to time ordain and establish.

The judges, both of the supreme and inferior courts, shall hold their offices during good behavior, and shall, at stated times, receive for their services a compensation, which shall not be diminished during their continuance in office."

This is the third branch of the institution called federal govern'ment or government of the United States. We have seen that the president appoints these judges with the advice and consent of the senate, which is sound doctrine, because the judiciary is the product of the state institution, and not of society. It is against the well-understood principles of politics to make the judiciary dependent upon popular elections. The federal constitution is in this regard not so well appreciated at home as it ought to be. The truth is, people are in need of justice, and erect for this purpose an institution called state, with a constitution. Out of this institution comes the judiciary, in order to make it entirely independent of the people, of whose acts and deeds and obligations it shall judge. It is a state right or duty of government to provide a judiciary; because the principal aim of this institution is the realization of justice, which most of the people who come in business contact with the judiciary do not like at all. Public morals will unavoidably come to a low ebb in states where the judiciary is elective. The constitution creates the United States supreme court, but leaves it wisely to Congress to organize it and the needful inferior courts, according to time and circumstances. The supreme court held at Washington is the highest legal authority. It construes and adjudges the constitution and the laws of the United States supremely. What belongs to the laws of nations comes under the sole cognizance of this tribunal. It has ever borne a noble character and enjoyed universal confidence in the United States and abroad.

Some complain that transactions before this court are too expensive and too long protracted. This is applicable to all courts organized after the English fashion; because they act not under strict codes of procedure, but under their own rules. Still, it is in the nature of cases coming under the jurisdiction of this court that they are complicated and therefore time-absorbing.

The appointment of the judges during good behavior should be also the rule for the municipal judges.

5

LETTER XXVII.

National Judicial Business.- Court of Claims.- Checks upon State Wars.

LET us continue our reading.

SECTION II.

"1. The judicial power shall extend to all cases in law and equity arising under this constitution, the laws of the United States, and treaties made, or which shall be made under their authority; to all cases affecting ambassadors other public ministers, and consuls; to all cases of admiralty and maritime jurisdiction; to controversies to which the United States shall be a party; to controversies between two or more states; between a state and citizens of another state; between citizens of different states; between citizens of the same state claiming lands under grants of different states, and between a state or the citizens thereof, and foreign states, citizens, or subjects."

From this array of business which belongs to the competency of the supreme court, claims against a state by citizens of another state, or by citizens or subjects of any foreign state, according to the eleventh amendment to the constitution, are excluded, because such claims do not partake of the character of national affairs, inasmuch as a state when sued takes the place of a private person or corporation. But it is desirable that provision should be made for a court adjudging such controversies, wherein the state is defendant, as a substitute for the mere pleasure of the legislature in such instances. Congress has felt the necessity of such a court and created the United States court of claims, which should be a real independent court, and not a mere committee, as it stands at present. Neither the supreme court nor the lower tribunals are above law, but only the interpreters in regard to the final meaning of the law, without willing anything. This is a power inherent to all courts.

It has been maintained that a state can not be sued by a private person, because it is inherent in the nature of "sovereignty" not to be amenable to any private person. This may hold good in Europe, but even there not generally, because the continental

governments have designated by law certain courts before which

claims raised against them or their treasuries, and refused, may be tried like all other claims. Even in Great Britain, which is in all these things much behind time, the chancellor has some authority to decide on such claims. A monarch, called sovereign- —a thing we have not-who pretends that he got by the grace of God the right to manage the political affairs of the people as his property, is very likely to pretend, too, that he can never do wrong, and, of course, can not afford to be sued. Our governments have nothing in common with this specious doctrine. They are agents, and when they, as such, bind the state, the state must suffer to be sued like other bound people who refuse to fulfil their obligations.

This section makes the supreme court the arbiter between independent states; and this eminently-wise arrangement is the reason that there can not be from any cause, however provoking, a war between the several states. Yes, my dear children, fond as some of the male gender are of fighting, there can be no war between Massachusetts and South Carolina, or between Michigan and Ohio, or California and Oregon. The supreme court is the arbiter in all our more or less wicked state-troubles. What an inestimable blessing, then, is our Union for a large branch of the human family! Where is the like? Without this constitutional guaranty of peace there would be eternal fighting between our parties. Hence the opinions and decisions of the supreme court are cheerfully considered as entirely conclusive and final by the people.

The house of representatives excels in such speculative or logrolling law propositions, against which most of the presidents have battled with their vetoes successfully. It is significant that the same popular branch of Congress is indifferent in regard to laws which bear upon the better administration of justice, as the adjustment of claims, regulation of the territories, etc. Large legislative bodies seldom answer to their real purpose. The members of the legislative bodies who transact the national business from mere party views, violate their constitutional duty and oath. Party may help one to a seat in Congress, but when sworn in party influence should cease.

The patronage of our president amounts, at a general estimation, to eighty odd millions of dollars. There is much attraction

in such a sum. We have not to complain that matters are so. Governments are a necessary evil, required for the lawless and disobedient, or, as a theologian would say, are the result of sin. The burden can only be relieved by self-government. The more of that the less of public business, offices, salaries, taxes, etc.

You see, my children, why we have parties, and will have them as long as there are offices. The rotation in office, promoted by frequent elections, checks the tendency to become hereditary, but increases party virulence. Factions, by trying to enforce their plans and platforms, implicitly admit that they are useless in the ordinary way of political business.

Martyrs for party purposes are a nuisance in the United States, because there is no hinderance to joining or forming parties on principles. If an inconsiderate speaker on party issues gets whipped, he is as guilty as the inconsiderate whipper. A factitious or rebellious speaker commits a glaring contempt of law much more dangerous to society than a mere contempt of a court. But why write to you, my children, and you, my daughters, especially, on such things? My reasons are, as you may suppose, not to entangle you in party affairs, very commonly but very wrongly called politics, but to show you exactly what they are, that you may be able, in exciting times which grow upon us, to converse understandingly on them and inform your children about them. Further, to explain to you what kind of men those are who make the regular managers of parties, often called politicians by trade, or demagogues; and to show what real difference there is between public and private life, and how speculations in offices may turn out to be visionary and often ruinous to families.

If I succeed in that, I shall feel myself well rewarded. The American women should be in public affairs what the senate is to the president, friendly counsels to their husbands and sons. Those may, in the end, if meritorious, as certainly be called to offices of trust as Benjamin Franklin, who never had anything to do with party on this account, and was almost constantly in the service of his country.

101

JURY TRIALS.

LETTER XXVIII.

National original Jurisdiction. —Appellate Jurisdiction. — Sovereign scruples. - Jurisdiction makes no Subjects. — Jury Trial of Crimes. - Place of Trial.-Abolitionists. - Magna Charta.- Runneymede.

THE Constitution farther ordains:

"2. In all cases affecting ambassadors, other public ministers, and consuls, and those in which a state shall be party, the supreme court shall have original jurisdiction. In all the other cases before mentioned, the supreme court shall have appellate jurisdiction, both as to law and fact, with such exceptions, and under such regulations as the Congress shall make."

This clause places consuls and ambassadors justly on the same legal footing, and designates the supreme court as one of original jurisdiction, that is, of the first resort. Some say that this provision brings the states within the sovereignty of the Union, but this is not the fact, because lawsuits do not alter stations, they merely refer to doubtful obligations or the right or wrong of a case, and the bearing of the laws upon it. The dubious case alone goes to the decision of the supreme court and not the state or government. The word sovereignty, obsolete with us and not occurring in this constitution, irritates unnecessarily the feelings of zealous state-rights champions and partisans, who make political capital out of it. Jurisdiction makes no subjects, but means only the authority given to a court over certain civil and criminal cases in a certain district. There is no court for a man who shuns lawsuits and evil deeds.

"3. The trials of all crimes, except in cases of impeachment, shall be by jury, and such trial shall be held in the state where the said crimes shall have been committed; but when not committed within any state, the trial shall be at such place or places as the Congress may by law have directed."

This clause, together with two amendments, which you will find annexed to the constitution, but do not properly belong to it, ordains that in crimes committed against the laws of the United States, a trial by jury shall take place, just as in all other trials of crimes committed against state laws. This clause has been unjustly misapplied by the abolitionists for party purposes. There