title to support is standing by his friends. The judge's duty
may be to decide a cause against his friends. Many a lawyer of
eminence might accept a nomination from a President or Governor
involving no participation in a political election contest who
would refuse one from a party convention.

The general sentiment of thinking men in the United States is
that judges should never be chosen by popular vote. It is,
however, an unpopular sentiment. The people in general do not
appreciate the difference between their fitness to select
political rulers and to select judicial rulers--to choose out
good men and to choose out good lawyers. And the people make and
ought to make our Constitutions. Rufus Choate once said that the
question at bottom was, Are you afraid to trust the people? If
you answer Yes, then they cry out that "he blasphemeth." If you
answer No, they naturally reply, Then let them elect their
judges.

Jefferson was the first to suggest an elective judiciary, basing
his opinion on a misconception of the usage in Connecticut.
There, he wrote, the judges had been chosen by the people every
six months for nearly two centuries, yet with few changes on the
bench, "so powerful is the curb of incessant
responsibility."[Footnote: Works, VII, 9, 12, 13, 35; letter of
July 12, 1816, regarding a new Constitution for Virginia.] In
fact, the Connecticut judges were chosen annually, and those not
holding judicial powers as an incident of political ones were
appointed by the legislature. The experiment of resorting to
popular election was first fully tried in Mississippi in 1832,
under the influence of Governor Henry T. Foote, but in later life