The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1871-03-17

10 THIS lnsultlnB mockery OF Justice. IL IS
the difference between a scourge of whips
and scourge of scorpions. The Ku-Klux
bill, with all its atrocities, would be harmless
if the accused were to have fair trial before
an impartial jury. No twelve honest and un-
biased men would ever agree on a vereict Of
guilty under this outrageous law. The trial
by jury was thought by the trainers of the
Constitution o complete security against OPP
pressive or unrighteous Federal laws. Hence
the reiterated emphasis with which the Con-
stitution asserts the inviolability of that chief
sanctuary of freemen, the right of trial by
jury. We copy the following provisions; =
The trial Of all crimes, except in cases ofimpeach
ment, shall be by jury.
No person shall be held to answer for capital or
otherwise infamous crime, unless on a presentment
or indictment of grand jury.
In all criminal prosecutions the accused shall en-
JOY the right OF aspeedy and public trial by an i'm
partial jury OF the State and district wherein the
crime shall have been committed, which district
shall have been previously ascertained by law
Nobody knows better than General Butler
that if these careful provisions of the Consti-
tuition were allowed to operate according TO
their plain intention, his Infamous law would
be a dead letter, as nobody would ever be
convicted under it by an impartial Southern
jury. His ingenuity has therefore been
exerted ia contriving means to evade these
requirements. The problem was, to pack
jury with political partisans, and still keep
apparently within the letter of the Constitu-
ton. 1t is vain endeavor. Nothing is more
obvious on the face of the bill than its inten-
tion to circumvent the Constitution, and de-
fraud the accused of their right to be tried by
IAN impartial jury" One means of attaining
this object proposed in the Ku-klux bills
drafted by other members, was by compelling
all jurymen to take what is called ''the iron
clad oath, that is, to swear that they had
never voluntarily participated in the Rebel
lion. Butler is too sharp not to perceive
that even this would endanger the success of
the scheme. Boys who were eleven years old
when the Rebellion commenced are qualified
for jurymen now; and in every Southern
county there is a crop of such citizens who
could take the oath. If there Should be even
one impartial man in jury of twelve, nobody
could be convicted under this infamous law.
Moreover there are many Southern citizens
who were of age when the civil war broke out
who can conscientiously take the oath. Juries
must be unanimous in order to render YER
dict; and vigorous exercise of the right of
challenge which belongs to the prisoner in
jury trial, would be pretty sure to bring at
least one firm and impartial man among the
twelve. So General Butler has introduced
into his bill carefully guarded device
to prevent anybody but negroes and
carpet-baggers from being summoned
to serve on juries. A partisan mar
shal, liable to be turned out of Office
the moment he displeases the President, is to
select, each autumn, a sufficient number of
radical names to supply all the jurymen
likely to be wanted for year. The names of
these negroes and carpet baggers are to be
put into box from which all actual jurymen
are to be drawn. If the number drawn is ex-
bausted by challenges before the twelve is
completed, the same box of radical names is
to be again resorted to, and the most minute
and stringent provisions are made to guard
against the remotest possibility of any one
impartial man getting upon any jury. If the
law is not to be dead letter, if it is ever in
any case to be executed at all, some such
crafty scheme for making up juries from
which every impartial man is excluded, was
absolutely necessary.
Now the reason why an attempt to executs
this law, if it should pass, will justify resist
ance to the last extremity, is that it denies to
every person accused under it his right to
fair trial by an impartial jury of the vicinage.
These bastard packed juries will be as servile
tools of the President as Jeffries and other in
famous judges were of the Stuart kings. If the
bill permitted fair trial by an impartial jury
selected without regard to political bias,
we would counsel no other resistance than
appeals to public opinion. An honest jury
trial would protect citizens against any very
fragrant injustice. But the very cornerstone
of our Liberties is removed, and the whole
edifice tumbles, when an unjust and uncon-
stitutional law is enforced by packed iuries
consisting of heated partisans who hate the
prisoner for his politics and are bent upon
his ruin. 1t is far more nefarious mockery
of justice than trials by military commits
sion; for military officers have sufficient
standing to be held amenable to public
opinion, whereas juries of low negroes
without any character to lose will be shielded
from personal infamy by the obscurity into
which they Immediately return. The lives of
the most respectable citizens of the South
will be at the mercy of their inveterate poiti-
cal opponents. 1t is quite certain that other
citizens will not be passive spectators of such
a wrong. If Grantsand Butler choose to get
up another rebellion against the Constitution
and insugurate a new civil war, on their
heads will be the consequences. They will
learn that great deal of the blood of our
patriot forefathers still flows in American
veins
Under this infamous Ku-Klux bill prisoners
are to be tried by biassed court as we'll as
by packed jury. Only the circuit judges
are to be permitted to conduct such trials;
but every one of these circuit Judges is an
appointee of General Grant, who aims to
prostitute the judiciary to party objects
Most of the district judges were appointed by
General Grants predecessors, and their sub
serviency cannot be trusted.
We implore the radicals in Congress to
'let us have peace" But the American peo-
pie have not yet become so degenerate as to
be willing to purchase peace, valuable as that