friend if we did not ask a reduction of our dis-
trict, and if he did not vote against it?
Mr. STEWART, I can answer my friend. I
was not here at the time. I was detained, un-
expectedly, and much against my will, in a
very important case in the circuit court of the
United States. With regard to the Court of
Common Pleas, I desire to offer an amendment,
when it comes up, so as to avoid the objection
of my friend from Baltimore county, because.
we are so closely together that I can hardly
consent to give him up, I desire to claim him
as one of our own. Here is the amendment
which I propose to offer;
Provided, That when the plaintiff or plaintiffs
shall recover less than the sum or value of five
hundred dollars, the said plaintiff or plaintiffs
shall not be allowed, but at the discretion of
the court, may be adjudged to pay costs.
I will move to add that to the end of the 11th
section, in conformity with the act of 1789, es-
tablishing circuit courts of the United States,
in reference to which I had the honor to submit
some remarks yesterday. That court will have
the whole work it can bear; but our friends say
that the judges, under the new system, will be
adequate to perform the duty, if they will do it.
Our best judges have not done their duty! Can
any one point to Stevenson Archer, and say
that he did not discharge all the high obligations
of his functions? All know that not only the
bar of Baltimore, but its citizens of all classes,
paid, in the most solemn form of mourning,
deep and sincere, their tribute of respect to his
memory, and of sorrow for his departure.—
They followed him to the repose of that grave
whose perennial verdure the rains of heaven,
falling like tears of pity for his fate, served to
freshen to our eye. He neglect his duty! Sir,
it was the bright polar star by which he firmly
and proudly steered the judicial bark over the
angry and swollen waves of controversy. I do
not speak of him as an exception; I am but
just in alluding to him as an instance.
My constituents, who sent me here to express
their views in regard to reform, have a strong
feeling in relation to this particular subject.—
We can have an appellate jurisdiction in the
common pleas, the business of which can be
disposed of even with as much dispatch as in
New York, where the judge of one of the court
is called the "Steam Judge"—I mean ajudge
in the western part of New York. Looking to
the desires of justice among the class of suitor
who will come there, the poor man, to whom
that suit may be every thing, I feel it to be one
of the highest parts of our duty to discharge, to
establish a judge of that kind. There must be
some separation of this jurisdiction, with a view
to discharge all of its business it is a great
American principle, and comes up as an indi-
genous production of our happy land; you must
give Justice fully, without denial, and speedily
without delay. That is the great American doc
trine, and for this purpose all the other great
cities of the Union have made their provisions
It is, therefore, indispensable. |
I beg now to say a single word, and only to
refreshen the minds of the gentlemen. We have
been acting under a system organized in 1828,
and which he knows well is insufficient and in-
convenient, and why do the people of Baltimore
city, who are characterized for their higher
notions of restriction to law and order, submit
to it? For twenty-three years we have been
paying seven thousand dollars a year as a local
tax in Baltimore for three judges whom you did
not pay, and for what reason ? To give us jus-
tice, the great object of all government—to
bring to every man's door a judicial settlement
of strife and controversy—to bring to him that
peace which follows the closing of a law suit-
We have borne the burden upon that ground,
without murmer, so far. What further had we
to do; we addressed a complaint to the legisla-
ture, and I will say that in kindness it was an-
swered. The legislature passed a special law
authorizing special juries to be summoned.—
What was the effect of that arrangement? We
have been paying seven thousand dollars a year
extra; and although the Constitution said that
we should have three judges, to give us the ben-
efit of their collective wisdom and integrity, we
lave only one. It was found it would not work.
My friend, I think, may have been engaged in a
case in one room, and could not attend to the
call of the docket in the other. One of his
causes had to be postponed. It was found to be
impossible to carry on that system. Then it
was that the people of Baltimore became exci-
ted with regard to the question of Conventional
Reform. From that time to the present they
have desired it; and mainly, I say, in regard to
some change in the judiciary system. They
passed upon the law enacted by the Senate and
House of Delegates in 1849, with the peculiar
material of the city of Baltimore, as the same
has been described by her opponents, although
she had but four representatives here, they re-
lied upon you, organized as this body was upon
a basis unfriendly to their interests, and there
was not a murmur with regard to what they be-
lieved would be the just action of this Conven-
tion in regard to their rights. I do not want
them to be disappointed. One of our friends
desired to give Baltimore three thousand dollars
for a judge. I take ground againt it. I am not
here as a Baltimorean. That, it is true, is the
particular part of the State which I represent.
The other parts of the State are so well repre-
sented, that I could not contribute to their gen-
oral power and intelligence. I claim to vote
and to act in the higher character of a Mary-
lander.
Mr. BRENT, of Baltimore city. The manner
in which my colleague has spoken might create
the impression that I was in favor of a distinc-
tion between the salaries of the judges in the
city and counties. I based the distinction upon
the undoubted fact that the expense of living
is much greater in the city than in the counties,
and I desire to equalize the salaries by looking
to the difference in the local expenses.
The PRESIDENT announced that the ten min-
utes of Mr. Stewart had expired. |
