Union County courier. [volume] (Elk Point, Union County, D.T. [S.D.]) 187?-1913, 1879-06-18
NUMBER 81.
The New Jurors Bill.

Senator Bayard has introduced int
the senate q new jurors bill, the fir,
object of which is to repeal the so-calle
Jurors test oath, which excluded thos
who had served in the rebel army fron
being Jurors in u. 8. courts. In this g
of conciliation and reconciliation 81
parties seem willing that this provision
should be repealed. But the Democrat
want to 70 q little further. They ar
not willing that colored men shoult
serveas jurors It il now known that ii
many Of the southern state court
colored men are rigidly excluded from
the jury box. To rectify this grosl
injustice Senator Edmunds offered thu
following amendment providing:
That NO citizen possessing Ill other quail
ifications which are or may be prescribed By
law shall be disqualified for service a. grand
or petit juror in any court in the United
States, or any state, on account of race,
color, or previous condition of servitude.
Any officer or other person charged with
any duty ia the selection or examination of
jurors who shall fail to examine any citizen
thereof, be deemed guilty of misdemeanor,
and fined not more than 5000.
This was voted down by 26 to IA. It
being suggested that the United States
had no authority over the drawing of
state jurors, Conkling offered to leave
out "any state court" This was also
voted down by solid Democratic vote
-28 yeas to Is nays. One clause pro-
vides that the commissioner appointed
by the judge to draw jurors shall put
names in the box to be we'll known men,
bers Of the principal party opposing that
to which the clerk may belong" Ed.
munds moved to strike out this political
provision, and Blaine made one of his
happiest speeches in railery of this Sec
tion. He said, with inimitable sarcasm,
speaking of political affairs in Maine:
That ia the very trouble am in. There
are three parties there, and the principal
opposing party is now the Greenback party,
and this law would exclude Democrats en-.
tirely from the panel. The last vote was
Republicans, 81, 600; Greenbackers, 5000;
Democrats, $4,000. That leaves the Demo
Gratis out in the cold entirely [laughter] and
if any man does not belong to any political
organization he cannot get in the jury box
at all. Seward, Fessenden and VIM. Hale
COulO not get on y COmmltVce mere IN years,
gone by, because in the opinion of such
patriots as JEFF Davis, Judah P. Benjamin
and Slidell, they did not belong to any
healthy political organization. Laughter.l
Now you propose to transfer politics TO
the jury box. l object to it, be-
cause il is a great public indecency to
put in the statutes q provision that two po.
1itical partisans shall stand facing each
other to draw jurors. What are the prin.
cipal parties now in Georgia? know
what one is: what is the other! What are
the two principal parties in those districts
where 2,5CO votes, all on one side, elect q
of congress? There is another
cheat underlying this. The commissioner
may be nominally of the opposite party, but
really politically or corruptly in harmony
with the clerk. Then you will have q jury
Of rank partisans. all on one side.
Nevertheless the Democratic senators
carried this section by vote of 80 to Is.
1t was obvious during all the proceedings
in the senate that not q Democratic
senator was willing by his vote to guar
antee the undoubted constitutional
right of the colored man to a place even
in the United States jury box. This
proves beyond ali question that the
Democrats do not accept the inevitable
results OF the great war in good faith.