Justice, not expedience, must be the guiding light. The orator must fix his eye on the polestar of justice, and plough straight thither. The moment he glances toward expediency, he falls from his high estate.
Interpretation
Justice should guide decision-making rather than convenience or expedience.
In this quote, John Peter Altgeld emphasizes the importance of justice as the foundational principle for action and oratory. He warns that when one prioritizes expediency or convenience over true justice, they compromise their integrity and moral standing, leading to a downfall from their noble goals and ideals.
In practice
During a public speech advocating for civil rights, this quote could be used to emphasize the importance of prioritizing justice over political convenience.
You ask whether a woman should be paid the same wages as man when she does the same work? To this, there can be but one answer. If she does the same quantity and quality of work under the same conditions as a man, simple justice requires that she should be paid the same. wages. To deny her this is to deny her justice.
The doctrine that might makes right has covered the earth with misery. While it crushes the weak, it also destroys the strong. Every deceit, every cruelty, every wrong, reaches back sooner or later and crushes its author. Justice is moral health, bringing happiness, wrong is moral disease, bringing mortal death.
Courts are too distant from the communities they put on trial.
Justice has taken its course and the authority and legitimacy of the legal process must be respected.
The struggle for justice doesn't end with me. This struggle is for all the Troy Davises who came before me and all the ones who will come after me.
Mere access to the courthouse doors does not by itself assure a proper functioning of the adversary process.
Dice have their laws, which the courts of justice cannot undo.
The death penalty is an inhumane punishment that disproportionately violates the human rights of Black, brown, indigenous, and other marginalized people.
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