st;--it would do a manifest and
outrageous wrong if thus applied. You as Jurors are to do Justice by
the law, not injustice. _You will bring in a verdict according to your
conscience._" They did so. Gentlemen, I should not dare tell you that
Judge's name. It would greatly injure his reputation. God knows
it--for there is a Higher Law.

When the New York Convention assembled in 1846 to revise the
constitution of that State, some powerful men therein felt the evil of
having the Court of last Appeal consist wholly of lawyers. Mr. Ruggles
thought the judges who reexamine the decisions and pronounce the final
judgment in disputed cases, and determine the constitutionality of
laws, should be men who are "brought into direct contact with the
people and their business." He wished that of the eight judges of this
appellate Court, four should be Justices of the Supreme Court, and
four more should be elected by the people on a general ballot, thus
securing a popular element in that highest Court. By this popular
element, representing the instinctive Justice of Humanity, he hoped to
correct that evil tendency of professional men which leads them away
"from the just conclusions of natural reason into the track of
technical rules inapplicable to the circumstances of the case, and at
variance with the nature and principles of our social and political
institutions."[109] "Such judges," said another lawyer, "would retain
more of the great general principles of moral justice, ... the
impulses of natural equity, such as ... would knock off the rough
corners of the common law and loosen the fetters of artificial and
technical equity."[110]

[Footnote 109: Debates in New York Convention, 371, _et al._]

[Footnote 110: Jordan's Speech, _ibid._, 447, _et al._ See also Mr.
Stow's Remarks, 473, and Mr. Stephens', 474, _et al._ Yet all these
four speakers were lawyers.]

Commonly in America, as in England, for judges the Federal Government
appoints lawyers who have done some party service, or are willing to
execute the designs of the great ruling Power, the Slaveholders,
regardless alike of the interests of the People and the protestations
of the Conscience of Mankind.[111] You know how Hardwicke and Thurlow
got their office in England, how they filled it, and what additional
recompense followed each added wickedness. Need I mention the name of
Americans with a similar history? Gentlemen, I pass it by for the
present.

[Footnote 111: Hild