"War Democrats," though the legislature was Republican.] In
Vermont, where elections to the Supreme Court were annual, Judge
Redfield was placed on the Supreme bench and then re-elected year
after year for twenty-three successive years by legislatures
controlled by the party politically opposed to him.[Footnote:
Edward J. Phelps, "Orations and Essays," 220.]

In a few States it is not customary for his party to renominate a
judge more than once. Two terms are considered enough for one
man, and when he has served them he should make room for some one
else. Many a judge has thus been taken from the bench at a time
when, with the aid of experience, he was doing his best work.

Appointments to appellate courts are generally provided for by a
scheme calculated to prevent any sudden and general changes of
membership. Not more than one or two receive an appointment in
any one year, so that the terms of not more than one or two can
expire at the same time. Where judges hold for life or--as is
frequently the case--if there is a constitutional provision that
no judge shall hold office after reaching the age of seventy, the
vacancies will, of course, occur and be filled at irregular
intervals. All this, in connection with the natural tendency to
reappoint judges who have earned the public confidence, secures
to the court a certain continuity of existence and consistency of
view. In every court of last resort in the older States there
will be apt to be found some who have served ten or twenty years
and were at first associated with those who had themselves then
served as long. It is not easy to "pack" a court thus
constituted. If, however, some question of supreme political
importance is looming up, likely soon to become the subject of