lent within the judicial districts; and, in the second
place, to make the judge re-eligible. The gentleman
says the judge will become a politician. I
know of no better way to make a judge a politician
than to let him down from the bench among
the people at large, at a time when he may become
a candidate for all the offices that may come
up. The Executive chair, U S. Senator, Congress,
and every other office of prominence will
then be in his eye, and he will be a candidate for
some one of these places, and you will make him
so by your constitutional restriction; for by dis-
qualifying him from re-election to the judgeship,
you throw him among the people to become a poli-
tician. If you wish to make him independent, the
best possible way to do it will be to keep him
where he is, and where it is to he supposed he has
filled himself to discharge his duties. Being re-
eligible to the judgeship would not make him less
of a politician, while on the other hand it will
certainly increase his desire to be a candidate for
other high political offices.
By the time a man has served upon the bench
for ten years, I rather think he will have proved
himself either a very good or a very had judge.
There can he no doubt about this. As he grows
older he will become a wiser judge. He will have
improved himself in the practice and knowledge
of the law, adapted himself to the judicial wants
of the people, and to their habits and dispositions,
and will either have acquired a reputation for
being an honest, impartial, and excellent judge,
or a very bad one. I think that if he proves himself
an excellent judge, the people ought to have
the constitutional right guaranteed to them of re-
electing him. If he turns out to be an indifferent
judge, one that has not the confidence of the people,
you may rely upon it that the people will
take the matter into their own hands, and refuse
to re-elect him.
I am sure gentlemen have not thought of this
matter. They should study more attentively the
springs of human action and the principles of the
human heart; and when they have learned these
principles thoroughly, I think they will change
their views in relation to the re-eligibility of
judges.
I am not well enough, Mr. President, to discuss
the question more at length. I throw out these
intimations in the hope that some other gentleman
who agrees with me (and I am sure there
are a large number who do) will take my place
and argue the subject more fully.
Mr. CHAMBERS, of Kent, then obtained the
floor, but yielded to
Mr. HICKS, who merely desired to state, in order
that it might be understood by the Convention,
that if the words "shall not be re-eligible" should
be added to the section, he should afterwards
move to strike out, in the twelfth line, . . .
Mr. CHAMBERS said: Mr. President. I rise to
say a few words as a finale to this subject, now
passing from our consideration, with no hope, I
admit, of effecting any change in the opinion of
members of this body. It has been truly said
there are certain propositions which will be re-
ceived by the human mind as true, upon the
mere statement of them; or which, if not at once |
accepted as true, can never be demonstrated to
the conviction of the person who may not thus
readily receive them by any argument which
can be urged. Their reception or rejection
must depend upon the mode of thinking and
tone of mind, which have been produced by the
peculiar kind of moral culture, in which we
have been educated. Thus, for illustration, if
a man does not at once, upon the mere state-
ment of the position, consent to the truth that
fraud or falsehood is a vice to be condemned,
your arguments to prove it will be fruitless.
No logic or eloquence will produce conviction.
I have seen, sir, in the course of my life, so
much of political prejudice and partiality, so
much of decided conviction, on both sides of
political questions, so little influence from argu-
ment, as to believe there is much analogy in
this respect between our moral and our politi-
cal perceptions. If a man has been educated
in a certain school, has indulged in a particular
course of thought, associated with persona of
the same modes of judging, he will receive as a
political truism, a proposition which a political
adversary will reject, as palpably false. In
such a condition of mind, neither of these antagonists
will be persuaded by any reasons which
may be offered, to see or to acknowledge his
error. I fear this is our condition, I say our,
because I am as sensible of my own infirmities,
as I am that others feel the same weakness.
The error may be. with me, but, Mr. President,
unconscious as I am of any prejudice on this
subject, believing, as I most sincerely do be-
lieve, that my opinions are sanctioned by rea-
son and observation, I speak what, according to
my most deliberate convictions, are the "words
of truth and soberness." I have very lately
tasked the kind patience of the Convention in a
long argument to show the propriety of adopt-
ing a system calculated to secure the inde-
pendence of your judges, who are to guard the
persons, protect the property, sustain the repu-
tation, secure the rights and all the interests of
your citizens, in a word, to uphold the well-
being of every portion of society. I have en-
deavored to demonstrate the propriety of having
this arm of the government independent of every
influence that could affect human judgment, or
human conduct, except only the influence of
that feeling which prompts every right minded
man to desire the approbation of the wise and
the good, the comfort of a quiet and peaceful
conscience, and the favor of his God.
Mr. BRENT, of Baltimore, city, said: I am surprised
to hear the gentleman form Kent (Mr.
Chambers) considers this as one of those questions
of moral right which any man of correct moral
sense ought to understand without argument.
Mr CHAMBERS. Does the gentleman say I
said that?
Mr. BRENT. You illustrated it in that way by
analogy
Mr. CHAMBERS. The gentleman has most
egregiously mistaken me. I neither said so nor
intimated, nor desired to say so,
Mr. BRENT. It is very unfortunate that the
gentleman expressed himself in a manner in which |
