Lancaster daily intelligencer. [volume] (Lancaster, Pa.) 1864-1928, 1883-10-19
Mormons, and, like the extinct race of
carpet 5aggers see some years Of good
stealing out there.

IN his recently published very inter
esting memoirs of Judge Black, Hon.
Wm. A. Porter revives public interest
in the circumstances attending the de
livery by Judge Black of his famous
dissenting opinion in the case of Hole
VS.. Rittenhouse, when referring to the
judgment of majority of his colleagues,
he said
The judgment now about to DO gwen
is one of deaths doiugs, NO one can
doubt that if Judge Gibson aud Judge
Coulter had lived the plaintiff could not
have been thus deprived OF his property,
and thousands of other men would have
been saved from the imminent danger to
which they are now exposed, ol losing
the homes they have labored aud paid for.
But they are dead and the law which
should have protected those sacred rights
has died with them, IL is melancholy
reflection that the property of a citizen
should be held by tenure SO trail. But,
new lords, new laws, is the order Of the
day. Hereafter, IL any man be offered u
title which the supreme court has decided
to be good, let him not buy If the judges
who made this decision are dead II they
are living, let him get an insurance on
their lives, for ye know not what an hour
may bring forth.
| "The majority of this court changes on
| the average once every nine years, without
counting the chances of death and resig
nation. Ii each new set of judges shall
consider themselves at liberty to over
throw the doctrines of our predecessors,
our system of Jurisprudence OF system 1t
can be called) would be the most tickle,
uncertain aud vicious that the civilized
world ever saw. A French constitution or
a South American republic, or Mexican
administration would be an immortal tN'nG
in comparison to one of the short d
principles Of Pennsylvania law. The iu :
OF property, which ought to be assJ'a' ''
as the hills, will become as unstable Ls
the waves. To avoid this great calamity,
| know of no resource but that Of stare
dsciSlS claim nothing for the great men
who have gone before us on the score ot
their marked and manifest superiority
But | would stand by their decisions, be
cause they have passed into the law aud
became a part OF it-haye been relied On
and acted Ou-and rights have grown NJ
under them which it is unjust and cruel to
take away"
This is indeed remarkable language
for Judge to indulge in concerning his
associates, and, as Col. Mcclure observed
in his interesting argument Of the
Steinman and Hensel dsbarment Case,
more offensive than tie criticisms fOI
which counsel have often been arragnei
in summary proceedings for contempt,
But it is even more significant and
almost prophetic in view Of the growing
complaint that the judgments of ouI
state supreme court are unstable anC
subject to too frequent reversal
| Whether from depreciation in the
character of the men who get upon the
bench, or from too great Il stress OF
work, o. whatever cause, it is certain
that the decisions of the supreme court
do not command that respect for sta
bility and wisdom which ought to char
acterise them. 1t may be some consola
tion to the judges To know that the
complaint is as old as Judge Black 5
| time.