But Now, At The Present
Moment, There Is Arising A Strong Feeling Of The Inexpediency Of
Appointing Judges In Such A Manner.
An anti-democratic bias is
taking possession of men's minds, causing a reaction against that
tendency to universal suffrage in everything which prevailed before
the war began.
As to this matter of the mode of appointing judges,
I have heard but one opinion expressed; and I am inclined to think
that a change will be made in one State after another, as the
constitutions of the different States are revised. Such revisions
take place generally at periods of about twenty-five years'
duration. If, therefore, it be acknowledged that the system be bad,
the error can be soon corrected.
Nor is this mode of appointment the only evil that has been adopted
in the State judicatures. The judges in most of the States are not
appointed for life, nor even during good behavior. They enter their
places for a certain term of years, varying from fifteen down, I
believe, to seven. I do not know whether any are appointed for a
term of less than seven years. When they go out they have no
pensions; and as a lawyer who has been on the bench for seven years
can hardly recall his practice, and find himself at once in receipt
of his old professional income, it may easily be imagined how great
will be the judge's anxiety to retain his position on the bench.
This he can do only by the universal suffrages of the people, by
political popularity, and a general standing of that nature which
enables a man to come forth as the favorite candidate of the lower
orders. This may or may not be well when the place sought for is
one of political power - when the duties required are political in
all their bearings. But no one can think it well when the place
sought for is a judge's seat on the bench - when the duties required
are solely judicial. Whatever hitherto may have been the conduct of
the judges in the courts of the different States, whether or no
impurity has yet crept in, and the sanctity of justice has yet been
outraged, no one can doubt the tendency of such an arrangement. At
present even a few visits to the courts constituted in this manner
will convince an observer that the judges on the bench are rather
inferior than superior to the lawyers who practice before them. The
manner of address, the tone of voice, the lack of dignity in the
judge, and the assumption by the lawyer before him of a higher
authority than his, all tell this tale. And then the judges in
these courts are not paid at a rate which will secure the services
of the best men. They vary in the different States, running from
about 600l. to about 1000l. per annum. But a successful lawyer,
practicing in the courts in which these judges sit, not unfrequently
earns 3000l. a year. A professional income of 2000l. a year is not
considered very high. When the different conditions of the bench
are considered, when it is remembered that the judge may lose his
place after a short term of years, and that during that short term
of years he receives a payment much less than that earned by his
successful professional brethren, it can hardly be expected that
first-rate judges should be found. The result is seen daily in
society. You meet Judge This and Judge That, not knowing whether
they are ex-judges or in-judges; but you soon learn that your
friends do not hold any very high social position on account of
their forensic dignity.
It is, perhaps, but just to add that in Massachusetts, which I
cannot but regard as in many respects the noblest of the States, the
judges are appointed by the Governor, and are appointed for life.
CHAPTER XII.
THE FINANCIAL POSITION.
The Americans are proud of much that they have done in this war, and
indeed much has been done which may justify pride; but of nothing
are they so proud as of the noble dimensions and quick growth of
their government debt. That Mr. Secretary Chase, the American
Chancellor of the Exchequer, participates in this feeling I will not
venture to say; but if he do not, he is well-nigh the only man in
the States who does not do so. The amount of expenditure has been a
subject of almost national pride, and the two millions of dollars a
day, which has been roughly put down as the average cost of the war,
has always been mentioned by Northern men in a tone of triumph.
This feeling is, I think, intelligible; and although we cannot
allude to it without a certain amount of inward sarcasm, a little
gentle laughing in the sleeve, at the nature of this national joy, I
am not prepared to say that it is altogether ridiculous. If the
country be found able and willing to pay the bill, this triumph in
the amount of the cost will hereafter be regarded as having been
anything but ridiculous. In private life an individual will
occasionally be known to lavish his whole fortune on the
accomplishment of an object which he conceives to be necessary to
his honor. If the object be in itself good, and if the money be
really paid, we do not laugh at such a man for the sacrifices which
he makes.
For myself, I think that the object of the Northern States in this
war has been good. I think that they could not have avoided the war
without dishonor, and that it was incumbent on them to make
themselves the arbiters of the future position of the South, whether
that future position shall or shall not be one of secession. This
they could only do by fighting. Had they acceded to secession
without a civil war, they would have been regarded throughout Europe
as having shown themselves inferior to the South, and would for many
years to come have lost that prestige which their spirit and energy
had undoubtedly won for them; and in their own country such
submission on their part would have practically given to the South
the power of drawing the line of division between the two new
countries.
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