Des Arc citizen., 1866-05-19
THE RIGHTS OF CITIZENS.
Hon. JeremtdA s. Block on Military
 1rials of Ciyiltans.


 The Memphis Appeal says, we extract the following important passage from the able argument of Hon. Jeremiah S.Black before the United States supreme court in the case of the "Indiana conspirators:' Y
 I do not assert that the jury trial is an infalible mode of ascertaining the truth. Like everything human, it has imperfec- tions. 1 only say9that it is the best pro tection for innocence and the, surest mode punishing guiltthat has yet been dis covered. 1t has borne the test of a longer experience, and borne it better than any other legal institution that eyer existed among men England owes more of her freedom, her grandeur and her prosperity to that, than to all other causes put to- eether It has had the approbation not not only of those who lived under it, but of great thinkers who looked at it calmly from distance. Montesquieu and De- tocqueville speak oft with an admiration as rapturous as Coke and Blackstone Within the present century the most en- lightcned states of con ntinental Europe have transplanted it into their countries; and no people ever adopted it once and were afterwards willing to part with it It was only in 1880 that an interference with 1t in Belgium provokeda successful insurrec- ton which permanently divided one king dom into two. In the same year, the rev. olution of the Barricades gave the right of trial by july to every Frenchman.
 Those colonies of this country who came from the. British Islands brought this institution with them, and they re- gard it as the most precious part of their inheritance. The immigrants from other places where trial by jury did not exist became equally attached to it as soon as they understood what it was. There was no subject upon which all the inhabitants of the country were more perfectly unan- imous than they were in their determina- tion to maintain this great right unim-
 I No co post facto law shall be passed. No man shall be answerable criminally for any act which was not defined and made punishable as crime by some law in force at the time when the act was done
 2. For an act which is criminal he can- not be arrested without judicial warrant founded on proof of probable cause. He shall not be kidnapped and shut up on the mere report of some base spy who gathers the materials of false accusation by crawling into his house and listening at the keyhole of his chamber door
 3. He shall not be compelled to testify against himself He may be examined before he is committed, and tell his own story if he pleases; but the rack shall be put out of sight, and even his conscience shall not be tortured; nor shall his unpub | lished papers be used against him, as waf done most wrongfully in the case of Alger non Sydney. s, f. ueshall be entitled to speedy trial not kept in prison for an indefinite tim' without the opportunity of vindicating hi innocence.
 5. He shall be informed of the accusa tion, its nature and grounds. The publl' accuser must put the charge into the form of a legal indictment, so that the part, can meet it full in the face.
 6. Even to the indictment he need no answer unless grand jury, after hearing the evidence, shall say upon their oath that they believe it to be true.
 z Then comes the trial, and it must b before regular court, of competent jurls ction, ordained and established for tn