no provision was made in the constitution for the election
of a state's attorney or high b.iiliff. An act passed in February
1779, provided " that in each County there shall be one State's
Attorney, and that they be appointed by the respective County
Courts." Col. Setii Storks, then residing in Addison, was ap-
pointed by the Court in 1787, the first State's Attorney of Addison
County. Afterwards the State's Attorney, as well as the High
Bailiff, was appointed in the same manner as other officers.
At the time of the election of the Council of Censors in 1848,
the evils of the then existing mode of electing County Officers by
the legislature, had become more and more apparent for several
years, and had come to be condemned generally by the people. The
nomination, according to practice, being made bythe County mem-
bers had become a subject of trafic between the parlies interested,
and was. subjected to an influence, which could not be made to bear
upon the mass of the people. It also occasioned much delay of th«
appropriate business of the Legislature. Accordingly the conven-
tion, which was held in 1850, in pursuance of the recommendation
of the Council of Censors, adopted the amendment now in force.
This provides, that the assistant judges of the County Court,
Sheriffs, High Bailiffs and State's Attorneys, shall be elected by the
freemen of the Counties, the Judges of Probate by the freemen of
their respective districts, and Justices of the Peace by the freemen
of the several towns. The votes are to be given at the freemen's
meeting on the first Tuesday of September, to be sent to the next
session