With this example before them, and the spirit of the Constitution as a guide, it might have been expected that the various States would follow in the same steps, and secure the same advantages. But the democratic, which has supplanted the republican spirit, and which aims at reducing all things to its own level, appears to have regarded even the judges, as objects of jealousy and distrust. Throughout the States there has been, since the presidency of Jefferson, a constant desire to lower the dignity of justice,-to shackle it-to cheapen it-to shorten the tenure of the office-to bring it within the control of political committees, and render it a spoil of party triumph. In succession, the States have abandoned their old rule, of electing the judges through their governments, and have brought them under the direct sway of popular election. Some of the States have reduced their salaries below the usual income of the attorney, and placed these salaries at the hazard of an annual vote. As if election, in the first instance, by committees, had not given sufficient control, these elections are now for short periods, to render dependence more complete. Had it been the object, to reject the teaching of the Constitution, and to tarnish the dignity of justice, no more effectual means could have been taken.

The result may be readily anticipated. Men of eminence are not likely to relinquish their position at the Bar, in order to bring themselves under such servitude, and to accept an inadequate salary,

Men of learning, of

precarious in its tenure. reserved habits and independence of mind-those whom other people desire should occupy the seat of justice--are ill suited, and little inclined, to frequent the lobbies of electioneering committee rooms. It follows, that the highest offices in the law are filled, in the Courts of the States, by an inferior class of men. And when the judges are treated with so little regard, it is not to be expected that there will exist any very great reverence for justice.

There is indeed a remarkable irreverence for justice, which seems to pervade all classes of society. On common occasions law and order are maintained as in other countries; but there exists a general belief throughout the popular mind, that whenever so disposed the people may discard the law with impunity. This belief creates a disrespect for courts of justice and for the sanctity of law, to which there seems no exception. Where should we expect greater decorum than in the Senate, amidst the "patres conscripti" of the Republic? Yet there, but three years ago, a member of the House of Representatives assaulted a senator when seated at his official desk, and so assailed him as to endanger life. Unquestionably very bitter provocation had been given, but the facts are proof of the existing indifference to legal restraints. In all countries outrages occur, and in some there are influences that lead them to take a

8 See Notes in Appendix.

F

peculiar direction, but they are punished by the law, and denounced by public opinion. In this case there was a merely nominal fine, and the assailant was immediately elevated into a hero. It was held to be permissible thus to attack an unarmed man, and a proof of moral courage, to perpetrate the outrage in the legislative halls of the Republic. On another recent occasion, and again in the capital, a person moving in good society committed a deliberate and relentless murder in the open day. He was acquitted by the jury because the provocation was intolerable -a just reason for mitigating a sentence, but strange ground upon which to give a verdict. All this might deserve little notice, but the man was instantly adopted as an object of public sympathy and admiration, greeted with enthusiastic applause, and is now a Brigadier-General in the Northern army.

If the law can thus be broken by men in the highest position, not only with impunity, but with approval, it is not likely to be held in greater respect in the lower walks of life. The Loafer, the Rowdy, the Border Ruffian, have become prominent actors in the drama of American life, and they are not mere exceptional individuals, few in number, but large classes of society. Each of them has equal political power with the most intelligent of the country, and is a copartner in that sovereignty of the people, of which he not unfrequently interprets his share to consist in the

privilege of breaking laws at his sovereign will. The existence of this class leads to that tendency to outrage which no other country has ever witnessed in equal degree. Bowie knives, revolvers, brass knuckles, the barbarity in the South of using slow fire as a means of executing negroes, when criminal; in the North, the frequent abuse of human nature by captains and mates, with cruelty that draws piteous tears from other eyes-these are evidences of a recklessness of law which seems to be producing equal indifference to humanity. In Canada there are large tracts of border-country, and Australia is not wanting in the coarsest elements of population. In neither case are such facts to be met with; and we are driven to look to institutions special to the country as the sources of results so peculiar.

It may be said, that if the individual States thought proper to degrade their officers of justice, or lower their suffrage, or to deviate, as they have done in many directions, from the Federal standard, still this should not be regarded as necessarily chargeable to the Union. But these are results of that Union-the evidence by which it must be judged. Moreover, we shall find that the political alliance, which has given the supreme power to the violent, and overwhelmed the moderate, party, has been a direct result of this Union of conflicting interests.

Again, a Federal Government is inevitably a weak government. The circumstances of the

Union have aggravated this inherent weakness, by excluding the presence of rival or competitor. Had two Republics existed from the first, each would have constrained the other, in self-defence, to maintain a really efficient government. In place of this there has been an entire absence of power, or control, or influence over the people, in their social or domestic politics; in other words, in all matters on which the purity and health of the body politic depend. In these respects the Federal Government has beheld the States diverging more and more widely from the original standard,-powerless to avert it. The Union excluded efficiency of government when it excluded all competition with itself.

Of this general inefficiency in administration there is a striking proof in Lynch law. An occurrence of this kind on some rare occasion would invite no comment; but it does invite serious reflection to find it tacitly understood throughout the country, that all have a right to resort to it when they consider the occasion to require it. Punishment is hardly attempted, if at all; for where such sentiments exist, it is clear that no jury will convict. Thus practically, whenever the popular will may choose to take the law into its own hands, it is silently permitted to do so. This practice appears to be the more prevalent in the South, mainly because occasions to invite it are much more rare in the North. No long time has elapsed since the Erie Railway was attacked by