Des Arc citizen., 1866-05-19

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 S. His guilt or innocence shall be dc tennined by an impartial jury. These English words are to be understood in their English sense, as they mean that the jurors shall be fairly selected by a sworn officer from among the peers of the party, residing within the ocaljurisdiction of the court. When they are calledinto.the box he can purge the panel of all dishonesty, prejudice, personal enmity and ignorance by certain number of peremtory chal- lenges, and as many more challenges as he can sustain by showing reasonable cause
 9. The trial shall be public and open, that no underhand advantage might be ta- ken. The party shall be confronted with the witnesses against him, have compulso- ry process for his own witnesses, and be entitled to the assistance of counsel in his defense
 10 After the evidence is heard and dis cussed, unless the jury shall, upon their oaths, unanimously agree to surrender him up into the hands of the court as a guilty man, not a hair of his head can be touched by way of punishment.
 II After verdict of guilty he is still protected No cruel or. unusual punish ment shall be inflicted, nor any punish ment at all, except what is annexed by the law to his ofense. It cannot be doubted for moment that if a person convicted of an offense not capital were to be hung on the order of judge, such judge would be guilty of murder as plainly asif he should come down from the bench, tuck up the sleeves of his gown, and let out the prison CTS blood with hisow hand.
 12. After all is over, the law continues to spread it's guardianship around him. Whether he is acquitted or condemned, he shall never again be molcsted for that of fense No man shall be twice put in jeo- pardy of life or limb for the same cause ! These rules apply to all criminal prose- cutions. But ill addition to these, certain special regulations were. required for trea- son-the one great politeal charge under which more innocent men have fallen than any other. A tyrannieal government calls everybody traitor who shows the least unwillingness to be a slave The party in power never fails, when 1t can, to stretch the law or that subject by construction, so as to cover its honest and conscientious op- ponent In the absence of a constitutions al provision 1t was justly feared that stat utes might be passed which would put the lives of the most patriotic citizens at the mercy of the basest minions that skulk un- der the pay of the executive. Therefore definition to treason was given in the fundamental law, and the legislative au- thority could not enlarge it to serve the purpose of partisan malice The crime was also described, so that prejudice and enmity might have no share in the convic- tion. And lastly, the punishment was so limited that the property of the party could not be confiscated and used to reward the agents and prosecutors, or strip his family of their substance.
 If these provisions exist in full force, unchangeable and irrepealable, then we are not hereditary bondsmen. Every citi- zen may safely pursue his lawful calling in the open day; and at night, if he is con- scious of innocence, he may lie down in security and sleep the sound sleep of free man.
 say they are in force, and they will re- main in force. We have not surrendered them, and we never will If the worst comes to the worst we will look to the liv- ing God for his His help, and defend our rights and the rights of our children to the last extremity, Those men who think we can be subjugated and abjected to the condition of mere slaves are wholly mista- ken. The great race to which We belong has not deyenerated so fatally.
 paired. An attempt was made to set 1t aside and substitute military trials in it's place, by Lord Dnnmore of Virginia, and General Gage, in Massachusetts,, aceompa- nied with the excuse which has been re- peated so often in late days, namely, that rebellion had made it necessary; but t excited intense anger, and every colony from New Hampshire to Georgia made common cause with the two whose rights had been especially invaded Subsequent ly the continental congress thundered il into the ear of the world, as an endurable outrage, sufficient to justify universal in surrection against the authority of the government which had allowed 1t to be done.
 If the men who had fought out our revolutionary contest, when they came te frame government for themselves and their posterity, had failed to insert pro vision making the trial by jury perpetual and universal, they would have covered themselves all over with infamy as with ; garment; for they would have proved themselves basely recreant to the princi pies of that very liberty ofwhieh they pro fessed to be the special champions Bu they were guilty of no such treachery They not only took care of the trial by ] jury, but they regulated every step to bt taken in criminal trial. They knew 5 very we'll that no people could be free un
 der government which had the power tC punish without restraint. Hamilton ex pressed in the Fcderalist the uniyersa a I | Al l.