The southern press. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1850-1852, 1851-07-17


Thaseib pRohabiy ~ ~ eannestsd With liz
samtnisssafson Of lAw In eur odminAl courts
which calls more Loudly for Redress than the ss-
verify and tnjustbe Waited upon the heads of in
nocent peesons tho are detained - witnesses.
Our grand jury have several times called At
tsntton 70 the subject, but no measure of relief
has yet been adopted. Men who are innocent
Of any fault hut that Of having been involuntary
spectatorv Of other mems crimes, arc herled TO-
gether In our prisons with common felons, lv-
ing on the same fare, occupying similar cells,
and in many cases suffering far more than those
VINO are 70 Pe brought to justice by their testi-
mOny. Instances sre not rare where strangers
vlmong the city upon buisness, have been seized
upon BY the police, because they happened to
be passing At the moment where acme seene of
violence was enacted, and not being able to
give bail for their appearance at court NJ wit
nesses. have been hurried off to the lookup
there to lsnguish In solitude or foul society
until the real culprits could be brought to trial
1t would be we'll, now that public attention
has, by the action fthe grand jury, been turned
to this subject, if all the systems of abuse Of
witnesses now In vogue could be essentially
modified. person il dragged to court against
his will, to secure the punishment of q criminal,
OF perhaps. more frequently, TO give testimony
in civil suit 1t would be natural TO suppose
that one who had thus been compelled, at con-
siderable personal Inconvenience, to attend to
= duty 20 onerous, would be treated with at
least ordinary civility and respect. But this 10
not generally the case. After being sworn to
tell the truth, he il besst BY several sharp prac-
titiouers who have made ths business study,
his intellect, to confound his ideas, to perplex
his memory, and, If possible, to 6eirsy HIM into
untnsentional error.
If, in such hands, he becomes so uorried as 10
uttsr seeming contradictions. he is dashed without
mercy es a perjurer. Or il, after spending all
their impudence upon him-after browbeating
and torturing him to their hearts content---the
lawyers are unable to puzzle him, and still ad
heres to his simple story, mark the seeming ma
Lightly with which he is assaulted in the advo-
Gates argument. Ifoic his motives are imreached,
his character criticised or bta<ksned, his most sa
cred feelings ridicttled until he seems monster too
rile 10 be believed! We have known some est-
mable men Of sensitive minds who have not re-
covered for weeks from an attack of this sort,
made by skiful speaker, without a shadow of
excuse for it, save.in his anxiety to sustain a
sinking cause.
II any one thinks this picture overdrawn, let
him visit for a day almost any of our trial courts.
There are one or two where the judges occs-
sionally interpose in favor Of respectable wit
mesa, but in most of them the lawyers have free
license to utter the most scandalous abuse with
out check or hindrance. All this seems to us to
be wrong in principle, and productive of serious
evil in practice It heightens the difficulty of
procuring the attendance Of respectable wit
nesses, as few are willing to submit to such
wholesale-abuse. 1t lessons the dignity of the
Judiciary, and tends to impair the force of any
rebuke administered to wrong doing by bring
ing the innocent and guilty alike into condem-
nation.