Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1891-11-26
A Miscarriage of Justice.

The failure Of the jury to reach ver-
dict in the Fifth ward election riot case
cannot be regarded by real friends Of
good governmental as less than calamitous.
1t is a failure that tends in the direction
of the subordination Of law to partisan
ship. The question of the guilt or inno-
cence of the individuals ON trial has
little to do with the portent of this
failure in its broad sense-it is the in.
ability or indisposition of a jury of
Twelve men to agree on the conviction
or acquittal of persons charged with
violating election laws that indi-
Gates an unwholesome state of
public sentiment or party morals.
Here was case in which the persons
on trial were either guilty or innocent,
and the community was justified in
looking for a verdict one way or the
other. The accusations were specific;
there was no ambiguity about the
offences charged; the proof was de-
cisiye; the law unmistakable; the jury
fairly drawn and duly obligated to
render a true verdict, according to the
law and the evidence. Yet these twelve
jurymen are reported to have divided
on strict party lines. Abstractly con-
sidered, it is extremely difficult to con
ceive why the same testimony and the
same law should have caused twelve men
to disagree according to their political
affiliations. If the same jurymen had
been trying an ordinary case of larceny
or assault no one would have regarded
the politics of the prisoner as factor
in the case-no one would have attached
any Importance to the politics of the
Jurors-while, in this case, the reported
division of the jurors strictly according
to their party classification creates little
surprise. We are not criticizing this
jury as individuals-we do not know
them in the case as individuals, having
only read their names once and writing
this without recalling who they were
and we are not at all clear that any other
twelve jurymen of this county would
not have divided on party lines just as
they are said to have done. Indeed, we
very much fear this would have been
the case with any jury that might have
been empanelled, and herein lies the
evil-in the public sentiment that
cannot look on such infractions Of law
save through party spectacles; that is
willing to condone almost anything for
the sake of party. We do not wish to
discuss at this time the lawlessness
that ran riot around this Fifth ward
polling place on that election day, but
we see this same spirit exempliiied in a
shape equally deplorable in the practi-
cal unanimity with which the members
of their political party, in their private
capacity,through their press and through
their Levy Court arc even now sustaining
the actions of a secret conspiracy to de-
oauch the ballot Matched by government
officials and corruptible collectors in a
government building in direct violation
OF the provisions of statue of the
United States as maintained and inter-
preted by a high tribunal.
The existence in any community of a
widespread willingness to. subordinate
justice to partisanship is not merely de-
plorable; it is dangerous. 1t teaches
people to distrust the arbitrament of law
and to fall back on the arbitrament of
force. There is nothing clearer than that
it is the province of the judge of cleo
tons at any poll to pass upon the ques-
ton of mans right to vote and to com.
mand peace and order about the polls.
This is his right and his duty under the
law and he is responsible to the law /,
and not to any outsider, for his
exercise of that right. If cleo
tons are to be run by mob
law then the issue becomes one not of
right but Of might, and the heaviest pair
of fists becomes the strongest evidence
OF electoral qualification, There is no
possibility Of misconstruing the plain
language and spirit of the law on this
matter. 1t was fully and clearly set
forth by the court in this very case. 1t
Is necessity of our election system that
somebody shall be empowered to UNI
pire challenged votes and that the dec-
sion of that umpire shall be supreme. II
is necessity that some one shall be
clothed with the fullest legal authority
TO command the peace at the polls, with
Unrestricted power to call upon the otfi-
GERS of the law and the posse comitatus
TO do his bidding in case Of emergency,
conseryator of the peace Both these
functions are vested by our law in the
election judges. If they abuse these
powers the law holds them 10 strict
accountability; but, while the election
is in progress, they must be sustained
by law in the exercise of just that degree
of authority which, in their Judgment,
the emergency may demand, and when
that authority is set aside by brute force
or INSTRUMENTATION, we have condition
of anarchy. If an inspector Of elections
should, in the performance Of his duty,
Stay the first man who should attempt
20 force his way violently and threaten.
ingly into the voting room or TO lay vic.
lent hands upon the election officers
and some inspectors would do this very
thing-we have little doubt that the law
would hold him justifable. Fortu.
nately, under the Australian system
which is about to go into operation here
the opportunities of outsiders to inter.
fere with, intimidate or maltroat I'll,
election officers will be SO curtailed u.
to materially lessen the danger of mol