Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1867-10-24

IN ~. 90.
ton shows colored majority. In Charleston, the
colored majority is 1872, the registered whites be-
ing 1886, and the blacks $685. Of the whites 1lS
were unable to sign their names Of the colored,
1856. In Charleston and Columbiaa larger num-
berof the latter class of persons can read and wte
than many other portion of the State; very much
arger number, because they have had facilities be-
fore and since emancipation of obtsining some ed
ucation not enjoyed by their class in all the rural
region of the State, to which I shall advert more
particularly hereafter. In organizing a jury in
Charleston, therefore, assuming that all have paid
their taxes, this proportion would give nearly eight
colored jurors to four whites, and five Of these
eight wotld not be able to sign their names. In
Beaufort, Georgetown, CoDeton, Berkeley and 9TH
er Districts, the showing is even worse. Partial
returns from Beaufort indicate that there are $50
colored and but sxty-fve white voters registered.
This proportion would furnish but one white man
to every fourth jury Of the colmed voters reg
istered in the rural districts, estimate that not
more than five per cent of this whole number are
able to read and write, and very many Of them
have not intelligence enough tocount one hundred.
In Georgetown District there are 4ls whites and
3,4l3 colored voters registered One white man
might perchance be drawn upon each jury, and in
all probability not one of the remaining eleven col
ored men would be able to read and write.
To sum up, there viii be in twenty. three Dis
tricts Of this State majority Of colored jurors for
the trial Of all classes of cases, civil and criminal,
and only FIVE per cent of their number will be able
to read or write Does any country which has es-
tabished the right of trial by jury, fail, by its
legislation, to secure proper degree ofintelligenee
among the jurors? These rules, if applied to the
State Courts, will, presume, be likewise applied
to the Federal Court; and the proportion upon
such Federal juries will be-in Charleston, eight
colored to four whites; in Columbia, nine oolored
to three whites, and in Greenvile, eight white to
four colored jurors. These are the three points
where the United States Court sits in South Caro-
lima.
Can these colored people discharge the duties
of jurors either to the United States or to the
State, to the litgants or to justice? With such
Instruments will not the effort to administer JUS
tice be mockery? Now, if the order had provi-
ded that no person shall be allowed to sit upon
jury who is unable to read or write, or if pro-
pery qualification had been annexed, or if in cases,
civil or criminal, in which colored persons may be
interested, certain proportion of the jury should
consist of their own color, it might not have been
objected to seriously but in its present bearing,
the order is calculated to excite the gravest appre
tensions, and to lead to results which must be
universally deplored by those who desire to see
even and exact justice meted out to all men, Near
y all of the litigation, certainly all of the impor
tant litigation, on the civil side of the court is be-
tween white citizens, and involves intricate issues
of law and fact, as well as sums great and small
What protection can the white or even the colored
man himself have, if his case is to be decided by
jury made up of persons possessing 80 little inteli-
gence that they are unable to read, write, or ci-
pher? With what satisfaction would a Northern
claimant regard an adverse decision made by o ju-
ry, q majority of whom were colored, when the
same case measured by intelligence and submitted
to the judgment of men of experience and educa-
ton, would perhaps have been decided in his IA
vor? Suppose that he is a patentee whose rights
have been infringed, and whose interests-involv-
ed to the amount of half million of dolars-are
dependent upon the keen discrimination of an in
telligent jury called upon to determine some ma
teral difference between machinery or processes Of
manufacture is it not preposterous to suppose that
coored jury, constituted as have described, pos
sesses the requisite qualifications to render just
intelligent verdict? Yet this is but one of the
many classes of cases, which the Northern as well
as the Southern man will be compelled to submit
to the judgment of the ignorant and unwise jurors
created by Order No. SO.
Under the present jury organization Of South Ca
rolina, have no reason to believe that since COL
ored persons have been admitted to give evi-
dence in all our courts any injustice has been done
to the colored people by white Jurors On the
contrary, think it win be established by the con-
current testimony of the various prosecuting Of
fcers of the State, that in criminal proceedings
uries have dealt more mercifully with the colored
than with the white persons tried before them.
Again, the exclusion of the intelligent classes re-
ferred to- is based solely upon their political ante
cedents. But where is the propriety Of making
the politics of citizen, especially the politics
which ruled his action years ago, the standard of
his eligibility to perform jury duty? 1t is very
rare indeed that case, civil or criminal present.
ed for the decision of jury involving any poiti-
cal issue whatever and am not aware that any
where else, it is attempted to exclude intelligence
from the jury box, because Of any real or supposed
obnoxious political sentiments entertained by the
parties whose duty it is thus to serve.
The five fall circuits of the Superior Court Of
this State, which is charged with the trial Of all
civil cases involving amounts above 800, and OF
all criminal charges Of felony and some misde-
meanors, commence their terms on the first Mon
day in October. The letter Of General Candy en-
closing the order above referred to- requires that
it shall 20 into effect Immediately; that the jurors
who were drawn and already summoned at the
spring term of the Court in conformity to State
laws shall not assemble, but that new jury lists
shall be prepared in accordance with the order. In
most of the Districts the term is limited to one
week, and the drawing and summoning ofjurors
under the order will consume much Of the time.
This is one of the practical difficulties in the way
of the execution of the order.
In view of all these circumstances, therefore, l
beg leave, most earnestly to protest against its ex-
ecution and to ask that it may be ordered to be
entirely revoked, or at least suspended until after
the close of the fall terms of this State. Your
early attention to this matter is respectfully In
yoked, inasmuch as I desire to communicate the
result of this application to the judges prior to the
commencement Of their respective terms I have