The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Stroudsburg, Pa.) 1853-1911, 1854-02-02


Judge Porter's Charge to the Grand
Jury Of Carben County, Jan. Ses-
SiGn 1854.
In your assembled capacity as the
Grand Inquest, enquiring for the body
of your County, you have solemn and
important duties to perform; upon the
fidelity with which you shall discharge
these duties in a great measure depends
the preservation of public morals in their
purity. ..
1t is not to be expected that the court
can say anything new in regard to the
rights and duties of Grand Jurors. All
that We can do, is to point out the we'll
understood and we'll defined powers,
which you can legitimately exercise and
give some practical instructions, as to the
legal manner in which your duties should
be performed, with the greatest convent
.ence and comfort to yourselves; the dis
patch of the public business, and a prop
er care for the rights of individuals.
The trial by jury is an Invaluable right,
which is guaranteed and secured by the
constitutions of the United States and of
this commonwealth We derive it from
our Anglo Saxon ancestors, ,and its origin
is lost in the lapse Of time which has oc-
Cured since its institution. 1t has been
modified and improved from time to time,
to suit the changes and advancing intel
ligence of society, and its value, as an es-
sential safeguard of the rights of the cit
izens, is appreciated in proportion to the
freedom and information of the people a.
mong whom it is in use. So long as jur-
ors perform the duties which the law has
assigned them, with integrity and intel
Iigence, the trial by jury will be loved
and revered. 1t will only be, when jur-
ors forget their duty or lack the necessa-
ry inform alton, to perform it intelligently,
that we shall have just reason to fear that
this invaluable right may fall into dis
credit, by loss of confidence in it.
The grand jury is properly and en-
phatically said to represent the county in
which they assemble,-to bring together
into one collected body, information from
every part or district of it. From their
/ local position, the jurors will be able to
know the character and intelligence of the
witnesses examined, as well as to speak
of their own knowledge of facts and cir
cumstances which have transpired in their
own neighbourhoods. l. The oath which
each of you has taken contains an aa-
mirable summary of your duties, and by
properly recollecting the obligations you
have assumed you will scarcely fall into
error in the performance of them.
| You are required, First.-"Diligently
to enquire and true presentment to make,
as well of those things which are given
you in charge, as of those, touching this
: present service, which of your own knowl-
edge, you know to be presentable here. y
, Second.-"Thc commonwealth counsel,
your fellows and your own, you are to
keep secret. ."-Third.-"You are to pre-
: sent no one for envy, hatred, malice or
/ ill-will; nor leave any one unpresented
for fear, favour, affection, gain, reward
or the hope thereof, but to present all
things truly as they come to your knowl-
edge, according to the best Of your un-
. derstanding.' @
Keep these solemn injunctions in view,
in all your deliberations and acts. In the
first place, use all diligence in fairly en-
deayoring to elicit the truth from the wit
nesses. sent up to you, in support OF
charges prepared and preferred by the
/, prosecuting officer, in order to make and
return to the court the proper finding
thereon. Again; if any one of your mum.
, ber has any personal knowledge, either
f of the particular transaction in relation tc
!. any other criminal violation of the law Of
. the land, the first branch of the oath re-
quires him to communicate it to his fel
J lows, and if the facts detailed will war
S rant them in so doing, the Grand Jurors
arc bound to make presentment Thereof
to the court. The injunction of secrec.
/. which the secO1M Ma,ech of the oath pre-
scribes, I fear is imperfectly understood
or not always strictly kept. The pro
8 ceedings Of Grand Jurors, the nature o
o the testimony before them, and even TIN
: votes of individual Grand Jurors arr
!, sometimes promplged. This should no
: be. The obligation to keep Secret tn
commonwealth counsel, your fellows
: and your own" prohibits any member Q
IS the Grand Inquest from eter diynlging th
n evidence given before them, the inStruc
! tons of the prosecuting officer or the dis
cussion or decision Of any question b
< the Grand Jurors themselves, or tn
it manner in which any Juror acted 0
II voted npon any qlestlon' There Or