Judge Champlin

The democracy is proud of its Standard bearer this spring. What marmer of man is he Hon. Levi. T. Griffin told us in his nominating speech. His words, which will well bear repeating, were as follows: It would ill become a lawyer before a political convention to criticise a high judicial officer, as respects the declared law of a particular case. To the credit of the state be it said, no stain of corruption, favoritism or dishonor has besmirched our judiciary. It is not objectionable, perhaps, to attempt to discover the general trend of thought, and bend of mind of the judicial brain. If you will review the opinions of the present chief justice, you will find them luminous, with a correct enunciation of the law; a precisión of statement which is indeed marvelous, and a fulness of thought and investigation which is the very mark of genius. And if anything is to be accredited to the natural operation of mental processes, in harmony with the interest of the farmer, the wage worker, and the industrial classes generally, he may surely hope to be the happy recipiënt of the voice and vote of these. When our friends among the granger element conceived the idea that mortgages on real estáte should contribute their share to the revenue of the state, it was the learned justice who wrought out an opinión of irresistible logic, that the taxation of these instruments was both just and valid. And when by a late provisión of your constitution, you declared that the legislature should fix the reasonable maximum charge of freight and passenger rates on all railroads organizedunder the general law of the state, and having a gross income of $3,000 a mile, it was the learned justice against a dissenting member of the court, who upheld by a sound argument the validity of the act, which reduced the passenger rates to two cents a mile. And still further, it was he, poised at thevery pinnacle of his greatness, with a halo of glory about his head, like a royal crown upon the head of a king, when the general government deeded to the state an immense acreage of public lands, it was he who dared to avow that not even the state could transfer a title to the railroad which the railroad could convey, either absolutely or by way of an incumbrance, to 7,680 acres per mile until the road should have first earned it by building twenty miles of track. Turning from the lawyer to the farmer, for our distinguished friend is a farmer himself, there are many of our fellow citi.ens, who train with the agricultural corps, who work less than eighty acres of land, or raise less than 2,500 bushels of potatoes in a season. This is the pleasure and profit of our learned friend. But turning to the democrats and the convention, he is the pioneer of our party in the judiciary of the Snpreme Court' since 1854. For nearly thirty years our now express a preference for a nonrepublican friends, who sometimes partizan judiciary, would concede to neither a high or a low office if they could help it. His career of eight years is now drawing to a close. Surely we shall not aid in inflicting upon the state the bereavement of his loss or make his place conspicuous by his absence. He has honored the party to which he belongs; he has embellished the learning of the bench over which he presides; he is beloved by his associates; he das endeared himself to the people, regardless of party preference; he is respected and honored by the bar for his patiënt investigation, and his legal principies. He is unostentatious in his pretention; dignified in his bearing; irreproachable in character; courageous in his convictions.