Appeal to the People of the State of Illinois.
FELLOW-CITIZENS:
When the General Assembly, now about adjourning, assembled in November last, from the bankrupt state of the public Treasury, the pecuniary embarrassments prevailing in every department of society, the dilapidated state of the public works, and the impending danger of the degradation of the State, you had a right to expect that your Representatives would lose no time in devising and adopting measures to avert threatened calamities, alleviate the distresses of the people, and allay the fearful apprehensions in regard to the future prosperity of the State. It was not expected by you, that the spirit of party would take the lead in the councils of the State, and make every interest bend to its demands. Nor was it expected that any party would assume to itself the entire control of legislation, and convert the means and offices of the State, and the substance of the people, into aliment for party subsistence. Neither could it have been expected by you, that party spirit, however strong its desires and unreasonable its demands, would have passed the sanctuary of the Constitution, and entered, with its unhallowed and hideous form into the formation of the Judiciary system.
At an early period of the session, measures were adopted by the dominant party to take possession of the State, to fill all public offices with party men, and make every measure effecting the interests of the people and the credit of the State, operate in furtherance of their party views. The merits of men and measures therefore became the subject of discussion in caucus, instead of the halls of legislation, and decisions there made, by a minority of the Legislature, have been executed and carried into effect by the force of party discipline, without any regard whatever to the rights of the people, or the interests of the State.
The Supreme Court of the State was organized and judges appointed, according to the provisions of the Constitution, in 1824.