Wait Winthrop was a soldier, and was not only in the council, but so
active in public life that years afterward, while on the bench, he was set
up as a candidate for governor in opposition to Dudley.
John Richards was a merchant, who had been sent to England as agent in
1681, just when the troubles came to a crisis; but the labors by which he
won the ermine seem plain enough, for he was bail for Increase Mather when
sued by Randolph, and was appointed by Phips. Samuel Sewall was brought up
to preach, took to politics on the conservative side, and was regularly
chosen to the council.
This motley crew, who formed the first superior court, had but one trait
in common: they belonged to the clique who controlled the patronage; and
as it began so it continued to the end, for Hutchinson, the last chief
justice but one, was a merchant; yet he was also probate judge,
lieutenant-governor, councillor, and leader of the Tories. In so
intelligent a community such prostitution of the judicial office would
have been impossible but for the pernicious tradition that the civil
magistrate needed no special training to perform his duty, and was to take
his law from those who expounded the Word of God.
And there was another inheritance, if possible, more baleful still. The
legislature, under the Puritan Commonwealth, had been the court of last
resort, and it was by no means forward to abandon its prerogative.
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