Vermont telegraph. [volume] (Brandon [Vt.]) 1828-1843, 1837-03-01

| nOuIIy operation OF SUBSTANTIVE causes, |
afraid of the penalties of the law, afraid of
disgrace amongst their associates, and proud
of maintaining fair name, they only think
of perjury as exposing them to danger, dis
grace and bodily discomfort. They care
vastly more for what is present, tangible,
real, than for all that is spiritual, invisible
and remote. To refine with such persons
upon the duties growing out of an oath, is to
cast pearls before swine. They fully un-
derstand the discomforts of prison, the
Inconvenience Of paying fine, the dis
grace of being caught in lie, the benefit
! and pleasure of good name; but farther |
than these their minds seldom travel
Called upon to testify, they promise to speak
the truth, and, whether they abjure the AL
mighty, or call down the penalties of the
law, whether they swear or affirm, is all the
same to them; for, in neither case, do they
reflect upon the religion of the act
Now, it is clear to our minds, that, under
such state of facts, a witnesses religious
belief is wholly immaterial to the discovery
Of what he knows,-because he looks only
at the uplifted sword and scourge of the
law. Jew, Greek, Catholic, atheist, pagan
and Christian, stand upon the same footing.
J The essence of an oath is the promise;
and he, who acknowledges and feels the
obligatorlness of promise, whether from
religious or other motives and causes, is
trustworthy witness. No one will deny,
! that the oath or promise Of a witness would
= be just as binding as it now is upon him,
were there no future state and no Supreme
l Being. The sacredness of truth does not
grow out of any commandment of God. 1t
t exists in the nature Of things. Were ii pos
= sible for just such world as this OF ours to
] come into being, without Gods agency, the
: inhabitants thereof would be as firmly bound
to speak the truth as we are; for that duty
is co-existent with the power of communi-
$ eating ideas to fellow-beings, and exists
from eternity.
5 Every rejecting individual knows and
= Venerates truth as the great ligament of
v human society; the anchor whereto the
$ ship of state, with all its precious cargo of
# science, and friendship, and love, and safety,
o. is fixed; the very condition precedent of
our social compact. From the depths and
inner temple of his own heart and from all
the world around him, man, in his sober
mind, discovers the infinite beauty and value
: Of truth, and worships them, if he worship
J hoIh ho ho ~
: Hume, -whether he think there is no God
or find in every page of nature a speaking
Deity,-these considerations, drawn from
the depths of his own nature and from the
constitution Of society, are equally weighty
and equally regarded.
We are, then, safe in saying, that the
mass Of mankind know and feel not the diff
ference between an oath and an affirmation,
but are more moved by temporal than by
spiritual motives that the conscientious
and rejecting do not require the administra-
ton Of oaths, because they feel bound to
declare the truth in all they say, and that,
therefore, the existing legal rule is useless
and inefficient.
From all these remarks, we deduce, and
: again lay down, our second proposition,-
: that it is utter folly to wander through time
e and eternity, in search of every motive,
e which may, by possibility, influence wit
!, ness, when simple affirmation supplies
: to most men the strongest inducements for
f them to speak the truth.
Sd. This law Of evidence is wrong and
= oppressive, because it undertakes to bring
| within its jurisdiction matters Of private re
: Election and opinion. This is a wide de-
/ parture from the rightful precincts of human
!. legislation.
t The law should confine itself to acts, as
: scrupulously as wizard confines his steps
= within the magic ring. With thoughts 1t
a has no concern. "No man." says the adage,
= "can be hanged for his thoughts y but this
e venerable maxim becomes doubtful, at the
: moment when the law ventures into the shsd-
= owy region of imagiDations, conceits & super
|, stition. While it can rightfully restrain form,
= or punish for, an evil deed, it can no more,
e of right, restrain or punish erroneous
: thoughts or opinions, than it can impede
the arrow flight of imagination through the
universe. In attempting to do this, it makes
war upon shadows and spirits, that elude
its grasp, as the ghost of Creusa slid from
the arms of Aneas,
fustra comprensa manrs effugit image,
a Par leVlbus ventis volucrique similima somno"
In some ofour courts, the witness may be
: inquired Of, and compelled, perhaps for the
n first time in his life tn make nuhlic Drocla-