The Ottawa free trader. [volume] (Ottawa, Ill.) 1843-1916, 1885-10-31
ELECTION NEXT TUESDAY.

cast vote for one or other OF the cand
dates for circuit Judge. There is no Ollie
in which the people as body are NOR
deeply interested than that OF the judges o
our courts Life, property, the public peace
liberty itself, are dependent on the intell1
gent and conscientious administration
the laws
Two candidates are presented between
whom the choice must be made. D0rranc'
Dibell. of Joliet Is one Of them. He il
youched for as man of clean characte
and country lawyer of fair ability, bu
wholly without experience on the bench o.
in any other judicial position; and, passing
over such matters as legal requirements anc
judicial qualifications as OF secondary i'm
portance, his election Is urged for two rea
sons: Firstly, because he is a resident OF
VIII county; and secondly, because he Is
a Republican, and has shown himself adroi'
and efficient as a party manager by fonI
years experience at the head of the viii
county Republican Central Committee.
As to claim No /, we submit it comes
with poor grace from county embracing
about fifth of the district that had two OF
the three judges almost continuously since
the district was constituted until a few
months ago And what weight should such
a claim have anyhow against the superior
qualifications of candidate outside of Will
county? As we have said before, local re-
sidence is not Il matter of the slightest con
sequence In our judges. They move from
county to county in the discharge OF their
duties, and are officially as much at home in
one county as the other, and at all times
within few hours call by telegraph and
railroad of all parts of the district The
claim on the score Of local habitation is
therefore absurd, and 1t would be wrong
to accord it any influence over superior
qualification and fitness.
AS to the second reason why Mr.. Dibell
should be supported because he is ke-
publican, we scout it as an insult to the ho-
nest and intelligent voter. What relation,
near or remote, has the office OF circuit
Judge to any open political question or po-
licy in regard to which the people are, or
imagine they are, divided partywise? No
honest man will maintain that there Is any
such relation, and man therefore allowing
his vote to be influenced by any such claim
independently of considerations of superior
and fitness, is dishonest. No
greater curse can aflliCt any country than IA
partisan judiciary. 1t has been the night
mare of Ireland for ages and is the favorite
instrument of oppression in every despot-
ISM and any attempt to introduce it here
should be promptly crushed as the sugges-
ton of the dark regions.
On the other hand, we have as a strictly
non. partisan candidate our present able
county Judge, Hiram T. Gilbert. Even his
opponents admit that he Is "a good lawyer,
n just judge, and man of unexceptionable
habits" He is man not only of thorough
culture, having graduated both from an
American and a European university, but
rs a lawyer of thorough training and pc
culiarly judicial mind, ranks among the
first lnrists of our state. This is shown not
only in his daily work upon the bench and
in the many able arguments from his pen
IN file in our Supreme Court, but by the
volume he has written on "The Railroads
md the Courts" in which, whatever contro-
yersy there may be as to the great questions
involved, the admission Is universal that a
depth of erudition and power of analysis
are shown sucn as few of the great legal
minds of the day have anything to boast
over. The book not only shows transcend
ent ability, but that its author has genius
for legal reform, and that he is on the right
track. The tendency of the age, as some
of our ahlest magazine writers have lately
shown, is toward special privileges, mono
poly and the concentration of capital, and
Mr. Gilbert, with in eye of eagle keenness,
has discerned the leaning of our courts
in the same direction and has put forth a
bold and strong hand to arrest it Are the
people, whose interests, whose rights, whose
very liberties are involved in this matter,
ready to strike down this bold champion
now at the behest of the plutocrats, simply
because his residence-in reality matter
of utter indiiference--ls Objectionable to Il
limited section, and because he refuses to
wear particular party collar? We shall
not insult the voters of the district by SUP
posing that they can be induced to ignore
the pre.eminent qualifications of Mr. Gil
bert on account of any such paltry consid
erations.
Ferdinand Ward, the junior member of
the Wall street banking firm of Grant n
Ward, and who SO magniiicently wrecked
that concern, together with the Marine
Bank and an army of smaller fry, has just
had trial In New York on an Indictment
for larceny, and has been found guilty,
The penalty is Imprisonment in the peni-
Tertiary for ten years.