e is what, according to
the true structure of our courts, he ought to be,--the protector, not
the advocate of the accused; his judge, not his accuser; and while
executing these functions, he is the organ by which the sacred will
of the law is pronounced. Uttered by such a voice, it will be heard,
respected, felt, obeyed; but impose on him the task of argument, of
debate; degrade him from the bench to the bar; suffer him to overpower
the accused with his influence, or to enter the lists with his advocate,
to carry on the contest of sophisms, of angry arguments, of tart
replies, and all the wordy war of forensic debate; suffer him to do
this, and his dignity is lost; his decrees are no longer considered as
the oracles of the law; they are submitted to, but not respected; and
even the triumph of his eloquence or ingenuity, in the conviction of the
accused, must be lessened by the suspicion that it has owed its success
to official influence, and the privilege of arguing without reply. For
these reasons, the judge is forbidden to express any opinion on the
facts which are alleged in evidence, much less to address any argument
to the jury; but his functions are confined to expounding the law, and
stating the points of evidence on which the recollection of the jury may
differ.

[Footnote 22: Was born in New York; eminent as a statesman, and as the
author of a code of laws for Louisiana, his adopted state.]

* * * * *

=_John Quincy Adams, 1767-1848._= (Manual, pp. 487, 504.)

From the "Speech on the Right of Petition."

=_78._= THE RIGHT OF PETITION UNIVERSAL.

Sir, it is well known, that, from the time I entered this House, down to
the present day, I have felt it a sacred duty to present any petition,
couched in respectful language, from any citizen of the United States,
be its object what it may; be the prayer of it that in which I could
concur, or that to which I was utterly opposed. It is for the sacred
right of petition that I have adopted this course.... Where is your law
which says that the mean, and the low, and the degraded, shall be
deprived of the right of petition, if their moral character is not good?
Where, in the land of freemen, was the right of petition ever placed on
the exclusive basis of morality and virtue? Petition is
_supplication_--it is _entreaty_--it is _prayer!_ And where is the
degree of vice or immorality which shall deprive the citizen of the
right to _suppl