The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-10-11
MORE FALSE PRETENCE.

The rage into which Abram S. Hum
phreys has been thrown by the Adver-
Users jeer at his assumption while
abroad of the title of United States
Circuit Judge. draws from that brand
ed inlpostor this remarkable private"
letter;
Il see that the Thurston Retromingent
is pitching into me for describing myself
as a U. S. Circuit Judge
Well, have done and am doing that
very thing. My cards are so engraved
sent in one of these cards to the Attor-
ney General upon my arrival in Wash
ington. l sent them in to the heads of
the various departments when called on
| them, and I also sent one of them to
President Roosevelt.
| II am described in the official Gazette
of the Department of Justice as U. S.
Circuit Judge
| II was assigned TO a position in the
| White House and in the procession at
| the funeral of President Mckinley with
the United States Judges; and, two hours
before l left Washington, I received a
communication from the Attorney Cen
eral of the United States in which he adj
| dressed me as a u. S. Circuit Judge
| II am Circuit Judge appointed by the
| President and confirmed by the Senate
of the United States and my salary is
/ paid by the Federal Government. While
1 only exercise jurisdiction under the
Territorial statutes, 1 am nevertheless a
| United States Judge, although my court
| is not, in a constitutional sense, Unit
ed States court; and for the matter of
that, neither is Judge Estee's court.
Judge Estee, like myself, is appointed for
a term of years. If his court were, in
| q constitutional sense, a United States
court, he would under the constitution,
hold his Office during good behavior
Il left very many copies of Thurston's
green skunk skin with the Department
and among the number were those de-
nouncihg me as an imposter for doing
precisely what the Department is doing,
to wit, describing me as United States
Judge"
That a man has had his cards en-
graved with a false title and in return
has been addressed in that way by cor
respondence clerks and compilers and
by masters of ceremonies, may mean
a great deal to a man of Humphreys
puffball egotism, but the general public
viii conclude that a United States
Judge whose decisions have to be re-
viewed by Territorial Supreme Court
is an anomaly in the scheme of the
American judiciary. If appointment by
the President always makes a United
States" Judge, then in line with Hum
phreys' argument the judges of the
Supreme Court of Hawaii are members
of the United States Supreme Court.
But let US see what the Organic Act
says about it. In Chapter ", Sec. 81.
under the title of the Judiciary, appears
this telling paragraph:
That the judicial power Of the TERRI
TORY shall be vested in one Supreme
Court. CIRCUIT COURTS, and in such
inferior courts as the legislature may
from time to time establish.
No word here about United States
courts, but there is the plain statement
that the circuit court to which Abram
S. Humphreys belongs, embraces the
judicial power of the TERRITORY
alone. Further along in the Organic
Act we find, under the title of United
States officers" the mention of but one
court Section sc, headed Federal
Court" establishes the bench on which
Judge Estee sits and contains this glar-
ing contradiction of the claim which
Abram S. Humphreys is impudent
enough to make:
Said court shall have, In addition to
the. ordinary jurisdiction of DISTRICT
| COURTS of the United States, JURIS-
lDICTION IN ALL CASES COGNIZA-
BILE IN A CIRCUIT COURT OF THE
| UNITED STATES.
The public will quite agree with Hum
phreys' qualifying clause that his court
lis not in a constitutional sense U.
/ S. Court however it may dispute his
nauseous claim that the local Federal
Court is in the same class. Obviously
the constitutional sense is wholly
wanting. All that is left is the lack
of sense which Humphreys invariably
shows when he pits his impudenee
against the Jaw.