St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1910-03-16
Judge Stafford Spoke.
Gave An Address on "The People and
Their COurtS.-Severely Criticized
the Unwritten Law.

Judge Wendell Phillips Stafford OF
Washington. d. c., delivered an address
in Court Square theatre, Springfield,
Mass, recently on THE People and
their Courts 1t was the annual
ladies day" in the series OF Sunday at
ternoon meeting conducted by the Young
Mems Christian association and there
were fully 1000 persons in the audience.
He was introduced by H. r. Cobleigh.
a personal friend. After upholding the
system of jury trials in eloquent words
the speaker severely arraigned the ''un-
written law" declaring that it was
primitive and return to barbarism.
Judge Stafford said of the three depart
ments of the government, the legislative,
the executive, and the judiciary, the last
named came closest to the people. When
the revolutionary fathers took things in
to their own hands and made a govern
ment of the people, for the people and by
the people, they did not intend to make
any exception in the case of the courts
although they recognized that the judici-
airy had peculiarities of its own. The
legislative and executive might stand for
party views, hut the courts must be above
party and administer justice impartially.
Long tenure, therefore, was given the fed
eral judges, and many of them were APP
pointed instead of being elected. These
views did not prevail everywhere in the
states, however, and in most of them the
judges were elected by the people and
given limited terms. He declared that
whether that state system had raised the
character of the judiciary was very de-
batable.
He pointed out that the functions of the
judge were to decide questions of law, but
that in most cases the important matters
were questions of fact, which were left to
the Jury to decide He then emphasized
the responsibility and great power given
to the II citizens who were drawn prac-
tically at random from the people. If the
jury acquits, the governments can do moth
ing to prevent. Kings, Pertinent, Con-
gress, judges and president are powerless
until the jury has decided whether the
man is guilty or not. Jury trials in civil
cases had been severely criticised, he de-
clared, but only when the supreme con-
sideration had been overlooked. 1t is
through the jury that the people, them
selves, have an important part and if it
should be taken away, he predicted that
they would lose the feeling that the courts
are their own. Thisis doubly important,
in his opinion, because in the course of
specialization in all lines there will come
a time when the law is administered more
and more by the judges, with a loss of
sympathy between the people and the
courts.
Judge Stafford maintained that no bust
ness was more important than the admin
istering of justice between man and man,
and proceeded to score the business men,
who refused to perform their jury duty
under one pretext or another. He said
that they had no right to accept the
benefits ofgovernment and shirk the high
est duty in it. He then discussed the
nffa or 10 IOO he
He had found that it made man more
conservative; that every man who had
accepted his duty in such a way came to
a grander realization of the duty, and be-
came, temporarily at least, a better man.
The speaker said that he believed in the
Unborn greatness of human nature. In
stead of too much trust in man there is
too little in our democracy. AS to the
effect on the judges, he declared that he
doubted il there was ever a lawyer who
had taken the oath for a position on the
bench who was not impressed with the
sacredness ofhis duties andresponsibility
The Importance of this he emphasized, for
the judges have certain rights to set aside
a verdict after a jury has reached its de-
cision, if the verdict is palpably not in
accord with the evidence. He pointed out
that it is before the bench that the war
ring factions in the industrial life must
out there, or the government will fail.
Judge Stafford then considered the
charge that has been brought against the
judiciary that it is overweighted with
men who come from the upper classes or
at least have accepted retainers from
wealth. He admitted that in a majority
fcases the judges were men who have
during their careers accepted fees from the
corporations, but denied that it inhuenc-
ed them to render unjust decisions. He
asked where the LAWYERS of prominence
could be found who had not done corpOr-
alton work, and argued that from hav-
ing done SO they were no more likely to
favor the corporations than the lawyer,
who has defended notorious criminals is
likely to favor that class when on the
bench. He said that there is no question
that the appointments to the bench
should represent fairly all the classes and
that in his belief they did.
At that point the speaker called atten-
ton to the great crisis that he says is
coming in this country during the next
25 years, when it is likely that the whole
framework of the state will be torn apart
and every segment rigidly inspected in
the light of pure democracy. Hungry la
Dor is stretching up its hands for relief,
and capital is crying aloud for protection
against attack. He asked who was to
make wealth pay its fair share of the
taxes, who secure better air and more
leisure for the laboring people. He said
there was never a time when the lawyer
had such a mission as in this period of
stress and strain. He said that wealth
must have its counsel, but regretted deep
ly that more lawyers did not hear the call
to become champions of the people.
This country, he declared, needs three
things: Wise and just laws, faithful en-
forcement of them, and heloval support
of the people. Law is not always the
opinion of the majority, although it is
theoretically. There is the common law
and a rapidly growing body of Judge
made law" especially in the labor trou-
bles. He said that where there was al