Wendell Phillips, Theodore C. Pease, Speeches, Lectures and Letters of Wendell Phillips: Volume 1

[174] Democratic,and every one of them asserts, without a dissenting voice, that this provision is inserted for the purpose of giving the Legislature the power to remove a judge, when he has not violated any law of the Commonwealth. In addition to this, Gentlemen, I will read the remark of Chief Justice Shaw, when he was counsel for the House against Judge Prescott, of Groton, who was removed on impeachment, you will recollect, in 1821. On that occasion, Judge Shaw was counsel for the House of Representatives, and made some comments on this provision, which, as his opinion has a deserved weight in matters of constitutional law, it is well to read here. He says:--

“It is true, that, by another course of proceeding, warranted by a different provision of the Constitution, any officer may be removed by the Executive, at the will and pleasure of a bare majority of the Legislature; a will which the Executive in most cases would have little power and inclination to resist. The Legislature, without either allegation or proof, has but to pronounce the sic volo, sic jubeo, and the officer is at once deprived of his place, and of all the rank, the powers and emoluments, belonging to it. And yet, perhaps, this provision (whether wise or not I will not now stop to consider) is hardly sufficient to justify the extraordinary alarm which has been so eloquently expressed for the liberty and security of the people, or to affix upon the Constitution the charge of containing features more odious and oppressive than those of Turkish despotism. The truth is, that the security of our rights depends rather upon the general tenor and character, than upon particular provisions of our Constitution. The love of freedom and of justice,--so deeply engraven upon the hearts of the people, and interwoven in the whole texture of our social institutions,--a thorough and intelligent acquaintance with their rights, and a firm determination to maintain them,--in short, those moral and intellectual qualities without which social liberty cannot exist, and over which despotism can obtain no control,--these stamp the character and give security to the rights of the free people of this ”