, 1879-04-26
JUDGE GREEN'S CHARGE TO
THE GRAND JURY.

GENTLEMEN OF THE GRAND JURY:-
We are met MS representatives Of q
Christian people. to transact business of
most important and pressing nature.
We need Wisdom. 1t we'll becomes US.
then, to look for this to- Him lin whom
"are hidden all the treasures Of wisdom,
and knowledge"
No emotion of the mind is SO produc.
tive of fair and honest service rs real
gratitude. We, Of this judicial district,
have abundant cause to indulge IN this
emotion. Looking at our service as one
due not to the people alone, bnt to Him
from whom by favor our beloved form
of government has drcended upon the
people, We find conspicuous cause for
thanktullness. As community, we
have been greatly prospered. During
the last nine years-of which from per-
sonal knowledge can more particularly
speak, we have been blest in large
and increasing measure with the pres
ence of law, abiding spirit among our
citizens. Our pu lie officers have, as
rule, been led to exhibit the virtues of
honesty. capacity aud fidelity. Daring
this period, population and productive
industry and material wealth have been
largely multipli d, while litigation, both
civil and criminal, has signally .!imin-
ished. What truly patriotic mind can
contemplate such record without o
lively sense of the favor evidently SHOWN
and love for the Author of it, or with
out devout aspiration ioi It's contin-
uaDce and growtha
Cheered by this encouraging retrospect,
let us come 20 our business with conf.
dence that the past, interpreted as a
promise and earnest Of good in store,
shall be bettered in our own persons,
and at this present term of court
Approaching our work for the people,
it is well for us to bear in mind that we
are Of the people. Our competency to
Judge 10 their causes is dependent on the
fact that we are men like themselves.
Their affairs we know, for we have min
gled in them. Their ways, their
thoughts, their feelings, their desires,
their affections, their faillngs are common
also to us. 1t is crude notion that rep
resents Justice with blinded eyes, bal
ances in one hand and sword in the
other. Human justice needs human eyes
and human hands, open to see things
as they are and free to handle other
realities than balauces and swords, ,---as
well as unshut ears and a beating heart.
We cannot possibly grasp criminal
case as it 10 we cannot lay hold OF.
and master the actual heart Of it,--un-
less we come to it with our human SYM
pathies in what is human, as well as
our Divine understanding of what is
''lawful and right" Happily .or the
proper administration of our law, we
can all without difficulty, assume, in
aid of our judgement, the guilty mans
position. We can appreciate his mo-
tives; we can enter into his inward con-.
ficts; we can feel the criminal suggest
ion crystslize slowly, or at fash, into
the hxity of purpose. There perhaps
we halt. For, to ordinary thought, us
Mr.. Carlyle says, "From the purpose
.'ot crime to the last act of crime
"there is an abyss wonderful to think of.
"The finger lies on the pistol but the
"whole man is not murderer. Nay,
"bis whole nature staggering at such a
tcOnsumation, is not there confused
"pause, rather--one last instant of pos
"sibility for him' Not yet murderer;
'it is at the mercy OF light trifles wheth
'er the most fixed idea may not yet bo
"come un6xed. One slight twitch of a
"muscle, the death flash bursts; and he
sis it and will, for an eternity, be it; and
"earth has become penal Tartarus fol