The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1893-09-30
wILLIAM B. noRNBLowER.

partments of governmental authority,
but it's chief usefulness has always been
found in the administration of the fun
damental law upon which our system of
government depends, and in that field it
has confronted the most dangerous
emergencies. Its construction of the
constitution or of the compatibility of
legislative enactments with the consti.
tuition settles the matter for all time,
unless indeed, as it sometimes has done,
it should at some future period reverse
: it's own decision,
Foreign jurists and writers of emil
hence have sometimes made the mistake
of supposing that this unique authority
vested in the court was Of despotic ma
ture and dangerous as tending to defeat
the will Of the people as expressed by
their representatives. But this view
looks at the power as one that may be
exercised by way Of supervision, deter
mining the constitutionality of an en-
actment in advance of its being contest
ed. This would make of the supreme
court virtual third house of congress,
and no such authority would be toler-
ated in the United States. The powers
of the judicial department are as sharply
defined as those Of the other coordinate
branches Of the government, and the un-
constitutionahty of an act cannot be
pronounced except For the determine
ton of litigation. This is the American
way of securing to the people the per-
petual reign of law free from the sway
Of arbitrary power.
And the American people have learned
to have faith and pride In the court.
They feel that it is indeed the bulwark
Of their liberties. The names Of Jay,
Marshall, Gushing, fancy, Livingston,
Story, Chase, Hunt, Thompson and
score of others lend luster to American
Jurisprudence, and now that the tran
sient passions of their times have passed
furnish standards by which to measure
aspirants to the bench they filed and
honored.
To be worthyof a place amid this bril-
liant galaxy Is to be illustrious indeed,
and to fall short of it is to court oblivion.
The standard is vigorously applied with
each recurring appointment. and it is
matter Of congratulation that during the
103 years Of the courts existence the re-
suit Of the test has been unfavorable to
so few. None but the most eminent ju-
rists and lawyers are accorded the honor
Of an appointment, and it often requires
great monetary sacrifices on the part Of
successful practitioners to accept the dig
nifty, for the salary of the associate JUS
tees is but$10, 900 a year, and great law.
yers often receive more than that amount
as retainer in a single suit.
President Cleveland's most recent ap-
pointment to the bench, William B.
Hornblower of New York, is good
illustration of this. AS practicing
lawyer, engaged in the most important
sort of itigations, his income averages
&c. 900 year, and this of course must
be entirely resigned when he takes his
seat upon the bench. The aggregate of
the amount thus surrendered will be
greater than usual in his Gaze, for he is
but AZ years old and might reasonably
expect to largely augment his fortune
before reaching the average age at which
supreme court justices are appointed.
No other judge but Story was ever ap-
pointed at a younger age, and If Mr..
Hornblower attains as great an eminence
as that famous justiciary and equals the
years of his service upon the bench of
the highest court in the land he will
probably feel amply repaid for any
pecuniary sacrifices his position may
have cost him. Such distinction, in the
nature of things, can be attained by few
men in a generation, and the ambition
to live in history among the famous
judges of ones time is certainly far
nobler than that which leads merely to
the accumulation Of wealth.