Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1884-04-16
OF and the intermediate causes leading up

rlot ana the intermediate causes leading up
to it, will be found only in quickened
sense of duty on the part of individual
citizens. The tendency of our civilization to
be merciful is not worthy of condemnation
that prisoners are given, on trial, greater
advantages than the State, is not the cause
of perversion of Justice If the people
forming the State choose to be thus merci-
full in order to be the more certain OF
truth and guilt, it testifes to their human
ity, and also to their ability to discern the
truth and adjudge amply for guilt That
they do not make the law certain; that
criminals escape; that technically dis
places reason, and pettifogging crowds
right and honorable procedure to the rear
that jurieS are corrupted, or are browbeaten
or lack courage, and all that, is due, not to
the skill of any class of practitioners at
the bar but to the people, the one sover-
eign, not collectively, but as represented in
each individual.
The neglect out of which abuse is born
in free government begins at the very
! dawn of the recurring methods for admin
istration of public affairs. The citizen
neglects his duty first in the party, and
while he toasts his toes in the glow of the
home hearth, to the vicious, who are al
ways alert, he consigns, by default, the
duty at the primary which he should dis
| charge He is too much absorbed in bust
ness, or perhaps deems himself above tax
! ing part in selecting the men who are to
control the machinery of the party, and
again the purely selfish element is installed
as engineer of motor behind which is
dragged the whole system of government
In the Convention the representation is
that of the source from which it sprang,
the officers born Of it most frequently rep
resent the neglected soil in which they
grew, and in the law-making branches OF
government the same character is reflected
Thus, neglectful of one duty the citizen
who should be an examplar of right-doing,
finds It easy to satisfy his conscience and
avoid jury duty. He does not even hest
tate to screen himself from the duty of tes-
tifying He forgets that he is the State,
while ioudeSt in denouncing the State for
failure Of justice under it, In other words,
! the seventy-five lives sacrificed at Cincin-
natl to lawlessnesS were not offered up to
maintain the majesty Of the law, but to
emphasize the neglect of duty by citizens
! OF Cincinnati, which had it been dis
| charged, would of necessity have made i'm
possible the causes underlying the lawlesS
demonstration. If stupidity and coward
ice sit in the iury-box, it is because in
telligence and courage beg off" and deem
it exceedingly shrewd to cheat the law and
avoid the duty. If laws favor the crimi-
nal and throttle the State, it is because the
citizen who may mold the laws like pot
ter's clay, neglects his duty and delegates
his authority. If there is maladministra-
ton Of Justice, it is because the individual
good citizen consents to it, and thereby be-
comes a party to it. There can be no
Sinking of duty by any one member of a
State without injury to the State
Some time ago it was heralded abroad as
an astonishing fact that an ex-Speaker of
the House of Representatives, Mr. Randall,
had been drawn upon jury panel, had
served the whole term, and had received
his warrant for his per diem For three
days the whole Geographic news system
was painfully agitated upon the question,
"wiI Mr.. Randall draw the money!
There was nothing praiseworthy in Mr.
Randall serving upon a jury panel of his
country but in the fact that it is deemed
so unusual thing for such man to dis
charge his plain duty as one of the State,
that all the news avenues must be made
resonant with the exception, we find hui
initiating confession that fully illustrates
the point we would make, and renders
further consideration of the matter wholly
unnecessary.