The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1896-09-05
sUPREME COURTS MAY BE COR.
RUPT.

are the constitutional machinery by
which we determine disputes between
man and man and between corpora
tions and individuals. Without them.
we should be at the mercy of force
alone, and of mob law. The strong
would override the weak; the power
full would cheat and bul1doze those
without influence. The courts should
not be derided, beuttled or made an
object Of contempt.
But many Of the men who occupy
the bench deserve derision and con-
tempt They are the rightfu1 objects
Of an angry peoples wrath The insti-
tuition Of the courtsis not corrupt but
the men who sit in them
frequently are. No halo. robe
or mace of authority should
shield them from the popular disap-
probation when they deserve it.
There is a growing feeling that there
are TOO many judges who are not only
weak, but dishonest.
Charles Sumner, one of the greatest
of American statesmen, once said of
the judiciary:
Let me here say that 1 hold judges,
and especially the supreme court Of the
country. in much respect; but am too
familiar with the history of judicial
proceedings to regard them with any
superstitious reverence. Judges are
but men and in all ages have shown
full share Of frailty.
Alas! alas! the worst crimes of his
tory have been perpetrated under their
sanction. The blood Of martyrs and of
patriots, crying from the ground, sum
mons them to judgment.
TT was a judicial tribunal which con-
demned Socrates to drink the fatal hem
lock, and which pushed the Savior bare
foot over the pavements Of Jerusalem,
bending, beneath his cross. 1t was a
judicial tribunal which, against the
testimony and entreaties of her father,
surrendered the fair Virginia as a
slave; which arrested the teachings of
the great apostle to the GentiIes. and
sent him in bonds from Jerusalem to
Rome; which in the name of the old
religion, adjudged the saints and faith
ers Of the Christian church to death,
in all its most dreadful forms; and
which afterwards in the name of the
new religion, enforced the tortures Of
the inquisition amidst the shrieks and
agonies Of its victims while it COMPEL |
ed Calico to declare in solemn denial
of the great truth that he had dis
closed, that the earth did not move
around the sun.
1T was a judicial tribunal which, in
France, during the reign Of her mon
archs, lent itself to be the instrument
Of every tyranny, as during the brief
stand forth the Implying accessory Of |
the uniting gutllotine.
"Ay, sir, it was a judicial tribunal in
England, surrounded by all the forms
of law, which sanctioned every des-
potic caprice of Henry VIII, from the !
unjust divorce of his queen to the be-
heading of Sir Thomas More; which /
lighted the fires Of persecution, that !
glOwed at Oxford and Smithdeld, over /
the cinders Of Latimer, Ridley. and /
John Rodgers; which, after elaborate /
argument, upheld the fatal tyranny of /
ship money against the patriotic re- |
sistance of Hampden; which. in def |
ance of justice and humanity sent Sid |
ney and Russell, to the block; which !
persistently enforced the laws of con-
formity that our Puritan fathers per-
refused to obey; which after
wards, with Jefferies on the bench,
crimsoned the pages Of English histo-
~ with massacre and murder even
with the blood of innocent women.
"Ay. sir. it was a judicial tribunal in
our country, surrounded by all the forms
Of law, which hung witches at Salem.
which affirmed the constitutionality Of
the stamp act, while it admonished
Jurors and the people to obey; and
which now in our day has lent its
to the unutterabIe atrocity Of
the fugitive slave law"
And it is the supreme court of the
United States that now declares ''un-
nearly every act pass
ed in the interest of the people A
court that has such tremendous power
over the legislation Of the people ought
to be more directly responsible to the
people
In England, a much more despotic
country than ours, no judicial tribunal
has the power to declare void an act
IF parliament. 1t is only in the United
States where we have set up a cabal
IF nine men who have more power
han the legally elected representatives
If the people. But however much
We may dislike the form Of our su-
oreme court, it is established by the
constitution and we must abide by its
until we can change the con-
ititution.