The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1895-08-30
Judge Henderson.

clal circuit. STRICTLY IL ought not 10
be political office. Its duties have
nothing to do with politics, but con-
Germ the most vital interests of all the
people-their domestic relations, their
property, their liberty. their lives,
their homes, their peace and their safe
ty. The qualifications of Judge
should in no instance be measured by
his political views. He should be cap
able, resolute, honest and experienced.
If he does not know the law and has
had no experience in actual practice as
a lawyer, and is consequently unfamil-
lar with the details and forms OBJ
served in the administration of justice,
he is not, no matter what his personal
character may be, fit person to put
upon the bench, where the most diff
cult, intricate, and delicate questions
affecting every relation of life are con-
stantly presented for decision. We are
led to make these observations by read
ing a speech made at the Point of
Rocks before the Republican Conven-
ton, which there nominated Mr.. Guion
Miller for Judge, and by reading Mr.
Miller's speech of acceptance. The
young man who placed Mr.. Miller's
name in nomination evidently recog-
nized the fact that knowledge of the
law and its principles, and familiarity
with its practice and its complicated
modes of procedure, gained by actual
experience a well as by the laborious
study of mere theory, We're essential
requisites of useful Judge; aud ac-
cordingly, after stating where Mr.. Mil
Ter had been educated. he gave the date
of his admission to the Rockville bar,
and then proceeded to declare that Mr..
Miller had from that time on been ac-
lively engaged in practice before the
courts, including since 1883 the SUI
preme Court of the United States, in
which tribunal he had, as the speaker
alleged, been remarkably successful.
If all this We're true it would tend to
show that Mr.. Miller has had consider
able experience. But what will our
readers say when we tell them that
Mr.. Miller never argued case in the
Supreme Court of the United States in
his life; and never tried case before
court or jury in Montgomery County.
He is not a member of the Frederick
bar; has neCer appeared before the
Court of Appeals of Maryland, and
whatever practice he has had in the
courts has been in the District of Co.
lumbia. We chdiieage the supporters
of Mr.. Miller to cite the name of sin.
gle case he has ever argued in the Su-
preme Court, giving the volume where
/ the case is reported; or to furnish us
the title of a single case he has eUer
tried before court or before jury any
where in Maryland. Whilst we cheer
fully admit that he is reputed to be a
| young man of excellent moral charac-
! ter, we utterly deny that he has had
sufficient experience as lawyer in the
Courts of Maryland to justify the peo-
pie in placing him on the bench. In
this conclusion we are strengthened by
Mr.. Millers speech of acceptance. He
said: n Judge, 'to punish immortality,
must be virtuous, and to impose penal
ties for drunkenness and disordV, he
himself must be sober and law-abid-
! ing" This seems to be his idea of the
qualification of a Judge. "Virtuous,
sober and law-ab;ding." Suppose a
man is all this but lacks capacity,
courage and experience, what sort of a
Judge would such a person make? If
Mr. Miller had been defining the quail
itications of a Police Justice he would
have been more nearly accurate; but
he does not seem to understand that
not One-tifteenth of the duties of a
Judge relate to trivial penal matters.
If he imagines that Judge has moth
ing further to do than to sit in court
and impose sentences in petty criminal
cases, he only furnishes additional evil
dence that his lack of experience as a
lawyer makes him wholly unfamiliar
with the graver and far more impor-
tant duties of the judicial office. 1t is
with the more difficult phases of the
law, which relate to property, to con-
tracts, to the construction of wills, to
the numerous and involved CONNER
cial controversies constantly arising,
to the broad domain of Equity, to the
domestic relations and to the whole
field of jurisprudence, that the time
and attention of Judge are chiefly oc-
cupied; and in disposing of questions
like these experience as well as knowl-
edge is Indispensable. To illustrate
this, we need only allude to Vol. so, of
the Maryland Reports, with which we
are acquainted, because it was issued
from the CITIZENS job presses That
volume covers seventy-six reported and
eight unreported cases, or total of
eighty-four cases. OF this number but
fUe or one-seventeenth, are criminal
cases. Mr. Miller's standard, therefore,
of the qualifications of Judge in.
cludes only about one-seventeenth of a
Judges work, and that one-seven-
teenth by far the easiest and least