the crown it was enacted by king, lords, and commons
that thereafter the judicial tenure of the judges of the courts should
be during good behavior. Since that time for more than two centuries
"the true intent" of the laws has been determined, not by king or
parliament or people, but by a judiciary made strong and independent.
There has been no need to resort to force to defend the legal rights
of the subject.

But this security for individual rights and liberties was not extended
to British subjects in America. After the Colonies had so increased in
population and wealth that they were deemed worth exploitation, the
government, among other means of controlling them, took over the
appointment of their judges, in many instances with a tenure during
the government's pleasure only. In the circular letter of
Massachusetts Bay Colony to the other Colonies in 1768 they are asked
to consider whether for the judges of the land not to hold their
commissions during good behavior and to have their salaries appointed
for them by the crown did not have a tendency to "endanger the
happiness and security of the subjects." One of the counts in the
indictment of July 4, 1776, against the king's government was that it
had made the colonial judges dependent on the king's will alone for
the tenure of their offices and the amount and payment of their
salaries.

As a consequence of this experience with a judiciary dependent on the
governing power for the tenure and maintenance of its judges, the
Colonies when they set up independent governments of their own
provided a fixed tenure for their judges in every instance but one.
Connecticut in its first constitution made the tenure during good
behavior, as did Delaware, Maryland, Massachusetts, New Hampshire,
North Carolina, South Carolina, and Virginia. Pennsylvania at first
fixed the tenure at seven years, but in 1790 changed it to good
behavior. The same tenure was fixed for the federal judges in the
Federal Constitution. In some instances also, further provision was
made for the independence of the judges by forbidding the diminishing
of their salaries during their term of office.

The people of Massachusetts, which had been the most harried of the
Colonies, declared emphatically the necessity for an independent
judiciary. Article XXIX of the Massachusetts Declaration of Rights
adopted in 1780 is as follows: "It is essential to the preservation
of every individual, his life, liberty and p