Helena weekly herald. [volume] (Helena, Mont.) 1867-1900, 1884-11-13
Charge of Chief Justice Wade to the
Territorial Grand Jury In Helena.


duties. / hope we are alive to all that it
means, to take part in the administration
ofjustice. There is no employment more
noble, or occupation for the mind more
same capacity. 1 can speak for the last
fourteen years, during which period twenty
nine times has the Grand Jury of the
county come into this court room and en-
tered upon the sacred duties enjoined by
law This is short period in the life of
Nation, though it covers large part of
our Territorial existence. CommOnwealths
are not builded in day. The institutions
of civilization cannot be transplanted like
hot house plants. The seed must be of
the right kind and carefully matured be-
fore the plant becomes sturdy and healthy.
But short as has been our political life, if
we have planted wisely, there ought by
this time to be signs of growth and pro-
gress We have been Territory for about
the same period that it requires for an in
fant from the date of his birth to arrive at
mans estate. We are approaching our
|
ought to take its place and assume all the
duties and responsibilities Of full age and
maturity.
Communities are very much like lndl-
viduals Some prosper and thrive without
much apparent effort, while others seem to
be blighted in their infancy, and their
lives are sickly failures. The man who
spends his life in his native hamlet, paying
Axl1 ~ af3, <~f< 1,o
world, who is Indifferent to what has been,
and thinks not much Of what is, or is to
be, and who heeds not the thrObbing pulse
of the great life of humanity, necessarily
becomes narrow and selfish, and thinks
the circumference of his native heath the
limit of the world, and that the sun is no
larger than his fathers shield. He is con-
tent in the seclusion and solitude OF his
own ignorance. And so isolated cOmmuni-
ties, far removed from the intelligence and
enterprise OF the world, are liable to be-
come afflicted with small ideas and blighted
with the mildew of intellectual stupor and
slothfulness.
Communities so situated are liable to
90 to seed before they are ripe, and to
wither in the green leaf A low state of
the human system begets disease. And SO
sickly administration of government and
law engenders brood of moral and pOliti-
cal diseases that prey upon the vitals of
society and threatens political death.
The remedy is a vigorous administration
of the law supported and sustained by a
sense of honor and official responsibility.
There can be no healthy administration of
the law, unless there goes with it, a sturdy,
unfaltering integrity, and keen sense OF
official responsibility. There can be no
healthy civilization unless the law is i'm
partially and vigorously enforced.
In official life as well as in business
affairs whatever has to be done at regular
| intervals is apt to be mOnotOnOus, and
when this occurs the tendency is to lose
the sense of responsibility. 1t becomes an
old story The officer sometimes fOrgets
that he is servant and comes to think he
owns the office, and that it was created for
his special benefit. Grand juries have
to come here twice each year, and the
tendency is to take it as matter of course,
and if the duties are distasteful, to pass
them over lightly and as not Ofmuch cOnse-
quence But grand jurors should never
forget their oath, and that they are respon-
sible if crime goes unpunished. The law
should be kept aud maintained as liv-
ing person. Its vigor should not be per-
mitted to wane or its vitality to decline.
1t needs live, active, conscientious men to
successfully manage the affairs of govern
ment. A scrupulous regard for the rights
of the people and faithful and vigorous
enforcement of the law should be the
watchword and motto of all official stations
The manner in which justice is admin
istered and the law enforced is the index
and measure of the civilization to which a
people has attained. Public sentiment and
opinion is the thermometer that marks the
rise and fall of the sense OF justice and
morality in any community or among any
people. The law is enacted and
administered as public opinion die
tates. The people are not wise
in their halls of legislation and
courts of justice and foolish in their homes
and places of business. They represent
their intellectual and moral growth in the
laws they enact and in their manner OF
enforcing them. And so the grand jury,
coming directly from the people, in what
it does, and in what it leaves undone, is a
faithful representation of the morality
and virtue of the community from whence
it came. They do not leave undone those
things they ought to do, unless the COM
munity sustains them in so doing. Grand
Jurors ought to realize that they must take
the first step in the enforcement of the
criminal law and in bringing criminal offend
ers to Justice. And they ought further to
understand that every failure to enforce
the law and to punish crime is the breeder
of other crimes and that every official
act neglected or carelessly performed leads
on to disorder and lawlessness. The his
tory of the decleine and fall of every govern
ment that his lived and died, demonstrates
that the seeds of death were sOwn in
lowering the standard of official response
bility, and in the Generalization which
comes from careless or partizan admins
tration of the law.
Properly conducted courts OF justice IN
self-governing countries are educators OF
the people They tend to create and up
hold healthy public sentiment, and they
set up high standards Of honesty and fair
dealing. The law is the highest express
sion of reason and justice Whatever OF
morality, right, reason, honesty and in
tegrity the people have attained is ex-
pressed in the law of the land. Courts are
established to give expression to the teach
ings of the law.
But though the law may be as perfect as
human reason can make it, if it is not ad-
ministered according to its spirit and in.
tent, it does not teach the lessons intended
and becomes an instrument of disorder.
1t lowers the standard of business In
tegrity and makes morality and virtue
affairs of secondary Importance. 30 gooo
laws if not enforced are worse than none
at ALL The failure to enforce one law De-
comes the license to violate another.
This then is the measure OF the duties
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