President of the Republic of Texas
The President of the Republic of Texas was the head of state and head of government while Texas was an independent republic between 1836 and 1845. The Republic of Texas was formed in 1836. In the midst of the Texas Revolution, Texan settlers elected delegates to the Convention of 1836, which issued the Texas Declaration of Independence and elected David G. Burnet as interim president of the new country. In May 1836 Burnet and Mexican President Antonio López de Santa Anna, at the time a Texan prisoner-of-war, signed the Treaties of Velasco recognizing Texas's break from Mexico; the authority and responsibilities of the president was similar to that of the President of the United States: to serve the people of Texas, to serve as the head of the military and the state. These were detailed in the Constitution of the Republic of Texas of 1836; the Constitution specified a term of two years for the first elected president and terms of three years thereafter. The president was elected separately from the vice president, by popular vote, there was no requirement to be native-born.
A strict reading of the Constitution provided for women's suffrage, but women and preachers or priests were not allowed to serve as president or in Congress. Indians and Africans and those of African descent could not be citizens; the president lived in different towns during the life of the Republic, as the capital was relocated during and after the Texas Revolution. Washington-on-the-Brazos was Texas' first capital in 1836, followed by Harrisburg 1836, Galveston 1836, Velasco 1836, Columbia 1836–37, Houston, 1837–39, Austin, the modern capital, 1839–46; the position was abolished with the annexation of Texas due to President Anson Jones, who received the nickname "The architect of Annexation" and served only one year and three months. The amount of power wielded by occupants of the office varied tremendously during the nine years of Texas' independence. In the beginning, there was a larger military need than in the 1840s, the president therefore had more power and influence than during years of relative peace.
However, there is no record of any president changing the Texas Constitution. As the United States and other countries such as France recognized Texan independence, presidential power functioned without interference from the outside world, though the Republic allied itself informally with the United States. Several presidents supported annexation of the Republic by the United States, with direct admission as a state. Under the Constitution the vice president was to succeed the president in the event of the latter's death, resignation or removal by impeachment; the vice president was the President of the Senate, had a casting vote in the event of a tie. The oath or affirmation of office for the president was established in the Constitution of the Republic of Texas and was mandatory for a president'before entering upon the duties' of the office; the wording similar to that of the United States' version, was prescribed by Article VI of the Constitution, as follows:"I, A. B. President of the Republic of Texas, do solemnly and sincerely swear that I will faithfully execute the duties of my office, to the best of my ability preserve and defend the Constitution of the Republic."
Constitution of the Republic, 1836 from Gammel's Laws of Texas, Vol. I. hosted by the Portal to Texas History
Cotton gin
A cotton gin is a machine that and separates cotton fibers from their seeds, enabling much greater productivity than manual cotton separation. The fibers are processed into various cotton goods such as linens, while any undamaged cotton is used for textiles like clothing; the separated seeds may be used to produce cottonseed oil. Handheld roller gins had been used in the Indian subcontinent since at earliest AD 500 and in other regions; the Indian worm-gear roller gin, invented sometime around the 16th century, according to Lakwete, remained unchanged up to the present time. A modern mechanical cotton gin was created by American inventor Eli Whitney in 1793 and patented in 1794. Whitney's gin used a combination of a wire screen and small wire hooks to pull the cotton through, while brushes continuously removed the loose cotton lint to prevent jams, it revolutionized the cotton industry in the United States, but led to the growth of slavery in the American South as the demand for cotton workers increased.
The invention has thus been identified as an inadvertent contributing factor to the outbreak of the American Civil War. Modern automated cotton gins use multiple powered cleaning cylinders and saws, offer far higher productivity than their hand-powered precursors. Eli Whitney invented his cotton gin in 1793, he began to work on this project after moving to Georgia in search of work. Given that farmers were searching for a way to make cotton farming profitable, a woman named Catharine Greene provided Whitney with funding to create the first cotton gin. Whitney created two cotton gins: a small one that could be hand-cranked and a large one that could be driven by a horse or water power. A single-roller cotton gin came into use in India by the 5th century. An improvement invented in India was the two-roller gin, known as the "churka", "charki", or "wooden-worm-worked roller". Cotton fibers are produced in the seed pods of the cotton plant where the fibers in the bolls are interwoven with seeds. To make the fibers usable, the seeds and fibers must first be separated, a task, performed manually, with production of cotton requiring hours of labor for the separation.
Many simple seed-removing devices had been invented, but until the innovation of the cotton gin, most required significant operator attention and worked only on a small scale. The earliest versions of the cotton gin consisted of a single roller made of iron or wood and a flat piece of stone or wood. Evidence for this type of gin has been found in Africa and North America; the first documentation of the cotton gin by contemporary scholars is found in the fifth century AD, in the form of Buddhist paintings depicting a single-roller gin in the Ajanta Caves in western India. These early gins required a great deal of skill. A narrow single roller was necessary to expel the seeds from the cotton without crushing the seeds; the design was similar to that of a mealing stone, used to grind grain. The early history of the cotton gin is ambiguous, because archeologists mistook the cotton gin's parts for other tools. Between the 12th and 14th centuries, dual-roller gins appeared in China; the Indian version of the dual-roller gin was prevalent throughout the Mediterranean cotton trade by the 16th century.
This mechanical device was, in some areas, driven by water power. The worm gear roller gin, invented in the Indian subcontinent during the early Delhi Sultanate era of the 13th to 14th centuries, came into use in the Mughal Empire sometime around the 16th century, is still used in the Indian subcontinent through to the present day. Another innovation, the incorporation of the crank handle in the cotton gin, first appeared sometime during the late Delhi Sultanate or the early Mughal Empire; the incorporation of the worm gear and crank handle into the roller cotton gin led to expanded Indian cotton textile production during the Mughal era. It was reported that, with an Indian cotton gin, half machine and half tool, one man and one woman could clean 28 pounds of cotton per day. With a modified Forbes version, one man and a boy could produce 250 pounds per day. If oxen were used to power 16 of these machines, a few people's labour was used to feed them, they could produce as much work as 750 people did formerly.
The Indian roller cotton gin, known as the churka or charkha, was introduced to the United States in the mid-18th century, when it was adopted in the southern United States. The device was adopted for cleaning long-staple cotton, but was not suitable for the short-staple cotton, more common in certain states such as Georgia. Several modifications were made to the Indian roller gin by Mr. Krebs in 1772 and Joseph Eve in 1788, but their uses remained limited to the long-staple variety, up until Eli Whitney's development of a short-staple cotton gin in 1793. Eli Whitney applied for a patent of his cotton gin on October 28, 1793. Whitney's patent was assigned patent number 72X. There is slight controversy over whether the idea of the modern cotton gin and its constituent elements are attributed to Eli Whitney; the popular image of Whitney inventing the cotton gin is attributed to an article on the subject written in the early 1870s and reprinted in 1910 in The Library of Southern Literature. In this article, the author claimed Catharine Littlefield Greene suggested to Whitney the use of a brush-like component instrumental in separating out the seeds and cotton.
To date, Greene's role in the invention of the gin has not been verified independently. Whitney's cotton gin model was capable of clea
Harris County, Texas
Harris County is a county located in the U. S. state of Texas, located in the southeastern part of the state near Galveston Bay. As of the 2010 Census, the population was 4,092,459, making it the most populous county in Texas and the third most populous county in the United States, its county seat is the largest city in Texas and fourth largest city in the United States. The county was founded in 1836 and organized in 1837, it is named for John Richardson Harris, who founded the town of Harrisburg on Buffalo Bayou in 1826. According to a July 2017 Census estimate, Harris County's population had grown to 4,652,980, comprising over 16 percent of Texas's population. Harris County is included in the nine-county Houston–The Woodlands–Sugar Land metropolitan statistical area, the fifth most populous metropolitan area in the United States. Human remains date habitation to about 4,000 BCE. Other evidence of humans in the area dates from about 1400 BCE, 1 CE, in the first millenium; the region became uninhabited from 1 AD until European contact.
On the other hand, little European activity predates 1821. Álvar Núñez Cabeza de Vaca may have visited the area in 1529. French traders recorded passing through in the 18th century. Spaniards attempted to establish a fort in the area around the same time, but did not persist for long; the first recorded European settlers in Harris County arrived in 1822. Their schooner ran aground on the Red Fish Bar; some of those passengers traveled further up the bay system, but it is not known whether they settled up Buffalo Bayou or the San Jacinto River. One of these passengers, a Mr. Ryder, settled at what is now known as Texas. In 1822, John Iiams settled his family at Cedar Point after sailing from Berwick’s Bay, Louisiana. Dr. Johnson Hunter arrived just after Iiams, he wrecked his boat near Galveston. He was a grantee of land there. Nathaniel Lynch operated a ferry. In 1824, the land empresario, Stephen F. Austin convened at the house of William Scott for the purpose of conveying titles for Mexican headrights.
He was joined by the land commissioner, Baron von Bastrop, Austin’s secretary, Samuel May Williams. About thirty families gained legal titles to land in what would be known as Harris County. A few immigrants settled on Buffalo Bayou in these early years, including Moses Callahan, Ezekial Thomas, the Vince brothers. Nicolas Clopper arrived in the Galveston Bay area from Ohio in the 1820s, he attempted to develop Buffalo Bayou as a trading conduit for the Brazos River valley. He acquired land at Morgan’s Point in 1826. John Richardson Harris, for whom the county was named, arrived in 1824. Harris had moved his family to Sainte Genevieve, Missouri Territory, where they had been residing until the early 1820s. Harris was granted a league of land at Buffalo Bayou, he platted the town of Harrisburg in 1826, while he established a trading post and a grist mill there. He ran boats transporting goods between New Orleans and Harrisburg until his death in the fall of 1829; the First Congress of the Republic of Texas established Harrisburg County on December 22, 1836.
The original county boundaries included Galveston Island, but were redrawn to its current configuration in May 1838. The area has had a number of severe weather events, such as: 1900 Galveston Hurricane Hurricane Carla Hurricane Alicia Tropical Storm Allison Hurricane Rita Tropical Storm Erin Hurricane Ike Hurricane Harvey According to the U. S. Census Bureau, the county has a total area of 1,777 square miles, of which 1,703 square miles is land and 74 square miles is covered by water. Both its total area and land area are larger than the state of Rhode Island. Montgomery County Liberty County Chambers County Galveston County Brazoria County Fort Bend County Waller County As of the 2015 Texas Population Estimate Program, the population of the county was 4,530,268, non-Hispanic whites 1,323,437. Black Americans 817,096. Other non-Hispanic 395,206. Hispanics and Latinos 1,994,529; as of the 2010 Census, the population of the county was 4,092,459, White Americans made up 56.6% of Harris County's population.
Black Americans made up 25.9% of the population. Native Americans made up 0.7% of Harris County's population. Asian Americans made up 6.2% of the population. Pacific Islander Americans made up just 0.1% of the population. Individuals from other races made up 14.3% of the population. Hispanics and Latinos made up 40.8% of Harris County's population. As of the 2010 census, there were about 6.2 same-sex couples per 1,000 households in the county. As of the census of 2000, 3,400,578 people, 1,205,516 households, 834,217 families resided in the county, making it the largest county by population in Texas; the population density was 1,967 people per square mile. The 1,298,130 housing units averaged 751 per square mile; the racial makeup of the county was 58.7% White, 18.5% Black or African American, 0.5% Native American, 5.1% Asian, 0.1% Pacific Islander, 14.2% from other races, 3.0% from two or more races. About 32.9% of the population were Hispanic or Latino of any race. About 63.8 % spoke only English at home, while 28.8 % spoke 1.6 % Vietnamese.
In 2000, o
Rail transport
Rail transport is a means of transferring of passengers and goods on wheeled vehicles running on rails known as tracks. It is commonly referred to as train transport. In contrast to road transport, where vehicles run on a prepared flat surface, rail vehicles are directionally guided by the tracks on which they run. Tracks consist of steel rails, installed on ties and ballast, on which the rolling stock fitted with metal wheels, moves. Other variations are possible, such as slab track, where the rails are fastened to a concrete foundation resting on a prepared subsurface. Rolling stock in a rail transport system encounters lower frictional resistance than road vehicles, so passenger and freight cars can be coupled into longer trains; the operation is carried out by a railway company, providing transport between train stations or freight customer facilities. Power is provided by locomotives which either draw electric power from a railway electrification system or produce their own power by diesel engines.
Most tracks are accompanied by a signalling system. Railways are a safe land transport system. Railway transport is capable of high levels of passenger and cargo utilization and energy efficiency, but is less flexible and more capital-intensive than road transport, when lower traffic levels are considered; the oldest known, man/animal-hauled railways date back to the 6th century BC in Greece. Rail transport commenced in mid 16th century in Germany in the form of horse-powered funiculars and wagonways. Modern rail transport commenced with the British development of the steam locomotives in the early 19th century, thus the railway system in Great Britain is the oldest in the world. Built by George Stephenson and his son Robert's company Robert Stephenson and Company, the Locomotion No. 1 is the first steam locomotive to carry passengers on a public rail line, the Stockton and Darlington Railway in 1825. George Stephenson built the first public inter-city railway line in the world to use only the steam locomotives all the time, the Liverpool and Manchester Railway which opened in 1830.
With steam engines, one could construct mainline railways, which were a key component of the Industrial Revolution. Railways reduced the costs of shipping, allowed for fewer lost goods, compared with water transport, which faced occasional sinking of ships; the change from canals to railways allowed for "national markets" in which prices varied little from city to city. The spread of the railway network and the use of railway timetables, led to the standardisation of time in Britain based on Greenwich Mean Time. Prior to this, major towns and cities varied their local time relative to GMT; the invention and development of the railway in the United Kingdom was one of the most important technological inventions of the 19th century. The world's first underground railway, the Metropolitan Railway, opened in 1863. In the 1880s, electrified trains were introduced, leading to electrification of tramways and rapid transit systems. Starting during the 1940s, the non-electrified railways in most countries had their steam locomotives replaced by diesel-electric locomotives, with the process being complete by the 2000s.
During the 1960s, electrified high-speed railway systems were introduced in Japan and in some other countries. Many countries are in the process of replacing diesel locomotives with electric locomotives due to environmental concerns, a notable example being Switzerland, which has electrified its network. Other forms of guided ground transport outside the traditional railway definitions, such as monorail or maglev, have been tried but have seen limited use. Following a decline after World War II due to competition from cars, rail transport has had a revival in recent decades due to road congestion and rising fuel prices, as well as governments investing in rail as a means of reducing CO2 emissions in the context of concerns about global warming; the history of rail transport began in the 6th century BC in Ancient Greece. It can be divided up into several discrete periods defined by the principal means of track material and motive power used. Evidence indicates that there was 6 to 8.5 km long Diolkos paved trackway, which transported boats across the Isthmus of Corinth in Greece from around 600 BC.
Wheeled vehicles pulled by men and animals ran in grooves in limestone, which provided the track element, preventing the wagons from leaving the intended route. The Diolkos was in use for over 650 years, until at least the 1st century AD; the paved trackways were later built in Roman Egypt. In 1515, Cardinal Matthäus Lang wrote a description of the Reisszug, a funicular railway at the Hohensalzburg Fortress in Austria; the line used wooden rails and a hemp haulage rope and was operated by human or animal power, through a treadwheel. The line still exists and is operational, although in updated form and is the oldest operational railway. Wagonways using wooden rails, hauled by horses, started appearing in the 1550s to facilitate the transport of ore tubs to and from mines, soon became popular in Europe; such an operation was illustrated in Germany in 1556 by Georgius Agricola in his work De re metallica. This line used "Hund" carts with unflanged wheels running on wooden planks and a vertical pin on the truck fitting into the gap between the planks to keep it going the right way.
The miners called the wagons Hunde from the noise. There are many references to their use in central Europe in the 16th century; such a transport system was used by German miners at Cal
United States
The United States of America known as the United States or America, is a country composed of 50 states, a federal district, five major self-governing territories, various possessions. At 3.8 million square miles, the United States is the world's third or fourth largest country by total area and is smaller than the entire continent of Europe's 3.9 million square miles. With a population of over 327 million people, the U. S. is the third most populous country. The capital is Washington, D. C. and the largest city by population is New York City. Forty-eight states and the capital's federal district are contiguous in North America between Canada and Mexico; the State of Alaska is in the northwest corner of North America, bordered by Canada to the east and across the Bering Strait from Russia to the west. The State of Hawaii is an archipelago in the mid-Pacific Ocean; the U. S. territories are scattered about the Pacific Ocean and the Caribbean Sea, stretching across nine official time zones. The diverse geography and wildlife of the United States make it one of the world's 17 megadiverse countries.
Paleo-Indians migrated from Siberia to the North American mainland at least 12,000 years ago. European colonization began in the 16th century; the United States emerged from the thirteen British colonies established along the East Coast. Numerous disputes between Great Britain and the colonies following the French and Indian War led to the American Revolution, which began in 1775, the subsequent Declaration of Independence in 1776; the war ended in 1783 with the United States becoming the first country to gain independence from a European power. The current constitution was adopted in 1788, with the first ten amendments, collectively named the Bill of Rights, being ratified in 1791 to guarantee many fundamental civil liberties; the United States embarked on a vigorous expansion across North America throughout the 19th century, acquiring new territories, displacing Native American tribes, admitting new states until it spanned the continent by 1848. During the second half of the 19th century, the Civil War led to the abolition of slavery.
By the end of the century, the United States had extended into the Pacific Ocean, its economy, driven in large part by the Industrial Revolution, began to soar. The Spanish–American War and World War I confirmed the country's status as a global military power; the United States emerged from World War II as a global superpower, the first country to develop nuclear weapons, the only country to use them in warfare, a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. Sweeping civil rights legislation, notably the Civil Rights Act of 1964, the Voting Rights Act of 1965 and the Fair Housing Act of 1968, outlawed discrimination based on race or color. During the Cold War, the United States and the Soviet Union competed in the Space Race, culminating with the 1969 U. S. Moon landing; the end of the Cold War and the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991 left the United States as the world's sole superpower. The United States is the world's oldest surviving federation, it is a representative democracy.
The United States is a founding member of the United Nations, World Bank, International Monetary Fund, Organization of American States, other international organizations. The United States is a developed country, with the world's largest economy by nominal GDP and second-largest economy by PPP, accounting for a quarter of global GDP; the U. S. economy is post-industrial, characterized by the dominance of services and knowledge-based activities, although the manufacturing sector remains the second-largest in the world. The United States is the world's largest importer and the second largest exporter of goods, by value. Although its population is only 4.3% of the world total, the U. S. holds 31% of the total wealth in the world, the largest share of global wealth concentrated in a single country. Despite wide income and wealth disparities, the United States continues to rank high in measures of socioeconomic performance, including average wage, human development, per capita GDP, worker productivity.
The United States is the foremost military power in the world, making up a third of global military spending, is a leading political and scientific force internationally. In 1507, the German cartographer Martin Waldseemüller produced a world map on which he named the lands of the Western Hemisphere America in honor of the Italian explorer and cartographer Amerigo Vespucci; the first documentary evidence of the phrase "United States of America" is from a letter dated January 2, 1776, written by Stephen Moylan, Esq. to George Washington's aide-de-camp and Muster-Master General of the Continental Army, Lt. Col. Joseph Reed. Moylan expressed his wish to go "with full and ample powers from the United States of America to Spain" to seek assistance in the revolutionary war effort; the first known publication of the phrase "United States of America" was in an anonymous essay in The Virginia Gazette newspaper in Williamsburg, Virginia, on April 6, 1776. The second draft of the Articles of Confederation, prepared by John Dickinson and completed by June 17, 1776, at the latest, declared "The name of this Confederation shall be the'United States of America'".
The final version of the Articles sent to the states for ratification in late 1777 contains the sentence "The Stile of this Confederacy shall be'The United States of America'". In June 1776, Thomas Jefferson wrote the phrase "UNITED STATES OF AMERICA" in all capitalized letters in the headline of his "original Rough draught" of the Declaration of Independence; this draft of the document did not surface unti
Crockett, Texas
Crockett is a city in Houston County, United States. As of the 2010 census, the city population was 6,950, it is the county seat of Houston County, the oldest county in Texas. The town was named after David Crockett, who had camped nearby on his way to the Alamo. A family from Tennessee donated the land for the town and named it after Crockett, whom they had known; the town was incorporated in 1837, a post office was granted the following year. Crockett was connected to Nacogdoches by stage service. In 1839 raids by the Alabama-Coushatta and Cherokee Indians forced the town's residents to take shelter in the fortified log courthouse. Crockett was a training center for Confederate conscripts during the Civil War; the railroad came through in 1872. By 1885 the town was thriving with a population of 1,200, the following year a school was opened for black girls, it evolved into Mary Allen Junior College. In 1904 lignite mining started, peaking about 1910; the stands of timber were depleted by the 1920s.
The population was over 3,000 in the mid-1920s, by 1936 it was nearly 4,500. The population of Crockett increased while most of East Texas declined after World War II, it had reached 5,000 by the 1960 census. During this time, one of the first loop roads in the nation was built around the city; this traffic reliever was procured through the works of heavyweight politicians who called Crockett home. Blues singer Lightnin' Hopkins was once arrested in Crockett. In recent years, the economy of Crockett has expanded with the construction of new retail space on Loop 304. Several historic buildings in downtown have been renovated to accommodate new office and service space. Renewed interest in reserves of natural gas in the surrounding area has led to construction of energy infrastructure and receipt of royalty revenues for land. In 1854, A. T. Monroe, a grandnephew of U. S. President James Monroe, came to Crockett from Virginia, he established what is now the Monroe-Crook House, built with brick placed between the inner and outer walls.
George W. Crook purchased the residence in 1911; the house, open for public tours, is located in front of the John H. Wooters Public Library in the same block as the Crockett Presbyterian Church; the Presbyterian Church was established in 1854. The building was rebuilt; the United States Postal Service operates the Crockett Post Office. The Texas Youth Commission operated the Crockett State School in Crockett. However, the facility is no longer in operation. Crockett is located near the center of Houston County at 31°19′1″N 95°27′30″W. Several highways converge on the city. U. S. Route 287 leads southeast 46 miles to Corrigan. Texas State Highway 21 leads northeast 33 miles to Alto and southwest 38 miles to Madisonville at Interstate 45. State Highway 7 leads east 54 miles to Nacogdoches and west 33 miles to Centerville along I-45. State Highway 19 leads south from Crockett 48 miles to Huntsville. According to the United States Census Bureau, Crockett has a total area of 8.8 square miles, all land. The city is within the Trinity River watershed, with the north side of the city draining toward Hurricane Bayou, which joins the Trinity River west of Crockett, the south side draining toward Gail Creek, a tributary of White Rock Creek, which joins the Trinity at Lake Livingston.
The terrain of the town is hilly and contains significant forest loblolly pine and pecan trees. As of the census of 2000, there were 7,141 people, 2,672 households, 1,747 families residing in the city; the population density was 805.6 people per square mile. There were 3,081 housing units at an average density of 347.6 per square mile. The racial makeup of the city was 48.54% White, 44.67% African-American, 0.36% Native American, 0.46% Asian, 0.14% Pacific Islander, 4.78% from other races, 1.05% from two or more races. Hispanic or Latino of any race were 10.50% of the population. There were 2,672 households out of which 31.1% had children under the age of 18 living with them, 38.5% were married couples living together, 23.3% had a female householder with no husband present, 34.6% were non-families. 31.3% of all households were made up of individuals and 16.7% had someone living alone, 65 years of age or older. The average household size was 2.46 and the average family size was 3.08. In the city, the population was spread out with 29.8% under the age of 18, 8.9% from 18 to 24, 23.1% from 25 to 44, 19.2% from 45 to 64, 18.9% who were 65 years of age or older.
The median age was 35 years. For every 100 females, there were 85.5 males. For every 100 females age 18 and over, there were 75.5 males. The median income for a household in the city was $21,455, the median income for a family was $27,069. Males had a median income of $26,098 versus $18,674 for females; the per capita income for the city was $11,708. About 26.6% of families and 33.9% of the population were below the poverty line, including 44.6% of those under age 18 and 26.0% of those age 65 or over. Crockett is one of the poorest cities in the United States. Most of the city is served by the Crockett Independent School District, although a few acres of the city limits are within the Latexo Independent School District. Crockett is home to the Jordan School - a private, co-educational institution operated by the local Episcopal Church, it serves Pre K & Kindergarten levels. They have partnered with Vista Academy, which serves 1-6th g
Judge
Your Honour and Your Honor redirect here. For a list of English honorifics, see Style. For other uses, see Your Honour A judge is a person who presides over court proceedings, either alone or as a part of a panel of judges; the powers, method of appointment and training of judges vary across different jurisdictions. The judge is supposed to conduct the trial impartially and in an open court; the judge hears all the witnesses and any other evidence presented by the barristers of the case, assesses the credibility and arguments of the parties, issues a ruling on the matter at hand based on his or her interpretation of the law and his or her own personal judgment. In some jurisdictions, the judge's powers may be shared with a jury. In inquisitorial systems of criminal investigation, a judge might be an examining magistrate; the ultimate task of a judge is to settle a legal dispute in a final and public manner, thus affirm the rule of law. Judges exercise significant governmental power, they can order police, military or judicial officials to execute searches, imprisonments, distrainments, seizures and similar actions.
However, judges supervise that trial procedures are followed, in order to ensure consistency and impartiality and avoid arbitrariness. The powers of a judge are checked by higher courts such as supreme courts. Before the trial, a pre-trial investigation collecting the facts has been conducted by police officials, such as police officers and coroners, prosecutors or public procurators; the court has three main trained court officials: the judge, the prosecutor and the defence attorney. The role of a judge varies between legal systems. In an adversarial system, as in effect in the U. S. and England, the judge functions as an impartial referee ensuring correct procedure, while the prosecution and the defense present their case to a jury selected from common citizens. The main factfinder is the jury, the judge will finalize sentencing. In smaller cases judges can issue summary judgments without proceeding to a jury trial. In an inquisitorial system, as in effect in continental Europe, there is no jury and the main factfinder is the judge, who will do the presiding and sentencing on his own.
As such, the judge is expected to apply the law directly, as in the French expression Le juge est la bouche de la loi. Furthermore, in some system investigation may be conducted by the judge, functioning as an examining magistrate. Judges may work alone in smaller cases, but in criminal and other significant cases, they work in a panel. In some civil law systems, this panel may include lay judges. Unlike professional judges, lay judges are not trained, but unlike jurors, lay judges are volunteers and may be politically appointed. Judges are assisted by law clerks and notaries in legal cases and by bailiffs or similar with security. There are professional judges. A volunteer judge, such as an English magistrate, is not required to have legal training and is unpaid. Whereas, a professional judge is required to be educated. S. this requires a degree of Juris Doctor. Furthermore, significant professional experience is required. S. judges are appointed from experienced attorneys. Judges are appointed by the head of state.
In some U. S. jurisdictions, judges are elected in a political election. Impartiality is considered important for rule of law. Thus, in many jurisdictions judges may be appointed for life, so that they cannot be removed by the executive. However, in non-democratic systems, the appointment of judges may be politicized and they receive instructions on how to judge, may be removed if their conduct doesn't please the political leadership. Judges must be able to research and process extensive lengths of documents and other case material, understand complex cases and possess a thorough understanding of the law and legal procedure, which requires excellent skills in logical reasoning and decision-making. Excellent writing skills are a necessity, given the finality and authority of the documents written. Judges work with people all the time. Judges are required to have good moral character, i.e. there must be no history of crime. Professional judges enjoy a high salary, in the U. S. the median salary of judges is $101,690 per annum, federal judges earn $208,000–$267,000 per annum.
A variety of traditions have become associated with the occupation. Gavels are used by judges in many countries, to the point that the gavel has become a symbol of a judge. In many parts of the world, judges sit on an elevated platform during trials. American judges wear black robes. American judges have ceremonial gavels, although American judges have court deputies or bailiffs and contempt of court power as their main devices to maintain decorum in the courtroom. However, in some of the Western United States, like California, judges did not always wear robes and instead wore everyday clothing. Today, some members of state supreme courts, such as the Maryland Court of Appeals wear distinct dress. In Italy and Portugal, both judges and lawyers wear particular black robes. In some countries in the Commonwealth of Nations, judges wear wigs; the long wig associated with judges is now reserved for ceremonial occasions, although it was par
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Houston County, Texas
