Year: 1874




Attorney General Williams has advised the
President in an elaborate and sound opinion,
that the evidence presented in regard to the
appeals from Arkansas establishes that Mr..
Baxter is rightfully the Governor of that
State and the President has, consequently,
issued his proclamation, recognizing Baxter
and calling upon all persons who oppose his
authority to disperse within ten days. This
settles the case, and will, we believe, give
peace to the State


In the Attorney Generals opinion on the
Arkansas case he states an important objection
to Brooks position, forcibly and simply, in
saying that if that position were assented to.
"a person who had been installed as Gov
ernor, according to the constitution and laws
Of the State, after an undisturbed incumbency
of more than year, would be deposed by q
circuit judge and another person put in his
place upon the unsupported statement of
the latter that he had received majority
of votes at tho election" There, very
clearly, is the whole case Brooks, or any other
man, goes before judge and swears that he
received q larger number of votes for Gov
ernor than the man recognized as Governor,
and therefore claims the Office. He may
never have received single vote; he may
never have been heard of by the public for
the case is not before the judge on its merits.
No examination is gone into, no testimony is
taken, and, without an opportunity for the
occupant of the gubernatorial chair to be
~ xrifhoyS+ Ia~o< <sOy, rf soht
of the public in the case, q judgment is given
that this upstart claimant is the Governor and
that the other man is a usurper. Can any
country be governed if its whole political ma
chinery may be set aside at any moment in
this way upon the oath of any political adven-
turer? Or if government could exist at all in
the face Of such possibilities how long could
it continue free, or how long could the people
have any part or share in the determination
of its character? Elections would become an
idle superfuity. Perhaps that is in great de-
gree their character already; but we are not
forced to recognize it. They continue
as good substantial forms, and we may yet be
able to make them more honest. But if
judge who is the creature of some corrupt
combination may at any moment put into
Office the tool Of that combination the very
form becomes farce and public delusion
Moreover, if Brown, Jones or Robinson may
be thus put in Office to-day, who will be put
in tomorrow? 1t is clear enough that if we
once drift away from our political anchors in
this loose style-if we permit our political
forms to be superseded at the option Of acci-
dental judges holding court in the back rooms
of Arkansas groceries-we cannot establish
any limit to the operation Of such change
in our system. Nominally such power is in
this case exercised in the name of the people,
and that is handy name that may always be
used in just the same way but there is very
little security that the cause Of the people
would be regarded in the proceeding, and it
is certain that the enemies of the people are
the persons who have most to gain by such
notifications Of the usual mode of making
governors.


Our opinion is that this country cannot be
governed by the chamber orders of judges
not, at least, to the general satisfaction or well
fare of the people. In this neighborhood we
A0vC A4d0 0OA4C CAROAACASO OA VAO OPOA0uOA Va
the system that results from the popular pref
udice in favor Of any scrap Of paper with
judges name written upon it. Judges caught
and stopped under street lamp at night or
walked up from their slumbers, or taken in any
other altogether unofficial condition, have
signed orders in this city in interests of great
moment, such as in any other country would
scarcely have been issued by judicial func-
tionaries after full hearing of the cases in
court We are not at all proud of that por-
ton of our judicial history. and the result has
been to purge our courts in great degree
of that class of judges But all this
happened in regard to property rights
which only exist under the laws of which the
judges are in fact rightfully the interpreters;
and if the result was not satisfactory, but was
mischievous, demoralizing and even alto
gether scandalous in that sphere, what shall
be said of its application in the sphere Of
strictly political rights, where the functions Of
the Judiciary are indirect at best and are sub
ordinate to the higher authority of the politi-
cal sovereign? Government by the people is
possible and government by judges orders is
possible, but they cannot operate together in
the same State, and we do not doubt that the
country at large will favor government by the
people.


Senator Clayton, of Arkansas, is reported as
saying in Washington that the Brooks men
will resist 10 the bitter end. We have very
little faith in these bitter enders They are like
4 tba 1aot d;tcbers of the Southern Confadarocu nv
who were generally persons that never got
into any ditch at all from one end of the
war to the other, but contented themselves
with sitting on sofa cushions at Montgomery
or Richmond and giving way to dreadful
disposition to be rhetorical Senator Clay.
toms dreadful people in the present case have
the same taste for letting other people gel