Arizona weekly citizen., 1885-11-07
TO THE PRESIDENT
an oPen Letter-Ihe Wrong Inflicted Upon Arizona Territory.
 (New York Iribune1

as Well as yourself, may fully unter- stand and correctly estimate tL- wrong and Injury you have inflicted upon ms. orlet statement of our judicial system and the actual condition of affairs in re- ference to cur courts of justice at the m oment of the suspension, Is necessary.
 These three Jndges not only hold the supreme courts, but also hold the dis trlct courts III the several counties. and as District Judges are not only charged with the IudIcIal business under the fer ritoflal laws, but also exercise in their several districts the same jurisdiction m all causes, civil and criminal, to which the United States Is a party, us is vested ln the district and circuit courts of the | United States.
 Until within the last few months these three Judges have been compell- ed to transact all the judicial business oI the territory, both original and Ap- pellate, except that placed within the jurisdiction of the courts of probate and justices Of the peace. Recently county courts have been estCblisled ID three or four counties,
 UNDER TERRITORIAL LAWS, ! because the district judges were unable to dispose of the mass or business bend ing Tn their courts without delays that
 were rulnUus to suitors.
 On the day you exercised the very doubtful power of suspending these judges, two of them, Judge Fitzgerald. ot the First District, and Judge Plnney, of the Second, were engaged m holding thelr respective courts, each with Grand Jury Tn session, and theIr busi- ness not completed; while litigants in cIvll causes, many of them Of great mag nitude, together with parties who had been indicted by the Grand Jury, were ID attendance upon court with the usual | retInne of witnesses.
 In another county of the First Dis trict, where the jail IS crowded with men | charged with grave crimes, grand and petit jurors were ordered drawn some time since (and have doubtless been snmmoned) to attend on the 2nd of No vember.
 In Tucson, where Judge Fitzgerald was holding court when suspended, sey- eral very important cases involving very large amounts, and the determination Of very difficult questions both of law and fact, had been tried and submitted, but not yet declded, the Court, st the request of counsel, waiting the filing of | briefs.
 The situation of business in the Su- preme Court, without any fault on the part of Court or counsel, IS equally un- l fortunate.
 Owing to the great press of business Tn the District Courts, the Supreme Court is obliged to limit arguments in that Court tO the shortest possible time Tn which they can be presented, and as the cases have been argued THE JUDGES ARE COMPELLED
 to separate and resume work in the District Courts without any time for consideration. Opinions are prepared separately and sent from one to the other, and the discussion of the more doubtful points Is carried on by cores pondence.
 From theseSauses several important cases which were held at the adjourned term last February remain undecided. If you have carefully read the fOrego- ! ing plain statement of our situation you will be prepared, sir, to appreciate to some extent, at least, the snrpuse, re- gret, and deep sense of wrong and in- justice with which the people of this Territory read the the telegraphic an nouucement in yesterdays newspapers Of the suspension of all the judges of this Territory.
 To-day, sir, we are without a district or supreme iudge in this Territory. lt ! has not only closed the doors Of our court houses upon Ltlgants who have R right to have their causes heard and de- ciled, but men incBrceratei upon crImi- nal charges are compelled to lie in jail to await the coming of other judges. Causes that have been tried but not decided must be tried agaIn at large ex- De SC; while the United StEteS, whose gu uvernment you have promised to Rd- minister economi ally, IS equally uufOr- innate, though better able to bear the loss.
 If you, sir, had had that care for the interests and welfare of the people which you prOte-sed, could such things have happened? If you desired these offices to be filled by your partisans, for political reasons could you not have
 SUGGESTED TO THESE JUDGES [ That their resignstions would be accept ed thirty or sixty days hence, and thus have given them an opportunity to close up the business already submitted to them?
 | It Is impossible to believe that m this sudden aud wholesale removal you had | in ylew tue interests and welfare of the l people of this unfortunate Territory. ] You know, or should have known, that rot a single member of the bar m Judge FItzgerald's district, nor one m | fifty of the people, desired his removal. What reason can you give for your action ID the premises?
 | The world knows, as well as yourself, that your election WAS secured by your
 pronise to carry out ''civil-servIce re- | form and yet you have removed IudIc- iaI officers against whom no charge can
 he made. and ID opposition to the known
 wishes of our people, solely for the pur-
 pose of furnishing places for partlsa ns and that regardless Of the injury m tlicted upon us. While a grand jury
 summoned by Democratic United l States Marshal upon an open venlre,
 gre engaged m indlctIng Federal oihcers for contributing through another oihcer | SlO each for political purposes m vlo-
 lstion of the ciyil-serylce act or Ioo0,
 you. sir, the head of your party, and the
 reform President of the United States,
 are engaged m tearing the ermine rom the shoulders of just and competent l iudces for baser political purposes | Can you reconcile these things: 1 IwilLdo you the justice, however, to
 express my belief, that personally you detest the act and would not have com mitted it willingly; but while this con-
 cessIon may exonerate you from
 AN IxBoRN DESIRE TO DO WRONG. 1 You are, nevertheless, convicted Of
 weakness in yielding 10 the clamor or
 those about you, that IS criminal m the chief executive of great nation.
 do not know the gentlemen you have appointed to these enforced vAeaneles. If may be they are well qualified ID
 every respect for the discharge of thelr
 important duties; nor do l apply to
 them the term "partisan" Tn spy ohens- i've sense. The fact, however, remains
 that our judges have been removed be- cause they were Republicans, and that
 these gentlemen were appointed, not
 because they were better qualIiled Ter
 inc position, but because they were
 Democrats.
 Are you not aware that in making the II ..,,,,,a of our iudicial officers depend