Southport telegraph. [volume] (Southport, W.T. [i.e. Kenosha, Wis.]) 1840-1850, 1846-06-23
LEGAL iES.-PLEAD.
INGS

of law is the present practise of pleading.
To be well skilled in drawing dec ara,ion
requires great ingenuity in the telling of
falsehoods. The written declaration o. a
plaintiff in an action seldom or never states
a fact, and TO save the trouble of writing
over sheet Of toolscap, printed blank
forms are generally used: these printed
forms answer for any state of facts within
certain class of actions, by merely filling
up names and dates. A simple statement
of facts in declaration precisely as they
occurred, is moi deemed good and sufficient
in cur fiction loving courts; great num-
Der of Misrepresentation and peryersons
Of the truth must must be inserted, in order
to gain the favorable ear of the court. Why
is it necessary 10 employ fiction in our
courts, more than in any other department
Of business. in order TO elici, truth and 10
promote justice? Does the physician re
sort TO chicancry TO cnre disease, or the
minister to caumny 10 promote health
tul state of morals? Suppose doctor were
called TO see patient having fractured
Limb: he tells the patient his Limb is con-
siderably fractured, bu! in order to effect a
cure the patient must consider himself af-
fiicted with a great number of maadies-
there must be medicinal appliances for
govt, spasm, cough, dropsy, collie and blood
splitting, TO heal the aforesaid fracture.
A declaration TO recover on a simply
promisory note, drawn up according to the
approved form, contains about as many words
as thedeclaration ofAmerican Independence
by our forefathers, asserting our severance
from Great Britain. Such a declarati ton
usually contains half dozen or more
counts, not one Of which states the fact at
issue distinctly aud correctly. The Plain
tiff AYERS the making of half dozen prom
ises which were never made, and which he
knows TO be false. So too in an action Of
trover, the PLAINTIFF the statement Of his
claim, or rather his lawyer for him, must
tell deliberate untruths: he must aver that
he casually lost the article he seeks TO re-
cover the value of, and that il came to the
possession of the defendant by finding
The forms ofpleading in this case however
permit the defendant TO speak the trurh-
that he is net guilty Of the meanness of re-
iusIng 10 give up piece of property, which
he came in possession Of by finding AS
general thing neither the court, lawyers,
parties'!a jurors cap ascertain from the
pieadihgs what the particular CONTROVERSY is,
or what either party claims, denies,or intends
to prove, but The pleadings are chiefly made
up Of statements in solemn verbosty; mere
legal fictions, fancies, differences and abb
stractions. AS they state things that never
transpired, or bad any real existence, they
certainly can furnish no useful information.
and are necessarily dark, obscure, uninlel-
ligibe-fit instruments of injustice.
Again we say, why is it necessary to
mystify-to falsify 10 establish justice? Is
II not contrary to every code of morals
throug bout the civilized world, 10 employ
ialsehood and misrepresentation for the
purpose of advancing the true interests of
society," Why should untruths be permit
ted in our courts with impunity. while they
are repudiated every where else, where re.
gard is had TO decency and responsibility
We have heard many attempts to explain
the necessity for using the presen: forms
of pleadings, but .hey all amount to about
as much as the assumption, that a witness
cannot tell the truth, however intelipens or
honest he may be, without the help of
member Of the legal profession to pump the
truth out of him. Some suppose that be-
cause fictitious pleadings have been in use
so long, and date back TO so remote peri
Cd, that they cannot how be dispersed with.
A thousand fooleries and absurd,ies were
once in high repute which are now discar-
ded. We have received all our forms of
law proceeding from England, without ever
having made scarcely any changes An
able writer in the Democratic Review Just.
Iy remarks:-"It is to be regretted that the
wise men, who engaged in the glorious task
of severIng the political ties that subssted
between the colonies of this country and
Great Britain, had not carried their notions
of emancipation TO holder height. They
should have declared their independence
no' only ofthe government, bat of the 1ars
OF the mother county"
Wisconsin will soon throw off her terrific
rial forn,& assume tho form Of state govern
men'; this act Of the people will be regarded
10 be the formation of a new government. -
But as pleposterous as it may appear, after
the people Of Wisconsin have formed new
government, they will still have entailed
upon them the laws, forms Of proceeding.
rules of practise, and decisions Of the mo-
narchial courts of Great Britain, as contain