St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1886-07-18

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with the general tendency of legislation in
the state. An examination of the criminal
code OF Minnesota recalls many marvellous
innovations upon the rights of the people
as those rights have been recognized
throughout the states of the Union and in
England. Many petty otfenses against
| good morals which have hitherto and are
now in nearly all the places referred to.
| punishable as miSdemeanorS are here mag
nified to the degradation of felonies and
punlshmentS OF equal enormity to those in
tlicted for the highest crimes against nat
ural law are provided. The man whose
moral character may be above reproach and
who abhOrS and would Scorn the commits
sion of any act dishonorable or injurious to
others, yet incapable of resisting a fascinat-
| ing temptation which leads to a
purely social wrong, becomes, by yield
ing to such temptation, a felon,
and in the eye of the law is
looked upon with no more favor than the
rankest highway robber in the land. He
| becomes felon. The robber is no more.
! This feature of making felonies out of mis-
demeanors reaches through most of those
petty offenses which can only be regarded
| as offenses because of their tendency to cor
rupt public morals from the first to the last
| section of this code. Heretofore since the
| history of the common law, punishable by
| fine and imprisonment i'll the county jail,
such offenseS have been restrained suffi-
| GENTLY to leave them as slight obstacles in
the advancement of the intellectual and
moral growth of the EngliSh-speaking peo-
| pie. Distorted to the cruel shape of felon-
| les they do not and will not exist in a less
degree than hitherto; the laws giving them
this shape will be disrespected and become
despised. No good will come from them.
but the evil indirectly growing out of them
will be tenfold more than the wrongs they
are Intended to prevent. Perjury is the
most despicable of all crimes Its exist
ence saps the very fountains of justice of
all power to effect their ends, for there can
be no justice without truth prevails, and the
inducement to falsehood in criminal
proceedings depends upon the char
acter OF the punishment to
follow conviction. Few men could be
found who would not plead guilty to a mis-
demeanor rather than commit perjury to
avoid punishment for his offense, but YOU
never saw an instance where to avoid pun
| lshment as a felon man would not commit
the other felony as witness. Violators of
the liquor law scarcely ever deny their guilt
on oath; make that crime felony, and to
| save himself from felon's cell. nearly
every one of them would do it.
An example of the effect of one of these
laws to induce perjury was recently pre-
scented in the district court of this county
in the trial of colored woman under a
charge of keeping house of bad repute.
Had her crime been misdemeanor and
punished by fine she would have plead
guilty, as dozen or more others did at a
recent term of court for the same offense
when they knew they would be fined. and
the perjury which was so palpable to the
jury and every person who saw her defense
disclosed by the witnesses who appeared in
her behalf, would not have stagnated the
temple of justice when it occurred.
liz =
The severity of the laws is not the only
Objectionable feature connected with the
administration of Justice in this common
wealth that tends to create Dissatisfaction
of the laws and defeat of the end
for which they are created. When Portia
remarked that the Quality-mercY was