, who fancied they would need his
name and reputation to pull their ticket
through that thoy afterwards resolved
to supplant him and found him stub
bOrnly opposed to their scheme that
he bitterly resented his defeat, and
that for that defeat the responsibility
must he shared in part 10y his Republi-
can colleagues on the bench, who had
grown restive under his frequent differ
ences with them on fundamental ques-
tiOns of the law. This being, we say.
notorious, it is plain that Judge Agnew
and, VIC believe, the commonwealth suf-
fered directly from the three dangers to
government which he points out rs
arising from its maladminiStratiOn. The
oligarchy Of his party resolved upon and
executed his slaughter; the corporation
influence was against him, and the i'll
firmities of some of his judicial brethren
were i moving cause of their opposition
TO his continuance among them. by
reason of this experience he may be more
or less qualified to express Il dispassion-
ate Judgment upon tic subjects which
he takes in hand.
OF the existence of the evils and dan
gers to which he calls attention, there
can bc no reasonable doubt. Warning
voices come to us from every state and
political organization. The INTELLI-
GENcER has the melancholy satisfaction
OF knowing that what has Overspread
the sky WAS pointed out and prOpllesied
10y it when it appeared above the horizon
as 4 cloud no bigger than 4 mans hand.
Against the domination of political oil
garchies and of corporate rule this Jour
nal, it feels no lack of modesty in saying,
has done battle for years, and only re-
Gently it fell to its lot to vindicatc
the rights of two professions against the
inlirmiiics of the judiciary. What
Judge Agncw says on these subjects,
of course, gains from the saying of it
by a man of his eminence and character,
and it loses nothing in the terseness and
Anglo Saxon vigor with which he ex-
presses it. His sketch of such oligarchies
rs that of Cameron and the Pennsylvania
machine, and of the interference of the
Pennsylvania railroad company in state
politics and legislation, we have said
needs no key. Neither does his singing
particularizatiOn of judicial in(irmities.
Through it the features of some of our
state supreme court judges shine us
plainly rs the pen and ink picture of
Lincoln in a familiar device of the cman-
cipatiOn proclamation so written as to
contain its authors portrait. Who that is
familiar with the ScandalOuS maneuvres
of our supreme court in the Williams
port bond cases, and in the Pittsburgh
frontage tax cases can fail to discover
whom and what Judge Agnew is striking
at? What he means to say, and what no
one cognizantOf his feelings and prOvoca.
tiOn will fail to understand him as say
ing, is that some of his colleagues there
is no reason to suppose that he has any
reference to Justices SharswoOd and
Trunkey-were possessed of the judicial
infirmities which he so merciiessly laws
bare. 1t is their narrOwness, their sub
ordination to local usages and prejudices,
If not to partisan and corporate influ-
ences, that he most manifestly has in
view. Read in this light his ad-
dress is of the most painful sig
nificance and the highest import
ance to the people Of this common
wealth, for whose enlightenment it |
was avowedly written. In the argument |
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