The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1884-04-12
LAW AND JUSTICE.

1t has been urged that the people of this
country have not respect and reverence for
law This is true and not true. In too many
cases there is too much respect for law, and
not enough for justice. 1t is folly to ask an
unquestioning acceptance Of law that holds
justice in contempt, and this is exactly what
a servile respect for written law does every
time legal technically is allowed to defeat a
righteous cause The people owe respect to
law only so far as law respects justice. The
ideal purpose of law is to come to
the aid of the right in its
fight against wrong Law was invented
to make easy the deliverance of justice when
beset by wrong. After ALL the law is simply
the peoples servant, to do their bidding and
serve their needs. Human experience has
sought to educate it to a quick discernment
between good and evil; has drilled it to stand
as an armed soldier between organized society
and its enemies has endeavored to put in its
hand sword to divide sophishy from truth,
and wisdom from confusion. This has been
the intent of the people who look to the law
for help. If it has failed in its
fundamental purpose, the fault must be laid
upon those who have come to reverence the
letter Of the law. as the work of their own
hands, rather than the spirit of justice upon
life. Law makers and Interpreters have turned
aside to worship the temple in place Of the
god in whose honor it was reared. What
would be thought of the military commander
who would allow his divisions to be slaughter
ed and routed because he could not prevent it
BY rules laid down in the textbook at West
the general who saved the day by extra-1nili-
tary tactics or no tactics at all? The time
has come when it should not only be
written in the fundamental law of every State,
but expressed in the regular action of the
courts, that no technical flaw in the proceed
ings of a case shall work the defeat of justice
It is time that technical errors in indictments
be no longer allowed to innure solely to the
benefit of criminals. Neither should a new
trial be had upon proof of any little flaw in
the proceedings that cannot and does not affect
the substantial merits of the case
1t is a manifest absurdity to ask society to
respect law that sets aside its interests for the
benefit Of criminals, and it is little less than
marvellous how patient society has been
while outrageous things have been per
petrated and perpetuated in the name of law.
1t is high time the intelligent people of the
country freed themselves from this measure of
qualification.
The lawyers of the country are largely respon-
sible for the maladministration of justice
through faulty enactments They more than
any other class of citizens, have it in their
power to say what laws shall be and how they
shall be worded To them we owe much of
the senseless redundancy of words and repeti-
tons with which statutes are burdened, and
from which so many errors arise fatal to a
just and equable administration of justice
Yet how common it is to hear them expatiate
on the glory and majesty of the law, before |
which the people should make their salaams.
Tie people are ready and willing to rever- |