Their triumph made them also lose their heads.
So when the Convention assembled in 1853, they disregarded the pledges which had enabled them to get the assent of the people to calling the convention, and provided that the tenure of office of the Judges of the Supreme Court should be for ten years only, and that the Judges of Probate should be elected by the people of the several counties once in three years.
It is said, and, as I have good reason to know, very truly, that this action of the Convention was taken in consequence of a quarrel in Court between the late Judge Merrick and General Butler and Mr.Josiah G.Abbott, two eminent leaders of the Democrats, members of the Convention.

They had neither of them agreed to the proposition to change the judicial tenure.
They were absent from the convention for several days in the trial of an important cause before Merrick, and returned angry with the Judge and determined to do something to curb the independent power of the Judges.

The proposition was adopted.
These schemes were a distinct violation of the pledge which had been given when the Legislature submitted to the people the proposition for calling the Convention.

Of course it was a fair answer to this complaint to say that the members of the committee who made that report could in such a matter bind nobody but themselves.

That was true.