e United States, it
was not without trepidation that I assumed the duties that the
confidence of my fellow citizens had imposed upon me for the novelty of
such an administration attracted attention.

A judge who has to deal with and inflict penalties for violation of law
consequent upon the frailties and vices of mankind encounters much to
soften or harden his humanity, which may have remained normal but for
such contact. His sworn duty to administer the law as he finds it often
conflicts with a sense of justice implanted in the human soul, of which
the law, imperfect man has devised is often the imperfect vehicle for
his guidance; but nevertheless to which his allegiance must be
paramount, even when attempting to temper justice with mercy.

Nowhere is so plainly presented as many of the various lights and
shadows of human character. Love and faithlessness, sincerity and
deceit, nobility and dishonor, kindness and ingratitude, morality and
vice--all the virtues and their antitheses take their place at the bar
of the court of justice and await the verdict, while truth and deception
strive for conquest; an honest son of toil arrested in a den of infamy
whither he has been decoyed and his week's earnings filched; his wife
in tears before you; the clash of prejudice when the parties litigant
were of opposite races; the favorable expectation of the rich,
prominent, and influential when confronted by the poor and lowly; humble
and conscientious innocence appalled when rigid law would mulct them in
fine and imprisonment; the high and the haughty incensed at discharge of
the obscure and indigent. In cases slight, where the justice of leniency
was apparent and yet the mandates of the law had to be enforced, I would
pronounce the penalty and suspend the fine during good behavior. But if
the culprit returned, mercy was absent.

An incident in relation to the suspension of the fine will show that I
did to others as I would have others do to me: A member of the court was
at times irritable and vexatious. During a session there was a
misunderstanding, which, upon adjournment, growing in intensity,
resulted in my committing an assault. The chasm, however, was soon
bridged with mutual pledges. Nevertheless I requested the chief of
police to have charge entered upon docket, to come up at next session of
court, whereupon the judge, after expressing regret that the law had
been violated, fined Citizen Gibbs and suspended the fine during