The Richmond palladium. [volume] (Richmond, Ind.) 1855-1875, 1875-09-15
RICHMOND,
The .sJury-system..

the character of Mr.. Willis Phelps in
The Springfield Republican, to an
amount represented by large express
sion in American currency. the liti-
gants agreed to dispense with the jury
altogether, as, by law of the State,
they had the privilege of doing. 1t
was an exceedingly sensible proceed
ing. and ought to have attracted more
attention than it did attract, and a
wider following than it has yet Sc.
cured. For, of all the hallucinations
which, from generation to generation,
possess and pervert the minds of men,
that which attaches sort of sacred
ness to jury trial. and holds the
''jury-system" as halt divine, is the
most fatuitous. To be tried by one q
peers" those peers" reaching the
exact number of twelve, is regarded,
by very large number of the COM
munity, as a privilege to be surren-
dared under NO circunferences-a
privilege to be defended at any cost
Of blood and treasure.
The word "peer," as it is used here.
is cheat. All that it means is that
the juror has the same political power
and privileges as the man whom he
helps to try, yet the women of Amer
lea have never been tried by their
peers. Infants" are never tried by
their peers. Those who were formerly
slaves were never tried by their peers.
If we go beyond this, and attach any
intellectual or moral significance to
the word peer" We shall find that a
man is almost never tried by his
peers. In the recent trial of Mr..
Beecher, it would be very silly to say
that he was tried by his peers. In
deed, it would have been very difficult
to find enough of his peers in Amer
lea to try him. If such jury could
have had charge of his case, it GER
tainly would not have disagreed.
But to come down upon the solid
fact. let us confess that the ordinary
jury is utterly incompetent to perform
the duties of its Office. Men who are
taken from the different walks Of life,
men whose minds run in the narrow
channels of specialized industries, are
brought into a courtroom under cir
cumstances utterly strange to them,
without practice in sitting evidence,
easily imposed upon by the plausibil
tiles of counsel, easily acted upon
through their sympathies, easily inn
pressible by eloquence, and are ex
to render justice. The thing is alb
surd on the face of it, and SO notorious
now is the uncertainty Of a jury trial.
that men regard verdict very much
as they do the drawings of lottery.
A verdict is matter of jury and not
OF justice at all. So we'll understood
is the fact. on the part OF corporations.
that, before jury. they stand no
chance In any case against an lndl-
vidual, that many of them have ceased
to expect justice from jury, and, SO,
are constantly compromising suits in
which they know their opponents
have no case. The average juror
vidual against corporation, as the
corporation has found to its cost.
As men average, there is one man
in twelve, at least, Of exceptional
mind and characteristics. There was
a devil among the twelve Apostles.
and in nearly every jury there is
common honesty, he may be without
common sense. He may be a man
who has a genius for differing with
everybody on every possible subject.
One man in twelve, at least, has some
kind of eccentricity, and, as he has no
special education to help him, his
opinion on any subject is without the
slightest value Now, this twelfth
man is the man on whom hangs the
fate of all who trust themselves to a
jury trial. lie can hinder justice, and
be usually does it. The good sense
of eleven men may have decided
given case in the given way, but the
bad sense, or the bad disposition, of
the twelfth man, is enough to thwart
their will. and make all the labor be-
slowed upon the case OF no avail. We
decide all other questions by a major
ity vote but this. Here alone we re-
quire unanimity and no chance what
ever is afforded to realize the results
OF preponderating opinion. If jury
trial could be decided by a majority,
even If it should be FIVE -sixths, or
eleven twelfths, justice would have
better chance. As it is we have al
ways to count in the chance of getting
the crooked stick, the dishonest man,
the corruptible man, and to admit his
power to spoil any verdict that eleven
men may freely decide upon. The
law does its best to make every Juror
incompetent, by insisting that he shall
be SO little intelligent in current af-
fairs as to have no opinion concerning
them, as they may relate to cases in
hand.
But there is something further than
this to be said against juries.- The
fact that their service is compulsory
is an outrage upon the rights of the
citizen. There is no other civil or
judicial service into which men are
compelled but this. In time of war,
the State can compel the services of
her sons for her defense, if they do
not volunteer; but a state of war is
altogether an exceptional condition.
In condition of peace, any compul-
sorry service in the making or admin
istration of law is essentially hard
ship and an outrage. To be forced to
compel this service Is to acknowledge
slavery to precedent, and confess to
scantlness of resources. 70 force
men unpaid. or only inadequately paid.
into the service of the courts, to drag
them away from their business or
their families, imprison them under
the charge of officers, and annoy them
for days, or weeks, or months, as the
case may be, with the details of affairs
in which they have no interest what
ever, is oppression, against which our
people would have kicked long ago,
but for this hallucination about the
sacredness of the jury trial People
do not see how we can get along with
out it..
Well. Mr.. Bowles and Mr.. Willis
got along without it. We should
very much prefer to leave a case of
ours with three men trained in the
Law or to one man accuSfnmpd IN