Year: 1879

1 beIs oi the supreme court t5hdge English) for re election, we took occasion to differ with our contem- porary and cited the famous pistol ttsfccision as cause for our upposi- ton to the views of the Times.

 We stated that we believed that decision would be enough to defeat Judge English if he should agaln as- pire to the Supreme Court bench.

 In the next issue of a couple of our state exchanges, near neigh bors of ours, the Atkins News and the Independent Arkansian-each of those papers had short editor ial paragraph venturing the.assertion that if Judge English should aspire to be reelected there would not be a dissenting voice in the land. We thought strange of such diametri- cal opposition of views between this paper and two other papers publish ed in the safne immediate section of country. We could only attribute it to two combined causes; to-wit, a want of knowledge as to public sen timent on the part of those two papers: and dctermin ation to differ with the view expressed by the DEM oCRAT a week before. Whether those two papers were right and the DEMOCRAT wrong in our diametri- cally opposite views, or VICE VERSA, time will tell. We verify believe we are correct in our estimate Of public sentiment in this matter, and in sup port of our views we subjoin an edi- torial from the Western Immigrant, a paper also published in this imme- diate locality whose editor is not on ly shrewd and close observer, but also a member of the Arkansas bar. He says:

 Our opinion is that Judge Eng fish cannot agaln be elected to the Supreme Judgeship of the state of Arkansas. No one would dare to question the honesty of conviction under which the chief justice render ed the famous pistol decision, or as for that matter any other decision. Yet it cannot be denied that that decision has very much lowered the high estimate heretofore placed by the members of the profession upon hls ability as a jurist, and whenever good citizen looks upon one of those brutal roughs swagger- ing about the street with a small ar senal of six shooters swung to his belt he, invariably connects that pie ture, with the man whose decision invested that rough with the right thus to become terror to his fellow man and the impression thus made is by no means fattering to Judge Els aspiration, provided he has any, tor the office. It becomes no good citizen to criticise the justness of judicial decision. .but while we are to presume that judge English was right in declaring the act or the leg islature prohibiting the carrying of pistols unconstitutional so far as that act referred to those weapons com monly used in tue U. s. Military and naval servlce, yet we may comment upon the result and effect of de cision; and in regard to this particu- lar pistol decision rendered by Judge English, the people at large have not only commented upon it harshly but have roundly denounced it, for they can see in it nothing more IT eritori ous than the qualification of the law less, the pleasure ofthe highwayman and fruitful source of crime and misrule. Nor is this view discour- aged, either by the members of the bar or the judges of the different cir cults of the state. And It is nearly always with patent disapproval and embarrassment that this decision is charged to the grand juries by the circuit judges. For these reasons the popularity of Judge English among the people and his emlnence with the profession have dwindled far below their old stan dafd. The chances for his re-elec- tion may be regarded at least as pre- carious. Whether or not Col. Will. Hams defeat for the nomination at the last state convention has added anything like strength to his cilams as an aspirant for the supreme judge ship, or whether or not that defeat, as is generlly the,ease. has weakened and impaired that gentleman's pros poets remains to be seen, but if Hon. Wm. W. Mansfield will make the race he can carry the solid north west and walk over the track with a booming support from tue southeast ern portion of the state. In case Judge Mansfield should decline the contest, which is more probable than otherwise, we.know of no gentleman who, would receive q more euthusias- tic support especially where he is known, than would Judge Rodgers of Fort Smith.