Yet these justices are the real executive
as well as judiciary, in all our minor and most ordinary concerns. They
tax us at will; fill the office of sheriff, the most important of all
the executive officers of the county; name nearly all our military
leaders, which leaders, once named, are removable but by themselves. The
juries, our judges of all fact, and of law when they choose it, are
not selected by the people, nor amenable to them. They are chosen by an
officer named by the court and executive. Chosen, did I say? Picked up
by the sheriff from the loungings of the court-yard, after every thing
respectable has retired from it. Where then is our republicanism to be
found? Not in our constitution certainly, but merely in the spirit of
our people. That would oblige even a despot to govern us republicanly.
Owing to this spirit, and to nothing in the form of our constitution,
all things have gone well. But this fact, so triumphantly misquoted by
the enemies of reformation, is not the fruit of our constitution, but
has prevailed in spite of it. Our functionaries have done well, because
generally honest men. If any were not so, they feared to show it.
But it will be said, it is easier to find faults than to amend them. I
do not think their amendment so difficult as is pretended. Only lay down
true principles, and adhere to them inflexibly. Do not be frightened
into their surrender by the alarms of the timid, or the croakings of
wealth against the ascendancy of the people.
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