The clarion. [volume] (Jackson, Miss.) 1883-1888, 1886-01-27
In Favor of An Elective Judiciary

luteiY independent oil eAcn OtneT ihal tune
the selection BY executive appointment has been
tried and the people are not satisfied with it,
EDITOR CHA aIoN: The above is from |
the Atlanta Constitution, the leading
exponent of democratic principles in
the foremost State of the South-Geor
gia. With a soil more sterile than ours,
she has progressed in material develop
ment far ahead of Mississippi and her
sister States, until she has justly won
cor herself the proud sohriquet of the
Empire State of the South.
Notwithstanding the rapid growth of
her manufacturing and railroad inter
ests, and the fact that her development
has been real and lasting, she has never
allowed bugbears and wiseacres to appear
and induce her by threats or entiee her
| by soft, high sounding promises to barter
away the rights of her people. 1t is an
unquestioned fact that the people of
Georgia are to-day possessed of more
! liberty, aud have more voice in admin
istering the Government of their State
than have the people of Mississippi.
But will here only refer to the case in
point
The Constitution is right The people
of Mississippi are not satisfied that
their Judges should longer be appointed
by the Governor.
1t is not my purpose to refer to any
particular appointment to the bench by
| any Governor since the State was re
deemed from the alien horde that chang
ed the organic law of our fathers and
said to Mississippians, you are not com
petent to elect your Judges.
| The people have chafed under this
relic of Radicalism now for decade,
and have been soothed, and Quoted by
the bugbear of NEGRO domination"
1--WE can't afford 20 elect our Judges"
say those, whose interest it is, that the
distribution of favors, (offices) should be
confined to the narrow and circumscrib-
ed circle of favored few. The people
have heard enough of this nonsense.
No sensible reason can be urged why the
people should not as well elect their
Judges as the man who appoints them.
They elect our District Attorneys, and
WHY should they not have a voice in the
selection of Judges9
The argument that the party in power
could not elect its candidates, and that
bad and incompetent men would be
chosen, is an aspersion upon the election
of every district attorney in the State,
, who is a Democrat, and | think they
are all Democrats. The argument that
. judicial officers should not NEEDLE with
!, politics and be brought to the level of
the people and required to electioueer or
, ask the people for their support, can be
answered by simply pointing back to the
, illustrious names of men whom the
|, people elected and who did not consider
themselves above asking the people for
! their support. 1t is no disparagement
to any Judge, appointed under the
system left us by the carpet baggers, to
say that the names of Sharkey, Yerger
and Smith, and others now dead, as well
, as that of Wiley p. Harris, who,
thank heaven, yet lives, will always
, stand as high upon the scroll of
honor and fame, rs tina: of any appointed
Judge.
|, Mr. Editor, the rank and file-the yec-
manry-the great mass of the Demo
cratic party, believe that they are com
petent to elect their judges. They want
to return to the ways of their faith
ers. The submission to the people of
|, Mississippi of this question by Constitu-
; tional amendment will be before the
: present Legislature. Shall the will of
the people prevail? The record will
show. After this record is made the
people will see who of the one hundred
and twenty members of the House, and
the forty members OF the Senate, con-
slider them honest and competent enough
to vote Intelligent.y for the judges
by whom their rights of life, liberty and
property are to be protected. They will
also observe closely the names of those
| who hold by their action on this grave
question, that the people are ignorant,
aud not entitled to the rights of free
men, aud who by their action say they
are in favor of continuation of the
present policy, which depriyes the judi
ciary of its independence, and concen-
trates the powers which the people alone
should enjoy, in the hands of narrow
circle, wherein they have no voice
In the name of the people of Missis-
| sippi, this plea for the enforcement of
the judiciary from the fettered embraces
of the executive, is entered. Submit
the case to the sovereign people at the
ballot box, and they will, with the
strength of an Ajax, burst asunder the
bonds of this unhallowed and unnatural
union. They will restore the goddess of
justice, in all her maidenlv purity, to the
position of pristine independence, which
our fathers designed that she should oc-
cupy. and from which proud position
aliens have dragged her.
In conclusion, Mr.. Editor, l desire to
say TO your readers, that in urging the
above change in our State Constitution,
| am not actuated by any motives except
those prompted by having the well-being
and future good aud granduer of nv
| mother State at heart. / have never
asked for Office, either at the hands of
the Executive or the people of Mis-
sissippi. am not q politician, and
simply express in the above what I be
lieve to be the sentiments of the real
people OF Mississippi. WERrH.