after the organization of the Republic, not only demonstrates the inherent and intrinsic strengtht and soundness of the constitutional provision which reposed this power in the courts, but also that the men who during that period have been chosen to administer it have been true to their trust, have uniformly and generally been controlled and influenced by the high ideals expressed in the Constitutions of the Federal Government and the several States, and have sought to preserve and add to the fine traditions which had come down to them through the centuries of struggle against the encroachments and invasions by governments upon and against the rights of the individual.

Nor has any other department of the government retained more uniformly or in a higher degree the confidence of the people than the judicial. Legislatures have often been thought, and justly, to be venal, partisan and corrupt. And indeed, today a legislature, State or national, rarely convenes without being attended by hordes of professional lobbyists, agents and employes seeking to influence, legitimately or otherwise, the actions of the members in the interest of legislation which will enrich its promoters through some special privilege or immunity.

Bitter and unseemly wrangles between the legislative and the executive departments of government are not unknown. But the staining touch of "machine" politics, and the practical manipulation of the machinery of government for private gain through special privilege which has at times in ours as in other governments, smirched its records, has not, in this State at least, touched its courts.

The confidence which the courts enjoy is due, too, to the character of the American Bar, from whose ranks their judges are drawn. There have been times, and it is perhaps true now, that some of the serious abuses and the grave political evils which have resulted from the attempt

few, have been fostered and originated by the ingenuity and the perverted brilliance of American lawyers working to defeat and betray the law, rather than to defend and uphold it. But such men have been without influence and without effect upon the traditions of the American Bar, and the general body of its members remain today as they have been heretofore, an earnest, patriotic body of men intensely interested in their profession as a noble science devoted to the establishment of right and the defeat of wrong. Although occasions rarely arise for such dramatic expression, yet the spirit which led Henry to make his passionate protest against the oppression of the British Crown, or Webster to make his great argument in the Darmouth College case, or Taney to defend Gruber in a community of slave holders against a charge of inciting slaves to insurrection, or Choate to defend against a hostile and threatening populace an insane negro charged with murder, and which influenced the conduct of members of our own bar, whose names add to it a dignity and a lustre of which it may be justly proud, such as Martin, Johnson, Pinkney and Wallis, still lives. And the sincere and earnest efforts not only of associations of lawyers but of the individual members of the bar, to weed out of it the dishonest and the incompetent and to see that its members observe in their relations with their clients, with each other, and with the courts and juries, the most scrupulous integrity evinces their general desire to cherish and foster the fine traditions of the American Bar, and to maintain it on such a plane that when members of it are called upon to assume the duties of the bench they may do so in a manner which will not only maintain its traditions but will reflect honor upon the bar from which they came.

In the determination of purely legal controversies the courts of this country have been singularly free from cen

found their way into this high office, as from time to time they find their way into other offices, but whether they were reformed by the character of its duties or by whatever cause their conversion was wrought, it is certainly true that a corrupt or a dishonest judge rarely serves in an Ameri

can court.

It has been their constant effort, and one in which they have been eminently successful, to see that in the American court every litigant shall have "justice and right, freely without sale, fully without any denial and speedily without delay, according to the law of the land." And so universal is the practice that it is accepted as a matter of course, that in administering justice in an American court neither partisanship, political influence nor any other extraneous hindering or debasing element finds any place or standing, or receives any consideration.

So generally has this been recognized that for years there has been a steady growing movement to place the office of judge without the pale of partisan politics. Not that the incumbents of the office are expected to be neutral in politics, or that they should not be identified with political parties, because in a government such as ours, where the great problems which intimately affect the welfare of the whole people are settled through the instrumentality of parties, no citizen can, with full justice to himself and his country, hold aloof either from politics or from parties, but that when they possess high character, sound legal knowledge and a sufficient training in the practice of the profession, it matters little or not at all to what party they belong.

Justice is impersonal and non-political, and its due administration is not affected by the religious or political views of the individuals selected to see that it is done, but rather by their intellectual vigor, moral character and technical training. And so free has the American court been found

improper bias or influence, that it is coming to be the recognized policy in many sections of the Union that the party. or the political principles of a candidate for this office are little considered when weighed against his moral worth and professional ability.

The universality of this sentiment is in itself a striking illustration of the confidence which the American people have in their courts of justice, and also of the fact that this confidence is merited. For the administration of no other office is subjected to the same constant, long continued and searching scrutiny as that of judge. His every act and decision find a permanent and public record upon the dockets of his court, his conduct and demeanor to the litigants who come before him, the juries who try the facts, the officers of the court, and the members of the bar are the subject of constant observation and comment and the man who under these conditions creates and retains through the administration of his office the confidence of his fellow citizens may truly be said to have fairly earned it. Another characteristic of the American court which endears it to the people and inspires them with confidence in it is its democracy. There is to be noted generally in such courts a want of the tawdry dignity and the petty aloofness with which those whose character or ability will not abide a closer scrutiny are wont to conceal the insecure and shallow foundations upon which their pretensions rest. And in its place there is to be found the natural dignity, the unaffected and sincere courtesy, the directness and the simplicity which preserve without adventitious or artificial aid the dignity of the office and at the same time render intercourse between the judges, the members of the bar, the litigants, the juries and the people, natural, unembarrassed and free.

It is, therefore, from all these considerations, that the

and respect for their courts, which is one of the distinguishing features of our institutions and which leads them. to resent and resist any innovation which may hinder or harass them in the free and untrammeled discharge of their important duties. From experience they have learned that the courts may be trusted to do even-handed justice to all who come within their forum seeking justice, not because they are driven to do so by the lash of public opinion, or fear of personal loss, or hope of personal security, or private gain, but because it is right. And the people have learned through the experience of other countries and other times that the courts which do justice, voluntarily, through a high and genuine appreciation of the exalted obligations of the office because it is right to do justice, are more to be trusted than those which do justice through the influence of fear, favor or affection, and because it is expedient or profitable to do justice.

It is not thought, therefore, that any movement, however well meant or honest it may be, which has for its object the coercion of the judgments of the courts by threats of popular disapproval or hopes of popular approbation, will ever be in this country in any considerable measure either permanent or successful so long as the functions of our courts are discharged by men of the general character of the judges who have heretofore administered American justice.

As one of the by-products and incidents of our civilization and prosperity there are to be found many citizens who are dissatisfied with our form of government and with all the departments thereof, and distrustful and suspicious of all its officials including the judges of its courts. They are known by various names, some of which they have assumed themselves and others of which have been given them from the nature of their work. They are variously