The Portland daily press. [volume] (Portland, Me.) 1862-1921, 1864-12-13
The Imuartiality of Justice.


The Impartiality of Justice
Nothino tends more certainly to bring re-
proach upon the bar and the bench than the
Sact-too often illustrated in our country
that criminals occupying positions of wealth
and influence escape the meshes of the law,
while those from more humble ranks are sure
to suffer its utmost rigor. Convictions are
difficult when the offender is man of wealth,
or has family friends to interfere in his behalf
Ali the technicalities Of the law, as well as the
ingenuity and article Of counsel, are brought
to bear, to stave off or defeat justice. The
poor boy who steals pair of mittens to pro-
tect his frost-bltten fingers, or the man VINO
unlawfully takes a vest from clothiers snop
or pair of shoes for barefooted child' is
sternly dealt with. and very likely atones ior
the act by a term OF years OF hard labor Ia
the penitentiary. The rolcking, mischievous
boy, who. without liberty, appropriates horse
and sleigh found hitched at the street side,
for an hours ride, finds himself--as he should
jim the firm clutches Of the law, and there is
no release except upon full payment of what
ever penalty is nominated in the bond;" but
the man OF hundreds OF thousands may liter
ally drive over his humble neighbor, leaving
him and his a mere wreck, and then slip out
because there is no one to pay the expense OF
prosecuting suit against him. A poor man
obtains credit for a barrel Of -four by pre-
varication and false statement, perhaps to save
his family from the aims house, and at once
and without sympathy he is called up to an
swer for obtaining goods under false pretense,
while the very merchant of whom he OBJ
tanned 1t goes into the market and purchases
a stock worth tens of thousands, then sells
out, pockets the money, fails up" makes an
assignment, compromises for twenty per cent,
putting a comfortable ten thousand In his own
pocket, and he is called "smart;;" and as he
rides through the street in his splendid car
rage with his liveried driver, the poor man
whom he has cheated out of his honest earn
ings is expected to lit his hat and do him hom-
age. sH
A young man tribes with the affections of
an innocent girl, who, unwittingly makes ship.
wreck Of her virtue hoping to win his ever
lasting love, and, shrinking from the response
bility imposed by family relations, he leaves
her to travel the road Of exposure and shame
alone; but the law-especially IL he is rot
very rich-lays its heavy hand upon him, aud
compels him to be just If not affectionate;
while rich millionaire, full Of years and ex-
perience, Forgetting that he has family of his
own, artfully lays plans which eliminate in the
ruined hopes, the blasted prospects, the
degradation and shame of before happy and
wellunited household, aud then, by suborned
witnesses, by threats Of impending poverty.
by the most hellish insinuationsz against those
whom he has injured, by pleadingso of soon
spiracy," and by all the Vaccinations that ar
internal spirit can devise, often succeeds in
closing and barring the prison doors thai
should stand wide open to receive him, and
proudly holds up his head in the presence. OF
the very victims Of his passion and his crime.
Such, alas, too often is the result OF legal
proceedings. The small criminal is punished;
the greater criminal escapes. The man. who,
maddened by intoxication, strikes the fatal
blow, swings upon the scaffold, while he who
furnishes the maddenins draught, knowing its
inevitable tendency, looks on, and joins in the
general verdict of "served him rightr' ~
1t is the reproach of the times and OF our
country, that these things are SO common as
they are. The wise and sound maxim, 'juder
damRdtur cum nocens Gbsoloitur" - the
judge is found guilty when the criminal is ac-
qultted--is ignored or forgotten, and even
Judicial eyes too often discover crime only
beneath rough or poverty stricken exterior,
while guilt is no longer intolerable when gid
ed with gold and sparkling with gems.
1t is also reproach that after the conviction
ola rich criminal is once secured. ne too often
escapes punishment. while the poor man is ioi-
lowed to the extreme. Who has forgotten the
case Of the two poor wretches who, a few years
since expiatel their ofenses upon the galIows
at Auburn? and who that remembers the tragic
end OF those two sailors, has forgotten the
more aggravated case of the shipmaster, tried,
convicted and sentenced in this city, and then
released from prison by executive pardon, and
enabled to go across the sea, there to engage
In business as though free from the blood of
his fellow-manl Who can think OF such cases
and not feel mortified that law and justice are
SO prostituted to favor the rich, while ,he poor
are made to suffer their utmost rigor?
1t is said that English jurisprudence is high
er in this regard than ours; that in Britain,
even members of the nobility have felt the
executioner's blade, and that justice sends the
lord and the laborer, ifalike guilty, to the same
penal colony, or to the same ignominieus cell
or scaffold. This is as it should be; particu-
larry as it should be in our country, where all
men are equal before the law, and where OF
ders ofncbllity and privileged classes are un
known. The rich criminal should receive no
peculiar favor. He should have no accommo-
dations or courtesies not accorded to the most
unfriended and obscure. This is due to the
poor man to inspire his respect for govern
ment and a jurisprudence that pretend to
treat all alike. 1t is due to the rich and over
bearing, to curb their haughtiness, and I'd
teach them that the smallest and the poorest
have rights which they are bound to respect,
ana wnicn cannot be invaded with irnpun ity.
1t is due to society, to assure it that none of
Its rights and immunities can be disreparded
by rich or poor, without bringing unon tho
head Of the offender the just retrlbution Of
his deed. 1t is due above all, to justice itself
whose exercise and administration should bo
as impartial as possible, SO that no one shall
lack confidence in its integrity; SO that no
one shall feel that in it he may not find re
dress for grievances and protection against
oppression and wrong.
The New Attarnev General