The New Orleans crescent. [volume] (New Orleans, La.) 1866-1869, 1868-01-05
NUMBER 1872.

from his appointment by General Sheridan under
the acts Of Congress.
in the parish of Orleans. that they must be taken
from the qualified voters, and that the grand jury
shall be taken quarterly from the panel, the
sheriff and clerk selecting the grand jurors, SUBJ
court. The law was, Mr.. Field urged, that juries.
grand and petit, should be drawn from the
qualified voters of the parish. Gentlemen
might argue against him that military orders
changed the law, but he did not think
that either General Sheridan or General
Hancock intended T. change the law. 1t was
matter Of great doubt, until the supplemental act
was passed, if the original reconstruction act. au-
tboTzed commanders In "rebel States" to re-
move State officers, even, and Congress itself
seized with that doubt thought proper to pass an
act, the effect of which was to confirm the reno
va made by Gen. Sheridan. of officers "obnox-
ious TO reconstruction.n The great question in
this connection was what was the para
mount law in Louisiana General Han
cock when he assumed command here
issued an order, which Mr.. Field said might be
regarded as s,sort Of manifesto TO the people,
North end South, which bad been commended
be certain presses, and which the president had
submitted 10 Congress approvingly, but that order
did bet direct any Interpretation of the law. The
law to jurors was left, like all other laws. to
the judgment Of the courts, and the order of Gen.
Hancock in regard to jurors simply vacated the
der of Gen. Sheridan, nothing more. without at
tempting TO lay down rule for the courts. Butthe
order OF Gen. Sheridan, requiring jures to be taken
from the reconstruction registration, was not o
making Of law; il was only an enunciation of
law. Gen. Sheridan only did what the act of
Congress had already done. The civil rights bill
had an important bearing on this matter, for il de-
clsred the colored people to be citizens of the
United States, and being citizens OF the United
States. they were citizens of this and every other
State of the Union. They had the same rights.
personal and political, as the whites
had, and there was no right more
important to the citizen than the right Of sitting
jury Of peers-.a jury not taken from a part,
but from the whole people. Mr.. Field
then read the civil rights bill to show
that Congress intended that people should
be regarded, in the matter of citizenship.
without distinction of race or color, and argued
that il was the duty Of judicial tribunals to en-
force the equality, which he contended was con-
templated by the act Unless the laws of the
State, or the Constitution of the State
even, were taken to be superior and as
overriding the acts Of Congress for recon-
strueton, there was no other ground but that the
black man, as well as the white man, was
a qush6ed eector, and should be in the Jury box
sshe was at the ballot box. The title OF the re-
construction act itself showed that State govern
ments existed by sufieIance in the "rebel States"
and directed that in all elections that may be held
in those rebel States, no person should be entitled
TO vote unless be was admitted to registration.
Neither Gen. Sheridan nor Gen. Hancock could
ch' nge this law-their Office was to administer it.
The rieht Of the colored people to vote was not
a.
gress under which they became voters was para
mount TO any State law. Gen. Hancock himself
held his place under the reconstruction act,
and be was bound TO carry out that act to the
very etter. 1t would be anomalous to say
that eolored people should have the right 10
vote, tie right TO hold ofice-that they could be
aldermen, legislators and judges-and yet could
not sit on jdry. The jury right was one Of the
dearest rights of the citizen. IL had been con-
eeded under the common law-the law which
ruled most of these United States; it had been con-
eeced in England that foreigner was entitled to
Jury of half his countrymen; and should the ma
tive colored man here be denied the right of be-
IN g tried by his peers?
Mr.. Field continued his argument at consider.
able length celebrating the ideas presented ia the
above sketch of his remarks. He closed with a
suggestion that If John Minor Bolts could, with
out disgust, sit with negroes grand juror
in Richmond; if Chief Justice Chase could
recognize colored people 10 Virginia and North
Carolina as jurors, and IL Judge Durel, as Judge
of the United etates District Court could receive
coored jurors in his court here, it did not be-
come people here TO be nauseaied when colored
people entered temples of justice as jurors.
Mr.. Lynch, the attorney general, responded first
to Mr.. Fields argument. He contended that the
grand jury discharged was not legally embodied,
because the sheriff and the clerk of the court had
not selected the members. AS the law officer Of
the State, he ives uneasy lest the Indictments
found by grand jury constituted in that way
should be set aside by the Supreme Court, and
therefore be acquiesced in the dissolution Of the
jury, which he conceived to have been unlawfully
impaneled. IL was his duty not TO endapger his in
dictments. He had a desire to see intelligent
colored men IS jurors but only in lawful man.
Eer. He believed the time was coming and would
come seon, when the black man would sit upon
juries as well as the white man. Mr.. Lynch
said that his life in this city would give the lie to
any idea that he was actuated by prejudice or an
tag onism TO the colored race. If the grand jury
which had been discharged had been composed OF
the wealthiest and most aristocTatic white citi-
ff the State hs wOuld hava haan
precisely the same. General Sheridan had
an undoubted right to direct the courts to have
colored men on the juries but his order was con-
{ t'adictory, in as much as it closed by saying
that what he wished done should be done in ac-
coIdsnce with the laws of the State. The laws
Of the State did not recognize the colored man as
voter, and not being voter, he could not be 3
Juror Whaf was said about trial by peers was
lot ereume entative. The white man was the
Juror uLder the law. IL be was not the peer of
the coloTed man. he was either his inferior or
his superior. This talk about "peersn was Of
val ne signifcation. In the same strain IL might
be demanded by q druDkRrd that he should be
tried by drunkard Mr.. Lynch said he would
defend the cOlOred man as he would defend dFvery
other man in his rights, but an anxiety to be on
inries, from whatever side IL came, excited his
suspicious, for men of respectability and men
with occupations Stunned that duty of the citi-
zen and when the onerous duty was sought,
he thought there was something wrong IN
the man who sought IL. IL the regis
tly of 1867 the registration made under the recon-
struttion acts, bad been used TO get a jury; just
the same issues this would have been made
against such jury and as be did not see any
thing in ;be reconstruction acts requiring the
"rebel States" TO make jurors Of the voters en-
franchised by the act Of Congress, he would fol.
low the State law in regard 10 jurors
Mr.. Luzenberg, the district attorney, followed
Mr. LyIch, IN an elaborate Argument, which, for
want of room cannot be put lished until the next
edition.
Ilr. Field closed, reitersting his views as ex-
pressed in the opening, and the case having been
submitted, was taken under advisement by the
court, who. il is expected, will give his decision
10 few days
LAwRENcE AND GALVESTON RAILRoAD.-The
frst section of thirty miles of the Lawrence ard
Galveston Railroad was to be opened for business
on the LIST. The road is being rapidly pushed for
ward under the energetic direction of President