Grant County herald. [volume] (Lancaster, Wis.) 1850-1968, 1877-05-03
The Perfection Of Law

For Tue HERALD.
The widow of Gen. Gains, who was
one of our Generals in the war of
1912. has been wandering through
the Courts of the United States, for
the last forty years, in pursuit of law,
and justice. Some time ago the pa
pers informed us that she had arrived
in Washington; came there for the
purpose of commencing suit against
her lawyers, to see il she could not
get hold of some of the money they
had collected for her but still held,
probably to pay themselves attorneys
fees. Whether she ever got anything
from them or not the papers have not
informed us; but it is not likely they
had collected enough TO satisfy them
selves for fees. The papers now in
form us that she has just recovered
the property that was in dispute, in
New Orleans; and the judgements
cover the rents and profits for long
time, and the whole amounts to many
millions of dollars Now we will
suppose the judgement of the Court
TO be both lap and justice, and then
how stands the case? As the children
OF Israel wandered forty years in the
wilderness, in pursuit of the promised
land, 80 has this old lady been com
PEELED to wander forty years through
the wilderness of Uulted States laws,
to get what our highest Court says
she has perfect right TO. 1t follows
that the United States have failed, for
forty years, to protect the rights of
the widow of one of our favorite Gen.
erals; end a whole generation OF men
has passed away from the earth, while
this old lady has been vainly contend
ing in our Courts for her rights But
the injustice done to her is only part
of the evil: if the judgement of the
Court IS to be executed, hundreds, per-
haps thousands, who have been al
lowed to occupy her property, against
her will, for forty years, will be turn
ed out of house and home, and have
their property eaten up in law, till
many of them will be reduced to act
ual want, and their only consolation
will be that they were reduced to
poverty according to laW. 1t is said
that men in their natural state are
totally depraved; and it must be con-
fessed that this looks as though there
was some truth in it. Still man is not
as bad as he might be: give him
chance to do right and he will gener.
ally do so in preferane to doing
wrong. This is especially true of our
judges and self-interest will prompt
them go do justice whenever the law
will allow it to be done. Now this
case could have been decided in the
fsst year of its existence. with far
naore certainty of it's being right, than
it could after the lapse of forty years,
and at small fraction of the cost.
What then was the reason it was not
done? Because judges were so ham
pered by the law that they could not
decide it without violating some law.
But why do the people allow their
judges TO be so hampered by the law
that they cannot do justice? The
only reason that know of is that it
makes business, and business brings
money, when doing justice seldom
brings more than an approving con-
science, which cannot be readily
turned into cash. Now if it be ad-
mitted that Darwin's theory, that man
descended from the monkey, or the
ass, be true, it will still be an open
question whether he has improved
any upon the mode and manner of
settling disputes, that has always been
practIced by his illustrious predeces.
sors. Certain it is that their disputes
are always settled in a mere fraction
of the time, compared with what civil
lied man requires for their settle
ment. And they generally settled
them so that they stayed settled;
while civilized man fights round after
round, and appeals from one court to
another, till one or both of the parties
are ruined Now then this is the
question: Surprising Darwin's theory
to be true, how much, if any, has man
improved the mode and manner of
settling disputes, that was always
pract,ced by his illustrious ancestors 2
LUTHER Brown.
Patch Grove, May /, 1877.
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