Page:Oregon Historical Quarterly volume 11.djvu/112

 106 Opinion of Wm. D. Fenton cial department, voted in the affirmative, and Boise, Logan and Williams in the negative — Olney and Prim being absent. Mr. Bristow moved to amend section 20 (now section 21) by adding the letter "s" after the word "court" where it occurs, and the amendment was adopted. The form of this oath and the phraseology of the first three lines of section 21 as finally adopted is the basis of the suggestion sometimes made, that the circuit judges of the state are under the constitution, supreme judges, and could be called upon by the three desig- nated by section 10, to perform the duties of supreme justices. The first three lines of that section read: "Every judge of the Supreme; Court before entering upon the duties of his office, shall take and subscribe, and transmit to the secretary of state, the following oath : " T,, do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will support the constitution of the United States, and the constitu- tion of the State of Oregon, and that I will faithfully and impartially discharge the duties of a judge of the Supreme and Circuit Courts of said state, according to the best of my ability, and that I will not accept any other office, except judicial offices, during the term for which I have been elected.' " As originally written by Judge Boise: and reported by the committee on judicial department, the oath prescribed was intended to apply only to supreme judges, and as has been noticed, the form was changed in open convention by amend- ment, so as to apply to circuit judges, and the motion of Mr. McCormick to amend the first line by inserting the words "and circuit" after the word "supreme" having been voted down, left the inference that the judge of the Supreme Court "being required to take an oath that he would faithfully and impar- tially discharge the duties of a judge of the Supreme and Circuit Courts," was in fact a circuit judge — after the Supreme Court, was under the provisions of section 10, sub- sequently adopted by the convention, to be made distinct and not to perform Circuit Court duty. The argument suggested