The judges in the Federal courts are appointed by the President with the consent of the Senate, and hold office during good behavior. They may be removed from office on impeachment and conviction by the Senate. Any judge, having attained the age of seventy years, may retire on full pay after ten years of consecutive service. The compensation of the judges cannot be diminished during their tenure of office. 220. Officers of United States Courts.-United States commissioners are appointed by the circuit judges to perform various duties, the principal of which are to arrest and hold for trial persons accused of offences against the United States, and to assist the district and the circuit courts by taking testimony for use in the trial of cases. The number of commissioners is at the discretion of the judges. To aid in the administration of justice, either 6. Ohio, Michigan, Kentucky and Tennessee. 7. Indiana, Illinois and Wisconsin, 8. Minnesota, Iowa, Missouri, Kansas, Arkansas, Nebraska, Colorado, North Dakota, South Dakota and Wyoming. 9. California, Oregon, Nevada, Montana, Washington and Idaho. The District Courts, the Circuit Courts and the Appellate Courts were created to relieve the Supreme Court; their jurisdiction is prescribed and regulated by Congress. The court of the District of Columbia exercises a civil and a criminal jurisdiction in that District. The Territorial courts exercise the same jurisdiction in the several Territories. The court of claims meets in Washington, and has the peculiar duty of deciding what claims against the United States should be paid. The United States cannot be compelled to pay anything it owes, but Congress organized this court as a judicial commission to examine all claims against the United States and to report its decisions to Congress. It files its opinions with a committee of Congress, and claims found due by the United States are paid by order of Congress out of unexpended money in the Treasury. Consular courts are held, in some cases, by American consuls in service in foreign countries; the cases decided in them are such as arise in commercial transactions between Americans and foreigners where the matters in dispute are not of a grave nature. State or Federal judges, a justice of the peace or a magistrate may perform the duty of a commissioner. The State Government thus aids the Federal Government in arresting and examining accused persons. It is through the United States commissioner, or the official acting in his stead according to law, that the Federal Government exercises its power over individuals. A State officer exercising the authority of a commissioner acts as an officer of the United States, and not as a State officer. For each of the sixty-three districts the President appoints a United States marshal and a district attorney. The marshal is the executive officer of the circuit and district courts, with duties corresponding to those of the sheriff in the county. The writ of a United States marshal has authority anywhere in the United States. The district attorney is the law-officer of the United States for the district. 221. Justice Secured under the Constitution.-By the exercise of the powers given to the Supreme Court by the Constitution, the people of the United States secure justice. The jarring interests of individuals could not be quieted except by the administration of law by a tribunal from whose decisions there can be no appeal. The United States Supreme Court is our court of last resort, and its judgments have been so tempered with wisdom that it has become in power what it has long been in name, "the balance-wheel in our system of government." Justice could not, however, be secured if the Federal Constitution could not be adapted from time to time to the interests of the nation as they have been recognized by the people. The Constitution makes provision for amendments, of which more than seven hundred have been proposed in Congress since 1789; the fifteen now in force were proposed by Congress and ratified by the State legislatures. CHAPTER XIII. THE PEOPLE AND THE LAND. 222. The People.-Two permanent elements in government are the people and the land. Our civil institutions began to move westward across the country soon after its acquisition, and chiefly in three main currents— a northern, a middle and a southern current. The old thirteen States are the parents of all the States west of them. There is a larger New England west of New England, a larger Virginia west of Virginia. Not only have State constitutions moved westward with the people, but opinions, beliefs, characteristics, morals, industries, habits of daily life, stories and anecdotes, educational systems, styles of building, systems of law, of public roads and of public charities, religious views, names of towns, cities and counties, have moved westward also. Any one who would understand the government of the people of the United States must understand the great law of migration: similar civil institutions follow lines of equal temperature. The customs and opinions prevailing in North Carolina and Georgia are not found in the Northwest, nor are the customs and opinions of New England found in the South-west. 223. The Land is the field of the people's activity. The use of the land is sacred to the people. The land of our nation will in time extend as far as the sovereign will of the people shall dictate. It is probable that only the waves of the ocean, the frozen barriers of the North and the torrid heat of the South will ultimately mark the boundaries of our national domain. |