The Carolina Spartan. [volume] (Spartanburg, S.C.) 1852-1896, 1866-12-06

litical relations. After one years fair ex.
pertinent, it may be found that the District
Court is the desideratum. The Act Of the
last session, "to amend the Act establish
ing District Courts requires essential and
material amendments. to reduce its expcn-
ees and secure it's efficient operation. The
boundary OF its jurisdiction should be more
distinctly defined. The services OF u Grand
Jury, as part of its machinery, should be
dispensed with; the authority conferred on
the District Judge, to examine and dis
miss frivolous cases, renders the existence
of such body unnecessary. There is a
well defined distinction between mlsdemea
nors and crime, 1t is only when the pris
oner is charged with crime, that he is en-.
titled to be tried on prcsentment found by
Grand Jury. Petty larceny, and other
petty felonies, may be declared, by statute,
to be misdcm anors; and defendants, in all
msdemeanors, may be tried without pre-
sentiment or true bill found by a Grand
Jury. The vchire for the Petit Jury
should be reduced to eighteen. In the
District Court, it would be seldom that
two pannels would be required; and the
Court, on such occasions, conld be employ
ed with other business not requiring the
aid of jury. The Jury duty now exact
cd will be very onerous on the people, and,
as the law stands, it cannot be performed
at an expense Of less than eighty thousand
dollars per annum. The modification sug.
gested would reduce the expenses to one
third of that SUE, for both superior and
inferior Courts. The expense, to the
Treasury, of Juries might be dispensed
with entirely, by taxing Jury fee in every
case tried. All traverses and imnarlances
should be abrogated in the District Court;
and all indictments, recognizances aud
other papers, in the Superior Court, not
disposed of, and in which jurisdiction is
given to the District Court, should be
transferred to the District, and made valid,
as it originally returned to that Court.
The District Boards should be required to
make their annual returns to the District
Judge; and it should be made the duty of
the latter to examine the same, and to en-
force the law against them for misieasance,
malfeasance, or neglect of duty. When
the District Judge is interested in any
case, civil or criminal, of which his Court
has cognizance, it should be transferred to
the Superior Court for trial The Court
shonId be invested with exclusive juris-
diction,- in cases over one hundred dollars,
only where the coatract, express or implied,
between the employer a"a employee, is for
agricultural labor. The law now provides
that prosecutor, who institutes a frivolous
or groundless prosecution, may be adjudg-
ed to pay the costs Of such prosecution
Ills is an ample safe guard against ground
amended, that the party making complaint
before Magistrate should be granted a
warrant, upon his own rccognizance, to
prosecute, without requiring security. To
require security to prosecute, is to deny
justice to the poor, the Ignorant, the de-
pendent and the friendless. These are the
classes that it is the peculiar province of
the law to protect; those who have wealth
and friends, can readily secure the protec
ton Of the law.
| Doubts have arisen whether the Supe,
rlor Courts OF Law can take cognizance OF
any offence committed by person oil color,
under the clause in the third Article of
the Constitution, which declares that the
District Court shall have jurisd ction of
all cases in which person OF color is in
terested, or to which he is party The
Civil Rights Act, passed by Congress of
the United States. which must be respect
ed and o5eyed until pronounced unconsti
tutional by the Supreme Court of the
United States, gives the person of color
the same rights in all the Courts
State as well as Federal, as are enjoyed by
the white race; and so long as ~hite per-
sons are triable only in the Superior Courts
for felony, the same privilege must be ac-
corded to persons Of color, notwithstanding
the supposed prohibition in the State Con.
stitution, rs the Constitution of the United
States, and the laws passed in conformity
thereto, IS the supreme law of the land
lfthe Civil Rights Act should hereafter
be declared unconstitutional by the Su-
preme Court, or should it be repealed by
Congress, the question under the State
Constitution might then be full of embar
rassment.
The Governor then recommends mate.
rial changes in the punishment imposed in
the Criminal Law. Murder, Aarson anC
Rape shou d be punished by deth. Mum
I fatnnias HI -.