The Magnolia gazette. [volume] (Magnolia, Miss.) 1872-current, 1899-04-01
ELECTIVE JUDICIARY.
ARGUMENT ON BOTH SIDES
BUT
The sardis Reporter Finds the
Strongest Against it.

to this, as there are to every
question, political or other; and
of course also, each side has its
advocates and adherents. In
republican or democratic form Of
government the supreme power
is presumed, and declared TO be,
vested in the people. In cer-
tain sense this is true, and in a
certain other sense it is not true.
Take, for example, the election
of a president. The people do
not, and never did vote directly
for president, and a majority,
nor even plurality, OF the peo-
pie of the United States is not
necessary to place candidate
in the presidential chair. The
people-the suffragists-in each
state vote for a given number of
men to be electors, and these
electors are clothed with power
to cast the votes TO which the
state is entitled in the election of
president. There is no law on
the statute books of any state,
nor is there one on the national
statute books, compelling an
elector to vote for any particular
candidate. True, he is expected
to vote for the candidate Of the
party that made him an elector,
but, there is nothing more than a
moral obligation resting upon
him, and while he would lose
the respect and confidence of his
party associates, il he was to
otherwise vote than for tine party
candidate, he would subject him-
self to no suit for damages, no
prosecution for fraud or false
| pretense, and, in fact, would
incur no legal liability whatever,
for violating faith and honor.
| People-nearly all OF them
ilatter themselves that they have
voted for presidents, OF the Unit
ed States, when the fact is, not
one man in any state has ever
voted for president, unless he
happened to have been elected to
| do so as one OF the electors chos-
en- to cast the vote of the state in
electoral college. The president
is not elected by the people but
| by men specially chosen and DEL
egated to vote for him. After
he is thus elected, he wields
power in the appointment OF ju-
dicial and other officers that is
limited only by the power reserv-
ed TO the senate TO refuse to con-
firm. There is not a United
States judge today, there never
will be, one who owes or owed
his elevation to the bench to the
people. Our forefathers planned
differently long before the coun-
try went wild with politics, and
they planned wisely, for, il there
is any one branch of the govern
ment that should be kept free
from politics, and from dema-
goguery, and from the corrup-
ton OF lucre, and held above all
price, it is the Judiciary. for this,
more than army, navy or any
other power, or all OF them, i
the palladium Of the peoples
rights, and the haven of ma
ton s internal peace and safety
II would be difficult TO compute
or even to imagine, to wha
depths OF corruption the nationa
judiciary might 1--WE do not say
would) descend il the judges haC
to go through the ordinary party
contests Of the present day. Th'
: Judges are not only appointed
, but their terms of office are fol
life or during good behavior
Greater interests are under th'
jurisdiction Of the federal, thar
of the state judges, and ther'
: never has been sc much as hin
J favoring an amendment to tn,
constitution providing for th'
election of the former by the peo
pie, and there never will be, for
while it is not perfect, the system
/ has given so much satisfaction
: that it is doubtful ii there will
ever be a voice raised in favor 0
changing it.
We are one Of the people. w
are not looking forward to an.
j judicial appointment, and de
Y sire none whatever, and, having
(, lived under both systems, we ar
i perhaps one Of the most disinter
ested witnesses in the state as +
: the relative merits and value c
9 each, and we unhesitatingly de
t clare against an elective judiciar
f for Mississippi. 1t has bee
charged against the present sys