The New York herald. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1840-1920, 1873-02-05
Our Jury system-The Real Remedy for
It's Apparent Mischief


Its Apparent Mischief
In natural wrath against those Tweed jury
men who voted for acquittal some of our con-
temporaries and many public correspondents
have INDUCED in ignorant and illogical state
ments about the jury system of our city. II
has been asserted that twas the Jury Commits
sioner who selected the grand list for the
county, and it is claimed that only taxpayers
should sit in the jury box. The fact is that the
law obliges every male citizen between the ages
Of twenty-one and seventy years to become .
juryman, and makes the Commissioner judge
to strike off the names of those citizens who
are professionals or officials, or fremen or
militiamen, or sick or nfirm, or illiterate or of
bad character, accordingly as he can ascertain
such cases. CURLY stated, the law is that no
citizen is disqualified absolutely from jury
duty, and exemption has been legally con-
strued to be substantially privilege. It is
believed that many minor serves, and not
few old beaux, who generally prefer the task
to the alternative Of admitting their age
There are not unfrequently instances of retired
firemen and soldiers who evince patriotism BY
not asking exemption
There have been three Commissioners Of
Jurors in this city, Messrs, Haws and French.
now dead, and Mr.. Douglas Taylor the pres
ent Commissioner. Each one of them, asthe
official records show, has made the Directory
and poll lists his foundation for jury books.
and then, by serving notices, has usually dis
covered who of the Directory men were aliens
or non-residents and who of the electors
claimed peculiar exemptions. Perhaps, too.
by oral examination the Commissioners have
obtained much information about the character
and fitness of the men who called at their
Offices. Even when corrected list of fifty or
sixty thousand names has reached the wheel
from which, by lot, the Judge and the County
Clerk draw monthly or daily set Of
jurymen, the Courts have continually come
across deaf men, illiterate fellows, aliens and
others, excusable who had escaped prior ex-
aminations, but whom the authorities would
properly report These exempts the Commits
sioners thereupon drop from their books.
Legislative annals show that at the long
session of 1847, which followed the adoption
of the new constitution Of 1916, the lawmakers
not only originated the present system of &C.
lection but made two radical changes in ac-
cordance with the popular tendencies of the
times. These were the abolition of property
tests for jurors in this city and Of the PERM
cious system of picking up jurymen from
court bystanders, and who were called tales
men. The locofocos, butt-enderS and equal
rights democrats, who were then in ascend
ancy, refused to admit the whig and aristo-
cratic doctrine that poor men should not sit
on juries. They said that if the property,
liberty and life Of man depended on the
verdict of his peers then the poor citizen
should have chance Of being judged by his
fellows as well as the property-holder of being
arraigned before his brother taxpayer. And
SO the law has continued until the present
time. All this pother about tampering with
the Jury law is nonsensical because, if the
law of 1870 be looked at, one finds that what
ever changes it made we're restrictive, and not
an enlargement of that law Of 1847.
Undoubtedly the poorer classes, and indeed
the mental dregs of our electors, are in large
majority upon the jury service lists But this
arises mainly from the fact that the business
men of the middling and upper classes can get
exempt from the jury box at twenty-five dol
lars each chance of drawing, even if they do
not happen to tip the wink to server of the
notice or enlist the sign manual of some poll
tician for the eye of friendly court officer or
deputy clerk. The class of jurors who mainly
serve is composed of impecunious men, gen.
orally without influence. Of course there ara
men of means and intelligence, with leisure
and patriotism combined, who also attend
court as jurymen. Yet these, as newspaper
readers and free thinkers, usually get black
balled by the judges or lawyers The real remedy
for the jury abuse is not by making taxation
the standard for juror, but to abolish the
fine, and then allow the judges by attachments
to force each man who votes to serve once,
but only once year as juryman in some
Court BY this mode the reformers and bank
directors, who now grumble at verdicts and
disagreements over their newspapers and be-
fore their cosey breakfast tables with their
twenty-five dollar exemption receipts snugly
in their pockets, will be compelled once year
to occupy Ingersoll chairs in Garvey frescoed
court room by day, and at night to sit beside
o cherries Davidson safe beneath the dim
burners of o Keyser chandelier.
Consolidation Of New York and Brook.
lyn-Why Not Westchester County,
&c.s
The subject of the consolidation of the cities
of New York and Brooklyn has been taken up
in practical way by some Of the most public
spirited and influential citizens of the latter
city. They met at the residence of o private