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    Not Recall, but Instruction

    Now, upon all this, some may be ready to say, “Recall such judges.” But I do not say recall the judges. I say, Instruct the courts.JRLE 4.4

    You recall the judges, and you will fill their places only with other judges as ill-informed on the principles and as precedent-bound as those whom you recall. But instruct the courts, and you can have an intelligent construction of the law and the constitution; and so an intelligent expression of the will of the people.JRLE 4.5

    In the government of the people in this American republic it is ever the inalienable right and undeniable prerogative of the people to instruct the judicial, as truly as it is their prerogative to instruct the legislative and the executive branches of their government.JRLE 4.6

    In this government of the people the Supreme Court is not the supreme tribunal upon constitutional questions. In the ringing words of Abraham Lincoln, “The people, the people, of these United States are the rightful masters of both Congresses and courts.” And further, in his first inaugural: “I do not forget the position, assumed by some, that constitutional questions are to be decided by the Supreme Court. * * * At the same time, the candid citizen must confess that if the policy of the government, upon vital questions affecting the whole people, is to be irrevocably fixed by decisions of the Supreme Court, the instant they are made, as in ordinary litigation between parties in personal actions, the people will have ceased to be their own rulers—having to that extent practically resigned their government into the hands of that eminent tribunal. Nor is this view any assault upon the court or the judges.” And this upon the principle as stated by Lincoln in another place: “I insist that if there is anything which it is the duty of the whole people to never intrust to any hands but their own, that thing is the preservation and perpetuity of their own liberties and institutions.”JRLE 4.7

    The ways and means of instructing the courts are several: but I touch only the primary and the fundamental one. That is: By open, free, and full discussion of the principles involved, to create intelligent public opinion. As perfectly stated by Abraham Lincoln: “Public sentiment is everything. With public sentiment, nothing can fail; without it, nothing can succeed. Consequently, he who molds public sentiment goes deeper than he who enacts statutes or pronounces decisions. He makes statutes and decisions possible or impossible to be executed.”JRLE 4.8

    It is true this is a much slower and more laborious process than is the recall. Yet, it has the merit of being perfectly safe and also of being strictly according to the fundamental principles of this republic as a government of the people. It is easier to arouse political passion than it is to create intelligent and wholesome public opinion by calm, patient, and studious discussion of fundamental principles. And the crowd is ever more ready to indulge natural and political passion than it is to study the Constitution.JRLE 4.9

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