*
* I have been informed, however, that in the States which have made
their judges elective, the choice is not really made by the people,
but by the leaders of parties; no elector ever thinking of voting
for any one but the party candidate: and that, in consequence, the
person elected is usually in effect the same who would have been
appointed to the office by the President or by the Governor of the
State. Thus one bad practice limits and corrects another; and the
habit of voting en masse under a party banner, which is so full of
evil in all cases in which the function of electing is rightly
vested in the people, tends to alleviate a still greater mischief in a
case where the officer to be elected is one who ought to be chosen not
by the people but for them.
With regard to that large and important body which constitutes the
permanent strength of the public service, those who do not change with
changes of politics, but remain to aid every minister by their
experience and traditions, inform him by their knowledge of
business, and conduct official details under his general control;
those, in short, who form the class of professional public servants,
entering their profession as others do while young, in the hope of
rising progressively to its higher grades as they advance in life;
it is evidently inadmissible that these should be liable to be
turned out, and deprived of the whole benefit of their previous
service, except for positive, proved, and serious misconduct.
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