The Colfax chronicle. [volume] (Colfax, Grant Parish, La.) 1877-1981, 1886-05-29
Assault ON the Grand Jurors.
IN. D. Picayune.l

isiana, the governor has outstrip-
ped himself. Nothing of which
he has ever been guilty has savored
SO strongly of arrogance and pre-
sumption. He would wipe out of
the path of his imperial dictator
ship these inquisitors of a free
people. There should be no in
QUESTION except such as the sala-
ried district attorneys, one in each
district, can find time to conduct.
The district attorney now, accord
ing to the gubernatorial UNDER
standing of his work, prepares the
indictment in advance, and formal
| ly calls witnesses before the grand
jury 'an idle ceremony merely for
a formal vote, and the Endorsement
by the foreman as a true bill"
The governor is not satisfied with
this RELOCATION of the grand jury to
the limbo of bare Journalism; he
goes further and asserts that Gin
several localities in this State the
grand juries seem to understand
instinctively that they are only
ceremonious parts of the court,
and they pass beyond the legitimate
duties that they are impaneled to
perform, and find ample time to
display superficial learning ex-
pressed in inelegant language and
in no way commendable as literary
productions. It is the forum for
the demagogue, and an inquisition
suitable to the taste of the vicious
and the ibeler. If facts do not
warrant prosecution, individuals,
newspapers, and communities be-
come the objects of their vengeance,
which finds expression in Hbelous
communications. In the last few
years New Orleans has suffered
more of detraction and defamation
from her grand juries than from
the Interested abuse of her rivals
abroad"
If that remarkable outpouring
does not elicit harsh criticism
wherever grand juries exist, and
make every householder who feels
that his welfare is bound up with |
the public safety indignant, we |
shall be surprised. The grand |
juries have been composed Of our
best citizens. Their reports have
been the clarion calls of the watch
men on the towers of the public
defense. Time and again they
have summoned the people to pre-
cautions imperatively demanded
by the bad state into which public
affairs had fallen. Now it is a
work of sanitation; again an abrupt
reminder of some special want of
something immeasurably higher
than sanitation-public morality.
Their mission is not merely the
performance of those petty and
perfunctory duties which the gov
ernor chooses to call legitimate;
they have the ample warrant for
merly issued to the Roman consuls
to look to it that the republic {
receive no detriment. To silence I
he grand jurors is to administer
IN opiate to the public senses, and ).
therefore measurably a soporific to |;
he public conscience. It is to
the tongues of the fire 4
'ells, and practically to veil the il
ace of justice from the people. i
10 silence the supervisors of off, :
ials, to cause to cease their vista
ions, is to withdraw public atten-
ion from the official mornings .
nd outgoings, to grant a qualified .
lcense to do unobserved. That ),
ONE juries may have erred no one =
an deny, but they have not erred d
nee where the regular officials u
ave 1000 times.
The honest, straightforward, z
leantongued gentlemen who have - :,
iven their time to the public "a
ervice in the grand jury room I,
lust have been astounded to learn
'om the governors message that
ley had been displaying superb 81
al learning expressed in inelegant p
'nguage. What governor of any :.
tate ever before brought this III
lightly charge against any jury ? st
ut that is an empty insult. The to
'cusation that the grand jury is III
le forum of the demagogue, an r.,
lquisition suitable to the taste of Ve
le vicious and the libeler, is
lameful. 1t thrusts straight at Pl
10 heart and conscience of every is
and juror in the State. If it Of
ere true, they should be burned fe