The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1869-12-25

q. EDITOR II beg thrOL.

servant. as it exists here, and l may say that L hoid
the doctrine that the law is just. Those who oppose
and would repeal the law, say that 1t is inconsistent,
improper and wrong, to enforce a civil contract by
Imprisonment or hard labor, which by our Dill of
rights can only be done in case OF CRIME that per-
sonal freedom is too sacred to be restrained Tor any
thing short of crime. Now I cannot pretend to give
the LEGAL and technical definition OF crime, anu prob
ably ninety-nine out of every hundred persons,
everywhere, who are amenable to laws, have no
| more idea of the precise legal meaning of the word
- crime, than I have, or the shades of distinction
drawn between offences, misdemeanors, and crimes;
but they have very correct ideas generally, of what
is right and what is wrong, of what is just and what
is unjust. For every wrong done, for every injustice
inflicted by one person upon another, their conscious
ness of what is right calls for repatriation that in
some way the injurer should make good to the in
iured, the wrong done him. The object of all law,
divine and human, is to secure justice, and when it
fails to do so. its object is defeated. If its technic-
alities and definitions are 30 applied, as to produce
such q result, it fails of its object and the common
sense, of the great body of men, who do not compre-
bend its technicalities, or its fine drawn..definitions OF
words, pronounces it a failure, because they do see
that it fails to do justice, that it does not right the
wrongs of the injured, or protect the upright and
! good of society from the aggressions OF the evil dis
pOScu-liS
Now what are the obligations and requirements of
this law, and what are the penalties for a criminal
and willful refusal to fulfill them?
If a person voluntarily agrees to work for another
and then ~wiiifuiiy refuses to fulfill his contract, he
may, upon conviction before a magistrate, be SEN
fenced to work double the time he has triiJ uiIy re-
fused to work, provided, in no case, it shall exceed
one year. If he continues to refuse, he may then
be imprisoned at hard labor, till he will consent to
fulfill his obligations.
If the master is guilty of cruelty. misusage, or vio-
laton ofhis contract, upon conviction thereof, the SER
want shall be discharged from his contract, the master
shall be fined, not less than five, nor more than one
hundred dollars, and in default of payment shall be
imprisoned at hard labor til the same is paid.
Is not this law just? Does not every mans in
herent consciousness of right approve of the repara-
ton enforced upon the pilifui covenart breaker and
,rrong doer, whether he be master or servant?
God has implanted within us such an innate sense
Of justice that when we hear of a wrong done by
one to another, our very nature instinctively calls
for redress from the injurer to the injured. The
very law of our being demands it. The safety of
society forbids our ignoring the demand. for whilst
in the expressive language of scripture C the law is
not for the righteous % yet the law is, to protect the
righteous from the wicked. The great body Of men
practically live without law, living under it, but
having no occasion to appeal to it, unless their rights
are invaded by the wicked. The great body of men,
divided into employers and employed, governed by
their own consciousness of right, move quietly along
in the discharge of their duties, and never think of
the law, but only of fulfilling their duties as men,
until some aggression is made upon them by the un-
principled, to restrain whom the law was made.
Whilst not one in o hundred understands the tech
nicalities, s~inuosities or nice distinctions of law, yet
ninety-nine in every hundred have very correct
ideas of justice, and feel that it demands that every
person, WanfonIy injured in person or property,
should have some redl IS from the aggressor. and
that the PREPARATION should be measured by the ex-
tent of the injury done.
This law simply er sorces such redress for a dam
age tDilyuAy done, as the nafipe sense of justice in
all men demands. Every man feels that something
is due to the injured from the injurer. And that
there should be some reiress to the employer from
the laborer ~acilfuiy violating a voluntarily made
contract. If a specific ulfllmentc cannot be enforced,
then the employer practically has no redress, for not
one in ten of laborers possess as much property as
is exempted by law. and the laborer is conscious,
that he can violate his contract with IMMUNITY every
time his caprice, bad temper, or interest may dictate,
that he has his employer in his power, because he
can injure his interests with ~impunity whilst if the
employer violates his part Of the contract, he can
get his discharge, can get him fined. and if unable
to pay, imprisoned at hard labor till he does, which
may be perpetual if he is unable 10 pay.
The Law, as it is, does equal justice to both par
ties, and the great body of men, of every class
under it, feel that it is just and right. No man
suffers by the law who does right. 1t is only the
willful aggressor who suffers, and no injustice is
done him. That eminently just man, Chief Justice
Lee, who drafted this law in 1850, undoubtedly felt
it to be just the law that was needed then and
will venture that. to-day, after seventeen years of
experience under it, the great body of men who 1--we
under it will pronounce their verdict in favor of its
justice. Hardship and injustice may arise under it.
sometimes, both to master and servant and no
doubt they do. But this is the case with all laws
they may be misconstrued may be sometimes used
as an agency for wrong doing, by the unprincipled
but this takes nothing from the justice Of their pro-
visions.
Many will remember that but a few years since q
Pennsylvania judge imprisoned a man for contempt,
who would not reply to the inquiry made of him
about an escaped slave, which he could not conscien-
tiously do. For months he was immured in prison,
till there was enc almost universal cry went up, from
the north. against the tyranny and oppressive in
justice Of the act but no remedy was found in the
law for his relief. And yet it has been deemed wise
to continue to the court the arbitrary power under
which this oppression took place, to maintain its
dignity and power. Great injustice sometimes arises
under the mal-administration of just laws. 1t can't
Ibe helped, and the laws are not responsible for it.
It is said that this law inficts Imprisonment for debt.
! cannot see the force of the objection. Honest
debtors should not be imprisoned. Fraudulent ones
deserve to be, and are, in most countries, when their
frauds and dishonesty are proved. Honest laborers
or employers should not be willfully dishonest ones
should be dealt with according to their acts. 1t
should be constantly borne in mind that the laws
deal only with the rityutiy wrong doer, they are q
dead letter to him who does right, and all sympathy
expended is not for them, but for the unjust, who, II
they suffer, may terminate the suffering at any mo-