Clarksville weekly chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1873-1890, 1873-01-04
OUR COURTS.

Those Of our county readers who
complain-and justly-of the heavy
burden imposed upon them by the
courts, we would advise to exam
inc the docket, for single term of
the Circuit Court They will find it
composed of between two and three
hundred cases, with parties to them
numbering six or seven hundred. 1t
is upon such facts as these that the
demand for reform is based, and the
first inquiry to be made is, who is to
blame for the heavy costs of the Grim
inal and Circuit Courts? Not the
courts themselves, for they are institu-
ted for the sole purpose of adjudiea-
ting the cases brought before them by
corporations and Individuals. To do
this, they must have witnesses and
jurors, and these will have pay for
their seryices-all out of the pockets
of the people. How is reform to be
consummated? 1t can not be effected
by the legislature alone, then if done
at tall, it must be by the people them
selves. When they cease to litigate
and to violate the penal code, they
will have no cause for further COM
plant of the burdens imposed by
courts, juries and witnesses.
A very large proportion of the civil
cases results from carelessness in trad
ing, and from a want of full un-
derstanding between parties to con-
tracts, and large majority of the suits
in the Circuit Court, could, in our opin-
ion, be settled as justly, far more
promptly and without cost, by sub
mitting them to the arbitration of two
or three intelligent and practical bust
ness men, chosen by the parties them
selves. Even this sensible and cheap
mode of settlement can be general
ly dispensed with where the parties
are honest and fully understand the
terms of their contract. Those who
suffer themselves to be sued for debt,
would find it more to their interest to
to sell their property privately, and pay
the debt, than to wait for the Sheriff
to do it and add interest and costs to
the original amount Besides they
have no moral right to tax the county
with the pay of juries and witnesses,
and to force their neighbors to serve
in either capacity, to the detriment of
their private interests, for no other
purpose than to force tricky debtor
to pay an honest debt.
If the legislature can constitution
ally do so, it ought to enact a law do
ing away with juries in civil causes,
unless the parties litigant demand the
intervention of jury, and in that
case, the party or parties demand
ing it, shall pay the cost. This
would do much toward the contem-
plated reform, relieve the people of a
portion of their burden and enable |
the court to get through the docket in
half the time, and with far more COM
fort to bench, bar and attendant Off
GERS. But why ask the Legislature to
correct abuses for which the people |
are responsible? It cannot enactlaws |
to prevent loose and fraudulent con-
tracts, except by Furnishing the guilty
through the agency of the courts. 1t
cannot enact laws that will make men
honest in all their dealings with each |
other, and in the absence of such re-
formatory powers, the people must |
turn from the legislature and look to
themselves for the correction of the |
abuses due to their own want of that
business integrity, without which the |
courts will continue to be crowded with |
llIlSaUlOn.
Our object now, is not to point out
the endless variety of transaction which |
lead to lawsuits, unnecessarily; but to
call attention to the simple fact that
until the people reform themselves,
there can be no material reform in
their institutions. Honest men have
no occasion to go to law, unless forced
to do so by the criminal and dishon-
est. Courts are instituted to punish
crime and protect the rights of hon
est men against the aggressions of the
dishonest Then the first step towards
reform is the diminution of crime and
dishonesty; as long as they abound,
courts, with their costly machinery,
will continue to burden the people
uit h toxac opd foroa tho attandan noa Of