The Newhampshire gazetteer — Exeter, N.H., 1790-10-16 00:00:00, page 1

guilty on his trial.
, In order to secure this tranfcendant privilege,
agreeable to the spirit of oar constitution the Grand
Jury ought to be thoroughly persuaded of the truth
of a bill before they find it ; and not to rest fatisfied
with remote probabilities—a doarine which might
be applied to very oppressive purposes. This rule
is not only warranted by the constitution, but en
forced by your oath ; the firft part of which, makes
it your indifpenfible duty, diligently- to en
quire, and true presentment make, of all such
matters and things as ffiall be given you in
charge.
Now, a diligent enquiry must imply a thorough
inyeftigation of the truth of the fads alledg
ed; and a true prefencmerit, or indiament,
that the fame is founded on fatisfadory evi
dence, not on remote probabilities or bare fulpi-
Gentlemen of the Grand fury,.
IN performing this branch of my duty, I mall
endeavour to explain the nature, and design of
your office—to point out the objeds of your atten
tion—and some general rules by which your en
quiries ought to be directed
By the original contrafl of government, the price
tfprotedion, by the united force of individuals, is
obedience to the united will of the community ; or
in other words, the end of all rightful govern
ment's the good of the governed : Whoever,there
fore, wilfully attempts to defeat this end, aims a
blow at the root of the t^e, % " e ^ foundation
cf the social compad, and merits a punishment
adequate to the malignity of his offence.
A power to purifh offences against the being or
well being of society, must be vested in every go
vernment; othe. wife the aggregate body would
have less po&er than the individuals of it, in a
' state of nature ; be totally unable to proted them
lelves, or to guarantee to the virtuous, obedi
ent fubje&, the unmolested enjoyment of his na
tural and civil rights. In a world like ours, it is
necessary to punilh the vicious in order to proted
the virtuous. This power being common to every
government, the principal difference between a
free and despotic one, as to their code of criminal
laws, consists in the mode of enquiry, evidence,
trial and punishment of offences.
In some countries, the rack, inquifitidn arid tor
ture, are the mode of enquiry, the confeffion
of the culprit, thus extorted, the evidence, and
the accufersjboth judges and jury. After a solemn
farce of a mack trial, a /hocking apparatus^ of
death and torment ensues, at the fight of which;
all our better feelings would revolt!
A celebrated writer in fovour of the rights of
humanity, treating of the impolicy and cruelty of
such conduct, pfopofes this problem, '' the force
of the muscles, and sensibility of the nerves of an
innocent perftin being given, it is required to find
the degree of pain necessary to make him confefs
himfelf guilty of a given offence." Itii our fe
licity to live in a more enlightened country, and
under a conftitutiori, which fays, "no man shall
be compelled to accuse, or furnifh evidence against
himfelf;—nor shall he be held to answer for any
crime, or.offence, until the fame be fully and
plainly, substantially arid formally described to
him." \
The institution of a Grand Jury is the most
effedual check to arbitrary power and oppression.
The origin of this office lies deeply buried in the
obfeprity of antiquity ; its vestiges, however, may
be traced to the earliest ages of British jurispru
dence ; and the institution, itfelf; is perhaps co
eval with the firft dawn of civil liberty. Though
its rife be obfeure, the necessity and wifdoQ of the
institution are apparent. For what greater secu
rity could necessity invent, or wisdom contrive for
the fubjeft, than this—that he should not be cori
vided of any capital offence, at the suit of govern
ment/ unless by the unanimous voice of twenty
four of his equals and neighbours ; that is iri the
firft place, by twelve, at least, of the Grand Jury,
assenting to the accusation, arid afterwards by the
whole Petit Jury, or twelve more, finding him
/X ,H —
The CHARGE- of the Honourable Chis-Justice
Pickering, to the Grand Jury, at tbe open
^°f 'be Supreme Judicial Court at Dover the
THE NEWHAMPSHIRE GAZETTEER.
c '° n °,
-Whoever is not a stranger so the motions of his
own heart, must have often experienced the pow
erful influence that prejudice or interest has on the
mind, in forming a judgment of men or things.—
Therefore, to excite your vigilance to guard the
FROM THE NEW-HAMPSHIRE SPY.
Saturday, October 16, 1790.]
avenues of the heart against these formidable foes
to impartiality, your oath farther requires,
" that you should present no man for envy, hatred
or malice ; neither should you leave any unprefent
ed, for love, fear, favour, affeftion or hope of re
ward ; —but that you [fhould present things truly
as they come to your knowledge, according to
the best of your understanding."
Secrecy being highly necessary to the proper
discharge of your office, your oath enjoins it, as a
very important part of your duty ; without which,
your enquiries, in many cases, would prove fruit
lefs. Were you to reveal the state's secrets, or
your own, it would afford an opportunity to offen
ders, not apprehended, to flee from the hands of
justice, and escape with impunity. In vain, is the
legal net spread in the fight of any such bird.
Secrecy in your proceedings, is not only neces
sary to detest the guilty but protest the inno
cent. If any malicious uxofation, therefore,
should be exhibited to you, it ought to remain a
perpetual secret in your breast; for a disclosure
might fix an indelible stain on the character of the
accused; by which mean the innocent must be in
jured, arid the satanic malice of the accuser partly
gratified. Your oath is felemn—your talk arduous
—but your duty plain.
This being a court of supreme criminal, as well
as civil jurifdiaion, has cognizance of all offences
against the conßitution and laws of the state ; but,
your enquiries are confined to offences committed
within the body of this county ; such as treason,
petty treason, mifprifon of treason, murder, man
slaughter, arson, rape, robbery, burglary, theft,
riots, routs, unlawful assemblies, and breaches of
the peace; the not repairing high-ways, the not
providing for the fopport of public schools, as the
law requires; in short to all crimes, misdemean
ors and breaches of the peace, committed within
the county.
The reason giveri b, Solon for not providing a
law against paracide, might be assigned for not
compelling a free and enlightened people to keep
schools, namely, that he thought it impossible any
could be guilty of so unnatural a barbarity. O,e
would conceive it equally necessary to make a
law requiring a parent to love his children ; for
the fame affection, duly regulated, would prompt
him to provide for their infruaion; this is a duty
every parent owes to his offspring—every citizen
to his country—and ever, man to his God. If
a child should be bro't up without a common edu
cation, it is more than probable he must drudge
through life, become the servant to all—the dupe
and sport of the crafty atd designing. Though
knowledge albne, may better the head more than
the heart, yet, without it, the heart cannot be,
good. An early and good education is the most
probable mean to preserve a child from the devious
paths of vice, and lead him in those of reditude—
"Train up a child in the way he should go,& when
he is old he will not depart from it."
Having glanced at the natural and moral confer
quences of this cruel negled, let us for a moment
advert to the political. If knowledge and learn
ing, generally diffufed through a community, be
essential to the preservation of a free government,
then the want of these, must inevitably prove its
deftruftion. Where ignorance prevails, tyranny
triumphs; for the truth of which we have the
Concurrent testimony of ancient and modern hifto
ry, confirmed by our own observation. Can we
then negled the education of the rising generation,
the hope of our land, When their and our all, so
greatly depends upon it? Let us rouse from our
supineness, and emulate each other in promoting
the means, and cherilhing the interest of literature !
Did America ever need then of learning and
knowledge more than at the present juncture! Or
will the period shortly arrive, when (he will no
longer want such charaders to fill the various de
partments in the national or state government?
Let it never more be said, that New-Hampshire,
who has distinguished herfeff for her bravery, will
soon loose her weight in the political scale, and
with it, her liberty; through her inattention to
this momentous ebjed—<he education of her riling
offspring!
Having gained a rank among the nations of the
earth, and purchased our liberties at an immense
expense of blood and treasure, let us exert our
selves to transmit both, unimpaired, to a well in
formed posterity, with a rational profpea, that
they will bequeath the fame as an ineflima.
ble pearl, to theirs, and to generations yet un
born.
.Gentlemen,
You will now retire, and, I trust, under a serious
Published by Ft. Ranlet, in the Main Street, Exeter.
sense of the importance of your office, and with a
fixed resolution faithfully to discharge the duties
of it. Ifin the performance of your duty, any
difficulties should occur, the court will endeavour
to remove them.
Gentlemen of the Grand Jury,
YOUR kind felicitations on my appointment
to the office of Chief Justice, and benevolent
wishes for the restoration of my health, demand
toy most unfeigned thanks.
I am happy to find my charge approved by so ve
ry refpe&able an inquest—l (hall be more so, if it
affords you any assistance in the performance of
your duty, which was the great obje& I had
Strafford, ff. • To the Hon. John Pickering,
Esquire, Chief Justice of the Superior Court of
Judicature for the state of New- Hampshire
THE Grand Jury for the body ofthe county of
Strafford, beg leave to congratulate your
Honour upon your appointment of Chief Justice
of the Superior Court of Judicature within this
State.
every citizen.
The Grand Jury would take this opportunity of
returning you their sincere thanks for the learned
and elegant charge you have been pleased to de
liver them, in which the nature and design of their
office is so fully displayed, and the necessary direc
tion for regulating their enquiries so clearly de
lineated—they wish to assure your Honour and the
Court, that according to the best of their under
standing, they (hall ftriftly adhere to the solemn
oath they have taken, and discharge the arduous
trust repoled in them, with diligence and fidel
ity'
They would beg leave to assure you, of their
warmest wishes for your restoration to health, and
their most ardent desires that you may long con
tinue as great an ornament to the bench, as you
have, heretofore, been at the bar.
By order, and in behalf of the
Grand Jury,
THOMAS SHANNON, Foreman:
Vo the foregoing, his Honour was pleased to make the
following reply.
The addition of a gentleman to the bench,
Whose legal and political abilities —Whose justice
and impartiality are so universally known and
allowed, cannot fail of exciting joy in the breast of
in viewi
THE late Col. V—-m, in some of
his travels had formed an ac
quaintance with some Indian Chiefs,
who he invited to call upon him at
some convenient time.- —Upon a cer
tain time the Chiefs called at his
house, where they were politely
conducted into the Parlour, and the
Col. sent for, who was at work in
his corn-field without flockings or
shoes —He soon came to the house,
entered at a back door, put on his re
gimental cloaths, and affixed his
sword to his fide, but forgot to cover
his dirty legs. He then walked into
the Parlour, and after some ceremony,
began to walk the floor, turning back
arid face alternately towards his guests.
—One of the Indiana soon discovered
his legs. The Col. observing that
the Indian was viewing him, said
" well, how do you like the looks of
me?" The Indian anfwerd "me think
you look very much fine, like some
bird." " Ah," fays the Col. pleased
with his answer, "What bird do you
think I look like?" The Indian re
turned " like that bird who catch En
glishman's chicken in the night, what
Englishman call him ?—[Qwfa]
ANSWER.
[Vol. V.— Numb. 219
JOHN PICKERING.