Vermont watchman and State journal. [volume] (Montpelier, Vt.) 1836-1883, 1859-08-05

TO THE FREEMEN OF VERMONT.

TO THE FREEMEN OF VERMONT. /
FELLOW CITIZENS The weakness and
wickedncss of man has. in the lapse Of ages,
drawn out this disgraccful provorb-"ln
peace, prepare for war; when there should
be no war. But it might be less objection
able if it always carried with it this other sa-
gacious maxim-"Peaco hath her victories no
less renowned than war
We live in Commonwealth renowned for
its intelligence, It's love of freedom, and the
republican simplicity Of its institutions. But
inasmuch as nothing human is perfect, my
object in this address is to arouse you to an
improvement in your condition. by lessening
your taxes, giving greater security to your
individual rights, and increasing the tone of
public and private morality and virtue in the
State. We arc in the dead and heavy middle
of that armistice which invariably follows our
Presidential battles; and what better time
can we have to look about us and advance
our steps in tho race of human progress
The expenses of our State government are
getting to be enormous, and prone. from some
cause to an annual increase disproportionatc
to our increase of population Our Judicial
system causes nearly one-half the expenses
Of our civil government; and is there not
duced Judges we must have, and the best
our State affords, and we should pay them
literally to secure the best talents but our
Side-Judges Of the County Courts, except as
mere police officers, are sinocures, placed
there in the main to pay them for partisan
services. But the most alarming. anti-rcpub-
lican, inhuman and unchrstian portion OF our
Judicial system is that tribunal we call
"Grand Jury This was an institution a.
doptod by our Anglo-Saxou ancestors to shield
the individual subject from the despotsm and
persecution OF the Crown, and our colonial
fathers brought with them all the good and
bad features of the judicial code Of the coun-
try from whence they came, and among the
latter was this secret tribunal Look at il.
Does the genius Of our Institutions, or the
just Investigations Of individual OF public
rights, demand a secret. one sided, eXparte
investigation; Nothing Of the kind. A
christian community requires the admnistra-
ton of Justice with open doors Shall ma
licious individual. who happens. by accident
or design, to be empannelcd upon Grand
Jury, and malicious witness in conclayc
sworn to secrecy, be permitted to stab the
reputation and blast the hopes Of unsuspcct-
ing nHocepceP Forbid il, Freemen of YER
mont Forbid it Heaven Some three or
four years since, in one of our counties, n
worthy citizen was indicted for a high crime,
and at a subsequent term Of the court. a new
ly elected States Attorney, when trying to
prepare the case for trial, could find no person
who would admit he was ever in the Grand
Jury room as a witness on that subject
Hence. the prosecution was abandoned, but
malice had been gratfed, and innocence bad
been prosecuted without redress. These tri-
bunals arc not only useless, but FIR worse
than useless, for they tend to detcrioratc the
/ public morals, and increase the draft upon
your pockets to an amount of some fifteen
thousand dollars annually And how is this
institution looked upon abroad, in the prog
ress of the age in which VIC live Are You
aware that the mass of mind which formed
tho Constitution of the new State of Mime
sofa prohibited the Legislature from ever au-
thorizing Grand Jury. and the young and
prosperous State of Michigan has enacted a
law, which went into operation on the 10Th
of February last, substantially abolshing
the institution; JONAS GALUsHA.
Shattsbury, Jdy 80, 1859.