Page:The autobiography of a Pennsylvanian.djvu/208



HROUGHOUT my professional career I had a vague sense that some time or other, after I had acquired sufficient legal information, I should like to go upon the bench. I yielded to the inclination, however, with great timidity. It impressed me as being a very exalted station and that to him who held it were due respect and reverence. Therefore, no man ought to be willing to accept such advancement unless well assured of his own learning, character and fitness. No other cause has done so much to lower the tone of public service in the United States as the bad habit of regarding those who hold public office with suspicion and treating them with abuse. We began with the magistrates and aldermen, and after destroying their usefulness, the same destructive methods were slowly extended until they reached the presidency. Better sense and a truer philosophy would teach that if the greatest efficiency is ever to be secured it must be by the proper recognition of that which is done well rather than by the condemnation of that which is done ill. Every constable ought to be regarded with the respect due to one who wields to some extent the authority of the state. Display of disrespect is, after all, the outcome of a weak vanity and the evidence of imperfect intelligence. Down to this time the courts remained the one institution in the land which had not been assailed and were treated with a consideration helpful to them in the performance of their duties.

One time, when a vacancy had occurred in one of the courts of common pleas, I met Mayer Sulzberger, who 194