The morning call., 1891-12-25
THE JUDGE AND THE LATE JURY.

Judge Wallace brushes aside the web Of
sophstrts which the Supreme Court wove
round the Bruner case with calm dignity
which must make the members of that
court feel very small indeed. He shows
that he had right to appoint an elisor
under the plain provisions of the code;
that the Supreme Court had no authority to
issue writ of prohibition, as that court
has decided in parallel case; that the ST.
preme Court having decided that witness
was bound to testify before the late Grand
Jury. reversed itself within four weeks and
decided that the same Grand Jury had no
right to hear witnesses. 1t rarely happens
that high judicial body is placed in so
humiiating a position. But all this has
now passed into history. The Grand Jury
is dead. 1t cannot be recalled to life. Judge
Wallace is 10 be voted out of ths Presidency
of the Superior Court next week. When
the effort to purge the State of corruption
is renewed the work will fall into other
hands.
1t is among the possibilities of the future
that the report of the Grand Jury aud the
Judges scathing arraigument of The Su-
preme Court will cut some figure in the his
tory of California. Defeats are often breed
ers of success. No single event contributed
anti-slavery opinion than the d ed Scott de-
cison, which was rendered in 1857, and i'm
mcdiately became political issue. by that
decision, which substantially decided that
the negro could never become citizen, and
had no rights which white man was bound
TO respect. the cause of the opponents of
slavery received blow which seemed at
the time to be fatal. 1t was the more crush
ing, as fancy, unlike the majority Of the
| Supreme Court Of this State, was a man
above suspicion, a sound lawyer, and n citi-
zen of unimpeachable integrity. He in
terpreted the law with absolute npartialty,
| and now that the controversy is over il may
be said that in the bred Scott case he was
nearer right than Mr.. Seward, who replied
to his opinion. But the idea Of holding a
/ human creature as an inferior being, with
out rights or the possibility of acquiring
them, was so abhorreut to the Northern
mind that Northerners appealed from
Taney's law 10 the higher law. and enrolled
themsel yes in the ranks of the Republican
party. His learning, his legal acumen, his
wisdom, his spot ess record, all went for
nothing, when they led him to conclusions
Subversiye Of the fundamental principles of
universal humanity.
To set the judgment of the Supreme Court
in the Bruner case side by side with the
| judgment of another Supreme Court in the
| bred Scott case is comparing small things
| with great. but in its sphere the sequel of
! the one may 90 on all fours with the sequel
to the other. And as the decision of Chief
Justice fancy and his brethren united all
men of conscience against an institution
whose cornerstone was revolving wrong,
so the decision of Mcfarland and his asso-
a. ,,r,i+ liz
mans in open rebellion against the corrup-
ton which has made our politics a byword,
and against all WHO are believed to main
tain and foster it.
1t is singuarly unfortunate for the South
ern Pacific Company that its ag nts should
have placed it in the position of aiding aud
abettIng the boOdlers. The lawyer who
supplied thc Supreme Court with the fiimsy
sophistry by which it decided that the
Grand Jury was Illegal was the senior coun-
sci Of the railroad-lhat and nothing more.
The first witness to refuse to obey the sub
pena Of the Grand jury was high official
of the railroad. The Judge who rendered
the decision in the case is believed to owe
his position to the railroad. The only news
papers which apologize for the action of the
Supreme Court are understood to be in rail-
read pay. 1t is general belief that the rail
road supplied large portion of the $1,000
Which each member of the Senatorial COM
bine is said to have fched. Whenever the
Grand Jury followed up a clew in n case Of
corruption, and whenever il ran against an
unexpected obstacle, it found the railroad
back Of the corruption and the obstacle.
The seventeen honest citizens who gave
two months OF their time to an Intellectual
effort to trace the work OF Doodle came to
the conclusion that there would have been
no need for their inquiry if the railroad had
been out of the way. Whether the control
ling minds in the company were wise in so
acting as to create that impression-wit
the unsettled controversies which they have
on hand-it is for them to say.