The Van Buren press., 1897-03-06
Arp On THE JUDGES.
Glad hey Were Acquitted Of the
Charges Against Them.
but Ti.al VIII DO Good-It VIII Make
the Judges More Circumspect In
tho Future - Lawyers of
Early Days

The senator never would have made
them if he had been "a democrat. His
motive was not so patriotic as 1T was
partisan, but maybe the investigation
of the charges against the two judges
will do good in the long run. They
have been acquitted, as they should
have been, but still they will no
doubt be more prudent and circum-
spect in the future. There was sufli-
cient evidence to humiliate any sensi-
tive man, and no doubt these men feel
it so, and will hardly claim it as very
triumphant acquittal.
The judges of our courts have been
generally very high order of men, but
after all they are just human, and are
subject to like passions with the rest of
us; but, because they are in high posi-
ton and intrusted with unusual power,
the people watch them with a critical
and sometimes with an envious eye.
The public requires and expects more
of a judge than from a private citizen
more learning, more dignity, more pa.
tience, more decision of character and,
besides these qualifications, he must be
exemplary in his habits and conversa-
tion. The community must look up to
him as a man of purity and integrity
the enemy of crime and the protector of
the poor and helpless.
In recalling the many circuit judges
whom / have known in Georgia during
the last half century, do not remem-
ber one who failed to fill his position to
the satisfaction of a large majority of
his constituents. Certainly none were
charged with incompetence or corrup-
ton. Party spirit ran high between
the wings and democrats before the
war, and sometimes one party was in
power and sometimes the other, but no
charges were ever brought against any
Judge. His politics left him as soon as
he got on the bench, and he commanded
the respect of the bar and the people.
But we had better material to make
Judges out of those old ante-bellum
times than we have now. There is no
doubt about this, and nobody need take
any offense at the assertion. We had
higher standard of scholarship and
literary attainments. knowledge was
not so diffused to the many, but was of
a higher grade to the few. We have
never had a supreme court that equaled
the first one-Lumpkin, Warner and
Nesbitt. They were classical scholars,
and could read Latin and Greek as well
as English. So could all the old-time
jurists Story, Marshall, Pickney,
Taney, Writ, Kent and many others. 1t
required something more than politics
10 make n man judge in the olden time.
In the old Athens circuit we had such
great men as old Tom harris, Charles
Dougherty, Augustine Clayton and
Junius Hillyer upon the bench. They
were all classic scholars, and knew the
difference between "nolens volens" and
"bolus noxious"-genuine Latin and dog
Latin. They understood law as science
and had mastered its fundamental prin-
ciples. Nowadays many of our judges
who have been made out of scheming
politicians are nothing but case law
yers. They have to be reeducated for
every trial. Books upon books have to
be read to them from both sides, and
at the last they go it blind or split the
difference and are reversed by the su-
preme court. Judge Underwood, of the
Rome circuit, was n great lawyer-a
lawyer by intuition as well as educa-
ton, and nothing irritated him more
than the long continued reading of
cases and authorities. He knew the
law, and could have made it, and did not
have to be educated. remember when
d case lawyer had trunk full of books
brought into court and began to make
an ostentatious array of them on the
| long table before him. | looked up at
the Judge and perceived his disgust.
When the case was opened for argument
be leaned forward end said: Brother
Jones, you can select from your library
few cases that you think are pertinent
and read the syllabus of the decision,
but nothing more. The court under
! stands the law of this case 9nd nothing
| that you can find in those books will
change it. The time of the court is too
valuable to be wasted in promiscuous
reading"
1t never availed anything to read law
books to Judge Underwood. He said it
affected his spleen.
"Now, major" said he, these mod
ern doctors will tell you that the spleen
has nothing to do with a man'sserenity,
in fact has nothing to do with any
thing, and had just as we'll been left out
of the human anatomy, but the ancients
knew better. The spleen is the seat
of melancholy and peevishness, and is
connected with the brain, just as the
heart is. If the spleen is out of order
the man is splenetic. He is fretful and
morose."
"What is the spleen?" said l; "and
where is it?"
"The Spleen" said he, "is soft
spongy organ located in the left hypo'
chondrium-and that is where the word
hypochondriac comes from. 1t is just
below the diaphragm and above the
colon, and lies between the tuberosity
of the stomach and the eartiiages of the
false ribs, anterior to the kidneys. Now
you understand it. l have studied {
good deal of anatomy and surgical juris
prudence, and can tell my brother Jim
the doctor, a good deal more than hC
knows. In fact, a lawyer who has {
case of poisoning or stabbing has t.
study anatomy with n zeal that the aver
age doctors know nothing about. l hav,
confused doctors on the witness stanC
until ] was sorry for them"