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TEXAS STATE LrnnARY
objects: that the judge enters into a solemn national compact, under which, for the services he is to render the nation, he is invested with rights, powers and interests that cannot be touched. l n uo sense can his office be assimulated to a subordi1rnte one left to the discretion of Congress to create or destroy & whose incumbent must abide the legis- lative will. Now is there ru1y conceivable public exigency that can justify the abolition of a district, the disfranchisement of its judge and the imposition on his associates of an accumulated burthen, when, after the lapse of four years at farthest, or at the expiration of the term, or vacation of the office, the district could be legally discon- tinued, on sufficient cause, and its counties distributed upon a. new arrangement leaving to each remaining judge as much of his district as practicable? There can be no such exigency. Nothing-no state of things can possibly justify a palpable violation of the constitution. But it is to be peculiarly deprecated when committed -by the Legis- lature, which is, as it were, the body of the government, whilst the judiciary & the Executive are the arms to execute its decrees. It is in direct and immediate effect to render the Judiciary its football. The great desideratum-the balance or equipoise of powers, is sup- planted, and effectual dominion over the third and weakest branch usurped by the fin~t and strongest. \\That is this but a subversion of the government? When such a principle is practically adopted the dawn of the day of anarchy & despotism is opened with its awful realities. God save the Countrv ! The Constitution must be k~pt inviolate. When the exalted power of the legislator is considered-to declare for a nation's obedience the rule of civil conduct, being controlled alone by that c_onstitution and those eternal barriers of moral restraint, which are revealed by the Uncreated for human guidance:-when too it is remembered, that in his oath of office, he has sworn to support the constitution; and, as a man and patriot, is tacitly bound, by the most solemn obligations, to perfonn, with truth & vigilance, the full measure of duty corre- sponding to those eminent powers --- it would be an_ amazing deriliction, if he were deliberately, upon any proposed measure, to disregard and strike across those sanctions and barriers. How is it then-for what cause or overruling necessity is the seventh district to be abolished, at this crisis, over the, unwarned unananswer- ing [sic] incumbent judge? Is it because the six other judges have sinecures, & are feeding idly upon the public crib? Every tme knows . . . without interposing a murmur at what has been an annual salary of between five & Six hundred dollars . . . that the labors and expense, of each of the seven have been, including their Supreme Court duties, and the separation of some of them from families, if not excessive, at least as much as a generous community would know- ingly impose, and perhaps more arduous than the burthen of any other officer of the government. On this score then there is no pro- test to be ur<Ted without the blush of shame. Does the embarrassed condition of the finances demand the retrenchment of six hundred dollars, or whateYer sum may be adopted as a judge's salary? And is this demanded at the cost of the prostra~ion of the con~titution, the subversion of vested rights, a sudden & umversal change m the terms of the courts, & the <levolition upon the other judges of accumulated
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