path of integrity. But this is no reason why we
should increase the number of temptations. If
we can. cut one off, we gain something, although
we leave others around him. The judge has to
execute the law. It is true, in the theory of our
Constitution we have separated the different.
branches of the Government—the Executive, the
Judicial and the Legislative; but we have sepa-
rated them only in name. When a judge ex-
pounds the laws, he enforces them. He issues
his execution, and it is done. He issues his command
to the sheriff to collect money, and to carry
out all the decrees of the court, and thus execute?
laws which he himself construes, and thus, in
some degree, makes.
Now, in looking forward to these great di-
visions of power, we will find, if we look a little
back, a long existing jealousy of the continuance
in power of those who execute the law. The
gentleman from Frederick (Mr. Thomas) has re-
ferred to the office of Governor. Why is it that
for the last seventy years we have been living
under a Constitution which prescribes a limit to
the services of Governor—which says to him,
" thus far shall thou go, and no further?" Why
did our ancestors say the Governor should be eli-
gible for three years, and no longer? It was be-
cause after the expiration of that time they chose
to entrust to other hands that power of executing
the law.
Why has it been that an article of our Constitution,
which I believe it is not proposed to change.
declaring the ineligibility of sheriffs, has been
permitted to remain in our Constitution until now,
and why will it be incorporated in this for I sup-
pose there will he no motion to change it? It is
because the sheriff is a component part of the ex-
ecution of the law. Being elected by the people.
his intercourse is irretrievably with the people.
and his enforcement of the law is required to be
free from every sort of bias, private or political
Therefore, it is wise. and will be wise to disqualify
that officer from asecond term. So it is with the
judge. When he administers laws and decides pro-
perty between one man and another man, he ne-
cessarily excites the displeasure of somebody.—
The losing party always complains, and it re-
quires that his hands should be strengthened in
every way in which we can strengthen them, to
enable hhm to maintain his position with impar-
tiality. We should mike him re-eligible One
great political evil will follow from the adoption
of the proposition of the gentleman from Dorches-
ter, (Mr. Hicks.) Gentlemen have only pointed
out one, and that is, that if the people have a
good judge, they ought to have the power to con-
tinue him in office. I grant it. But are there
no other good judges? Each judge will represent
about fifteen thousand votes, supposing that the
State is divided into four judicial districts. Is it
possible that that man can be so super-eminent in
all that district of country, that they can find no
man qualified to succeed him? It is the only
thing that the people will lose by the adoption of
this proposition—the power of placing that same
man on the bench again. That alone is not
much, because, apart from the general principle |
of rotation in office, which certainly is advantageous
in all classes of offices, they are at liberty to,
select some other one, and if yon apply the doc-
trine of rotation in office, it becomes eminently
proper to this class of officers. I have seen, in
the course of my experience, more than twenty
instances in which ruin has been predicted in a
community from change in office; and I have
never seen one single instance of the evil felt.—
I do not say that it will always be so; but that the
inducement is very small to permit this man, out
of a population of fifteen thousand, to he a candi-
date again. I have voted for the term of ten
years, and during those ten years, I wish to ab-
stract him from every possible temptation to par-
tiality. How will these judges be appointed? I
expect to see party conventions. We shall see
them, I think. We shall see conventions holden
of either party, to nominate judges. I expect to
see it, and I have voted according to that expec-
tation. I am willing lo meet it. I prefer that
mode of appointing judges to the mode of ap-
pointment by the Governor, by and with the advice
and consent of the Senate. Why so? Why, be-
cause in these conventions, the friends of any
particular individual must stand out and be visi-
ble. They must come before the community, and
take the responsibility of recommending their
particular friend They are known to the people.
Whereas, according to the present mode of ap-
pointment, those who recommend any particular
individual, are enveloped in a dark cloud, are in
obscurity, and never are known.
Besides the fact that the friends of the par-
ticular candidate must be known to the public,
there is another security, that although these
conventions will be holden according to party
character, the people at last have to pass upon
their votes; and I do hope that there will be a
restraining power in the mass of the people
which will prevent the adoption of a party
nomination, if the person brought forward upon
the other side is a better man than he who is
brought forward by their own political friends.
I think there is a conservative power in the
great body of the people which will induce them
to select the best men; because each man in the
community has a personal interest in the selec-
tion of upright and impartial judges. This, I
think, will secure the nomination of better men
than we have now; and I am willing to trust
to it.
Now, sir, in the exercise of this vast power,
before which the power of making laws sinks
into insignificance, I am unwilling to throw any
temptation in the way of the judge, that he may
not be persuaded into conciliating strong party
men, or adopting strong party measures from
the hope of being re-elected to that office. Let
it not be said that I am distrustful of the people.
I am not distrustful of them, but distrustful in
the influence of party spirit over the people.
It penetrates all society. We can no more get
rid of it than we can change our form of gov-
ernment. It will be ever active in some shape
or other; and it must be active upon the mind
of any individual who seeks a re-appointment to |
