The daily exchange. [volume] (Baltimore, Md.) 1858-1861, 1860-09-10
BALTIMORE.
MONDAY, SEPTEMBER 10, 1860

will commence its September session, with thu
re-opening of the Criminal Court, to-day Select
ed rs its members have been, impartially and hon
esty under the wise provisions Of our recent legis
lation, they will enter upon the discharge Of thei
important duties with the confidence and respec
of the community. They will doubtless feel tn
pressure of a corresponding obligation, to con
tribute, by the energetic exercise of all their law
full functions, to the complete establishment o
the supremacy of the laws, already so happily in
augurated among US. Nothing less will be ex
pected of them, certainly than a thorough vindi
cation ofpublic justice, so far as in them lies by
the strict enforcement of official in tegritv anG
duty not less than the discovery and punishment
Of common crime Under the wretched system
which till lately INSTRUCTED and perverted the ad
ministration Of the criminal law, in Baltimore-o
which system, unhappily, there ere some relics YET
to be removed-the functions of the Grand jury
were reduced, for the most part to a sorry and ine
ectual routine. With tribunal neither competent
nor wiling to instruct them, and certainly i'm
parting to them neither dignity nor elevated sense
of duty they were handed over to the counsels of
the STATES ATTORNEY which they adopted in the
main; examining only the witnesses who were
sent to them; investigating only the cases which
were laid before them, and submitting their judg-
ments, blindly, too often, TO the guidance of the
functionary referred TO, or his deputy,
not only in regard TO the law, but to
other matters lying properly within their own ex-
elusive jurisdiction Now and then the rebellious
intelligence of some independent minds would
for If
circumloculion- Office but the torpor of the Court,
the Cis incrtg or connivance of its officials, and
the general sympathy of the majority Of the jurors
themselves with the peculiar opinions Of the
the Sheriffs who selected, and the States Attorney
who counselled them, created a combination
which it was difficult, if not impossible, to over
come. Thus it was, that year after year passed
by; events transporting all the while before the
eyes of the Grand Jurors, which should have
made the Court and the States Attorney, alike
the subjects of their official action; and yet moth
ing being done to remove or even qualify, what
was at once melancholy scandal and an incalcu-
liable public grievance. Time, however, which
cures so many things, has at last removed the
most of the causes to which these results were
attributable, and it will be the fault of the Grand
Juries themselves, hereafter, if they do not &c
rid of the rest. Their duties and powers are so
ample and at the same time so simple, that with
good will and energy and ordinary ntel gence,
they can commit no mistake and need suffer no
obstruction. Their two-fold function, IS 10 inyes-
tigaH, and TO present for trial. It's extent and
binding obligation are concisely and comprehen-
sively set forth, in the oath which they swear
u You shall diligently inquire and true Presentmem
'mdhe Of all such matters and things as shall be
'gicea y0W IN charge, or shall otherpisc come to
'yow hno,gIedgs, touching this serrjce." They are
not to confine themselves to what is ''given them
Sin charge" by The States Attorney or the Court
They are bound to investigate, for themselves,
whatever ''comes to their knowledge" either
personally or from the information of Others or
from public report. They not only are not
bound, but they have no right to submit their udg-
ment to the opinion of the State Attorney, where
that opinion runs counter to their deliberate con-
victons of propriety or justice. Except upon mat
tiers of law, they have no right to communicate
with the States Attorney at all, and even upon
matters Of law they have always the right, and it
is their imperative duty, when they have doubts,
TO take The opinion Of the Court. Every one re.
members the extraordinary occasion during the
last Autumn-lor ii was matter Of public nooriety
when the States Attorney went before the Grand
Jury, with piled authorities and an elaborate and
protracted argument 10 convince them, that the
municipal election was not such an election, under
the statutes, as to make the crimes against the
right of suffrage, which were committed at the
polls, the subject o. penal visitation. \ Grand
Jury, well advised would not have permitted such
a spectacle to be presented. They would have re-
fused to listen TO such q discussion, or would
have appealed to the Court, or would have
found their presentments against the parties, and
have left it TO the counsel of the prisoners to inter-
pose objections, which part of the business Of
the defence, and no part Of the business of the
prosecution. We allude to this notorious and
Scandalous case because it affords the fullest illus
tratiou Of what may follow, when the Grand Jury
permit themselves to ield into the hands of any
one, their independent judgment and their special
and obligatory functions 1t suggests, too, in the
same connection, an obvious comment upon tie
loose and improper practice, which has grown up
among our Grand Juries Of admitting the States
Attorney or his deputy, TO their examinations and
deliberations. Such practice is against law and
public policy, alike Except for the purpose of
official consultation or at the special request of the
Grand jury the prosecuting officer has no more
busine5s to cross the threshold of the iury-room,
than any other citizen. 1t is not his place. He is
not sworn to secresy, as the Grand Jurors them
selves are, and further than the purposes OF
efficient prosecution may absolutely require
he has no right to know anything that
may occur within its walls. So jealous is the
law of any such official Intervention, that even
the Court itself is not allowed its exercise In
the hands of the States Attorney it is an engine
ofinfiaence and power, unsafe even when he is
most honest and dangerous to the last degree if he
be designing or corrupt. The law therefore gives
him no greater right to participate in the findings
or inquiries of the Grand Jury, than to intrude
INTO the deliberati tons Of the Court
The wisdom and propriety of the rule which
thus segregates the duties of the func-
tionaries who participate in the admis-
traton of criminal justice, must be very ap-
parent, so far as the States Attorney is con-
cerned, for special reasons as well upon general
principles of public policy. The States Attorney
himself like everybody else is subject to the Grim
inal law. He may violate it as citizen; he may
transgress it, as an official. His conduct, in
either capacity, may be before the Grand Jury
for consideration. He may have allowed cases of
great Importance, against political confederates to
60 by default against the State, in his absence
Mr.. WHITNEY did this in the hGbeas corpus cases
of ERASMUS LEVY, and MULLY and GADE, charged
with murder, before Judge BARToL. He may
have confessed plea of mot guilty. in favor of a
notorious offender, likewise his political confed-
crate, whom he positively knew to be guilty of
the crime alleged against hm-gentlemen of high
character and perfectly accessible having testified
to the fact in his presence, in open Court, only
few days before. Mr.. WHITNEY was guilty of that
very misdemeanor, in the case GREGORY BARRETT,
already detailed, with all its circumstances, in
our columns. The States Attorney may, in fact,
have committed other offences in office, more ne
cessarily fatal than even these, TO his continuance
in his position under the positive provisions of
our laws and constitution. On the 25th of Feb
ruary 1850, there appeared in the editorial col
umns of our neighbor, The american, careful
and elaborate analysis of the financial exhibit
''of the States Attorney" as made to the House
of Delegates at its then pending session. By the
statement and calculations of our neghbor, made
up from Mr.. WHITNEYs own report and the off,
cia reports of the City Register, the Sheriff, and
tba Clerk of the Criminal Court II ,,o. ID. b.