THE CHANCELLOR'S CASE.—1 BLAND. 589

immediately antecedent occurrences in our own country would fur-
nish the most ample exposition of their bearing and tendency;
and the most unanswerable proofs of their utility and value. The
Colonial Congress of 1774, that most illustrious body of men, de-
liberately and solemnly declared to their then king, that in the
Colonial Courts of admiralty justice had been perverted, because
the Judges were "empowered to receive their salaries and fees
from the effects condemned by themselves; " and they further
declared, that the administration of justice, in the Colonial Courts
of common law, was no less partial and impure, because the Judges
of those Courts had been " made entirely dependent on one part of
the Legislature for their salaries, as well as for the duration of
their commissions." And, among the causes which impelled us
to the separation from the mother country, it is charged, that the
king had made the Judges dependent on his will alone for "the
amount and payment of their salaries."

These are some of the great lessons of our Revolution. They
were among the axioms deemed unquestionable in those times. It
had been sorely and deeply impressed upon the minds of all the
people of America, that a dependent Judge was the fit instrument
of an oppressor; that an independent Judge was a proper and
necessary guardian of a freeman's rights; that Judges, like other
men, were frail, and always found to be entirely subservient to
those on whom they were dependent for their salaries, and their
bread; and that wise and salutary laws were a mockery, without
firm and impartial Judges to administer them.

Having thus traced the origin, history, and nature of the secu-
rity of judicial salaries: and having carefully considered that Arti-
cle of the Declaration of Rights in which their security is partic-
ularly * provided for, declared, and defined; as well accord-
ing to its general character, as the meaning of each phrase 628
and sentence; let us now inquire what has been the operation of
those constitutional provisions, and the actual practice under them,
from the time the government of the Republic was organized, down
unto the twenty-sixth day of February last, when the unhappy
deviation complained of took effect.

It should be recollected that soon after the commencent of our
Revolutionary struggle, the Proprietary Government of Maryland
ceased to exist; and, during a period of about two years, was suc-
ceeded by a government made up of mere voluntary associations; of
district and county committees, arranged, by common consent,
under the superintendence of a General Convention and a Council
of Safety. That by the direction of one of those conventions, a
new convention was elected and assembled in August, 1776, " for
the express purpose of forming a new government by the authority
of the people only," who, in the name of the people drew up and
adopted, "the Declaration of Rights and the Constitution and