The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1880-04-08
THE TIME OF HOLDING COURTS.


in its comments upon public matters, is
no little provoked at the unfortunate
effect in Oconee and Pickens Counties of
the Act to change the time of holding
Courts in the Eighth Judicial Circuit,
and says:
The errors and bungling of our last
Legislature has no parallel in the past
history of South Carolina. We do not
know where the fault lies, but no one can
deny its existence and hurtful influence.
Hurryipg to adjourn before the holidays,
they left with their most important work
unfinished. This necessitated their re-
assembling, and the work of the extra
session has proved still more disastrous
to our people.
In trying at an extra session to change
the time of holding our courts they pass
bill on the Goth of February, which
must have defeated our courts In some
counties, even if known al once, but be-
ing unpublished for some time judges
and lawyers were deceived, and our ex-
pensiye court is held to- be no court.
What need to be eternally tampering
with the courts and the mode of drawing
iuries? We have held court of two
weeks, at which seven persons were tried
for their lives, the cost of one case being
to the county over one thousand dollars,
and now court as to these trials and all
civil judgments is believed to be illegal
and void
At Pickens no jury trials could be had
either in civil or criminal cases, while
number of persons are there held in Jail
at the expense of the county.
If the body had confined itself 10 the
business for which it was called together,
passed registration law and law pro-
hibiting the carrying of concealed wea-
pons, and then adjourned, its action
would have met the general appreciation
of the country. As the matter stands all
is confusion, and whether criminals can
be retired or not, certainly all civil bus
mess transacted amounts to nullity.
For above ten years there has been q
constant tampering with the law regu-
lating the holding of courts and drawing
of juries. We trust this kind of legisla-
tion will now stop, and that our next
Legislature will repeal all such laws and
incorporate the whole matter Of holding
courts in one Act and the jury law in one
Act. Surely in ten years our people all
over the State should by this time know
what period the holding of courts will
suit them. They should also know that
forty lawyers can hardly work out the
Jury law, which should be simple and
permanent. We can remember but one
change as to time of holding the courts
made by our Legislature before recon-
struction, while if the jury law was ever
changed we cannot remember it. Now
we see all over the State illegal courts
with attendant litigation and expense.
Is it not time the matter should be re-
duced to simplicity and be made perma-
nent?
The above sweeping condemnation of
the whole Legislature by our neighbor
appears to us entirely too general, for
certainly none Of the members of that
body, except those from this Circuit, can
possibly be to blame for the trouble that
has arisen as to Oconee and Pickens
Court under the late Act. The members
from other portions of the State supposed
the members from this Circuit knew what
they wanted and how to get it, and,
therefore, they were net to blame for
allowing the bill to pass. The members
from the Eighth Circuit were the only
ones interested in the bill, and it was the
Abbeville delegation which was most
anxious for the change. The Act as
amended imposed no trouble upon Abbe-
Vile, Anderson or Greenville counties,
and the Representatives from the Circuit
failed to notice the trouble likely to be-
fall Oconee and Pickens. The result has
been very grave so far as Oconee is con-
cerned, and little expensive and vexa-
tious so far as Pickeus is concerned, but
the greater part of it all comes from the
failure to obey the law rather than the
law itself. The papers published the
fact that an Act had been passed chang
ing the times for holding the Courts in
the Eighth Circuit, and any officer in the
counties therein could have informed
himself as to the provisions of the law by
writing to Columbia and procuring a
copy of the new Act. If they did not do
SO, and by their failure to inform them
selves the juries were improperly sum-
moned, how can the Legislature be
chargeable with it? In all fairness, we
think that body has sins of omission and
commission enough to answer for without
shouldering other peoples shortcomings
upon it. We did not see any necessity
for the change in the time of holding
Courts in this Circuit, and should not
have consented to any change, but for
the fact that the Abbeville delegation,
including Judge MCGOWAN, before his
election to the Bench, were anxious for
it on account of the hot and unhealthy
season at which the Fall Court was for
merly held in that County. The change
will not hurt any one, and would not
have hurt either Oconee or Pickens if
the law had been obeyed. Now, we do
not think the County officers are the only
ones to blame about the Oconee Court
Judge Thomson was certainly derelict in
not informing himself about change in
the time of holding Courts in the Circuit
upon which he was presiding. If be
reads the newspapers he must have no.
ticed there was change, and he should
have informed himself about it. To his
neglect all of the trouble in Oconee, after
the empanelling of the juries, is attribu-
table. A Judge is presumed to know the
law, and, if this fiction of law had been
real in this case. six or seven men would