Page:Memoir, correspondence, and miscellanies, from the papers of Thomas Jefferson - Volume 1.djvu/82

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so impossible, where* any defence is made, before men of ordi nary prejudices and passions, that our Judges are effectually inde pendent of the nation. But this ought not to be. I would not, indeed, make them dependant on the Executive authority, as they formerly were in England ; but I deem it indispensable to the con tinuance of this government, that they should be submitted to some practical and impartial control ; and that this, to be impartial, must be compounded of a mixture of State and Federal authorities. It is not enough that honest men are appointed Judges. All know the influence of interest on the mind of man, and how uncon sciously his judgment is warped by that influence. To this bias add that of the esprit de corps, of their peculiar maxim and creed that it is the office of a good Judge to enlarge his jurisdiction, and the absence of responsibility ; and how can we expect impar tial decision between the General government, of which they are themselves so eminent a part, and an individual state, from which they have nothing to hope or fear ? We have seen, too, that, con trary to all correct example, they are in the habit of going out of the question before them, to throw an anchor ahead, and grapple further hold for future advances of power. They are then, in fact, the corps of sappers and miners, steadily working to undermine the independent rights of the states, and to consolidate all power in the hands of that government, in which they have so important a free- hold estate. But it is not by the consolidation, or concentration of powers, but by their distribution, that good government is ef fected. Were not this great country already divided into states, that division must be made, that each might do for itself what con- cerns itself directly, and what it can so much better do than a dis- tant authority. Every state again is divided into counties, each to take care of what lies within its local bounds; each county again into townships or wards, to manage minuter details ; and every ward into farms, to be governed each by its individual proprie- tor. Were we directed from Washington when to sow, and when (I to reap, we should soon want bread. It is by this partition of cares, descending in gradation from general to particular, that the mass of human affairs may be best managed, for the good and prosperity of alL: I repeat, that I do not charge the judges with wilful and ill-intentioned error; but honest error must be arrested, where its toleration leads to public ruin. As, for the safety of so- ciety, we commit honest maniacs to Bedlam, so judges should be

and maniac drunkard, no defence was made. Had there been, the party vote of more than one third of the Senate would have acquitted him.
 * In the impeachment of Judge Pickering, of New Hampshire, a habitual