The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 7 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and PrivateJefferson, Thomas
Philosophy
The Writings of Thomas Jefferson, Vol. 7 (of 9): Being His Autobiography, Correspondence, Reports, Messages, Addresses, and Other Writings, Official and Private
Jefferson, Thomas
United States -- Politics and government -- 1775-1783; United States -- Politics and government -- 1783-1865
Our different States have differently modified their several judiciaries
as to the tenure of office. Some appoint their judges for a given term
of time; some continue them _during good behavior_, and that to be
determined on by the concurring vote of _two-thirds_ of each legislative
house. In England they are removable by a _majority_ only of each house.
The last is a practicable remedy; the second is not. The combination of
the friends and associates of the accused, the action of personal and
party passions, and the sympathies of the human heart, will forever find
means of influencing one-third of either the one or the other house, will
thus secure their impunity, and establish them in fact for life. The
first remedy is the best, that of appointing for a term of years only,
with a capacity of re-appointment if their conduct has been approved.
At the establishment of our constitutions, the judiciary bodies were
supposed to be the most helpless and harmless members of the government.
Experience, however, soon showed in what way they were to become the
most dangerous; that the insufficiency of the means provided for their
removal gave them a freehold and irresponsibility in office; that their
decisions, seeming to concern individual suitors only, pass silent and
unheeded by the public at large; that these decisions, nevertheless,
become law by precedent, sapping, by little and little, the foundations
of the constitution, and working its change by construction, before any
one has perceived that that invisible and helpless worm has been busily
employed in consuming its substance. In truth, man is not made to be
trusted for life, if secured against all liability to account.
The constitutions of some of our States have made it a duty of their
government to provide with due care for the public education. This we
divide into three grades. 1. Primary schools, in which are taught reading,
writing, and common arithmetic, to every infant of the State, male and
female. 2. Intermediate schools, in which an education is given proper
for artificers and the middle vocations of life; in grammar, for example,
general history, logarithms, arithmetic, plain trigonometry, mensuration,
the use of the globes, navigation, the mechanical principles, the elements
of natural philosophy, and, as a preparation for the University, the
Greek and Latin languages. 3. An University, in which these and all other
useful sciences shall be taught in their highest degree; the expenses
of these institutions are defrayed partly by the public, and partly by
the individuals profiting of them.
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