The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1898-08-19
Some Evils of the Present Jury Sys-
tenn Pointed ont and Suggestions
offered as to Remedies.
FRENCH METHODS DENOUNCED
ZOLA'S TREATMENT CONDEMNED AS
MOCkERY OF JUSTICE.
Faith Expressed i'm the Ability of the
President to Deal with Questions
Growing Out of the War.

SARATOGA. n. Y. Aug. ia large au-
dience assembled in Convention Hall to-
day and listened to the annual address to
the American Bar Association by the Hon.
Joseph H. Choate Of New York The adj
dress ELECTED frequent applause. Discuss
ing the war and its results, Mr.. Choate
said:
1T seems to me that it would be out of
place for us to-day to undertake to pro-
nounce, as the organized representatives OF
the American bar, upon the possible, but as
yet unformulated, questions in diplomacy,
in policy and in public law which will nat
urally follow upon such momentous strug-
gle ana Such overwhelming victories by sea
and land. In the meantime / prefer, as
hope you prefer, to rely upon the wisdom
and the patience, the courage and the firm
ness, of the President and his constitutional
advisers, who have conducted the cam
palgnS of our gallant army and navy to
swift and sweeping victory.
You Will remember that only two years
ago in this very presence, the lord chief
justice of England. in his admirable dis
course before you on arbitration, declared,
may be even greater calamities than war,
and that national dishonor is one of them.
Now, nothing can be more certain than
that we should have incurred real national
dishonor if we had any longer refrained
from intervening for the rescue of our
oppressed and doWn-trodden neighbors.
The God of Battles and the judgment of
the nations have completely indicated
that step, and | have no fear that any am
bition for dominion or any lust of glory will
bring upon US any calamity or dishonor
whatever. In truth, the generous, the mag
unanimous terms of peace offered to our
fallen and PROSTATE foes have already dem
onstrated that
VANQUISHED MUST PAY THE COSTS.
THE constitutional power to declare war
is in Congress, but the equally important
power to make peace rests with the Pres
ident, subject to the subsequent approval
of the Senate as to the terms of the treaty.
1t rests safely with him, and for one / am
not in favor of intruding upon him too much
outside advice and assistance. The war, of
course, could not cease until every foot of
American soil was purged of the last vest
ige of Spanish power; but in war, as in
laws the beaten party must pay the costs,
and in settling the terms of peace and meet
ing the novel problems and the serious and
unexpected responsibilities which the tri-
umph of our arms has imposed upon us in
both hem1SphereS, responsibilities which we
cannot shirk if we would, and would not If
we could, the government must not be held
too rigidly to purposes and expectations de-
clared before the commencement of the war,
and in utter ignorance of its possible re-
suits. If that had been the rule, our fathers
would never have been permitted to declare
and maintain their independence, for it was
only a month before the battle of Lexington
that Franklin declared to Lord Chatham
that he had Travelled Iar and wide in Amer
lea and had not found one man, drunk or
sober, who was in favor of independence.
If that had been the rule the proclamation
of emancipation could never have been is
sued, and the shame of slavery would still
blot the stars upon our flag for at the out
set nothing was more distinctly declared by
Lincoln and his advisers than that slavery
where 1t existed would not be interfered
with. In war events change the situation
very rapidly, and only when the end Clowns
the work shall we truly comprehend the
great questions which await us. In the
meantime let us trust the President who
has our national honor most truly and wise
ly at heart"
Recurring to more strictly professional
topics. Mr.. Choate took up the lola case.
You will readily recall the main Incl
dents of the trial of lola. An army officer
belonging to race obnoxious to the hatred
and jealousy of the French people, accused
of infamous crime, bounded by iicen-
tious press, had been tried and convicted by
court-martial, and after the most shame
full degradation, had been condemned for
life to solitary confinement upon a rock in
the sea, eating out his heart with despair
more biting than the talons of the vulture
or the beak of the eagle. He protested his
innocence, and scores of the best men in
France declared their faith In 1t also.
among them statesmen and officials of high
rank and character, and before long it be-
came apparent that, whether guilty or in
nocent. he had been condemned practically
unheard and the government declared that
reasons of state forbade that the truth
should be known. 1t was at this point that
lola, the most notorious, at least If not
a courage and a chivalry never surpassed.
took up the unhappy victims cause, pro-
claimed his innocence and challenged the
authorities to bring himself to trial for his
accusation against the court-martial, which,
he declared had covered the illegality of
the conviction of Dreyfus by the judicial
crime of consciously acquitting the real
criminal
CRUEL DISREGARD OF RIGHT.
1.-THE government took up the challenge,
and then followed a trial which, for reck-
less and cruel disregard of every principle
of right and justice known to us, is surely
without precedent in modern history, and
yet it purported to be a jury trial. jury
was sworn, but apparently it's sole function
was to register the edict of the government
the army and the press, which demanded
conviction. OF course. the defendant was
presumed to be guilty until he should prove
himself to be innocent, but every effort of
himself and his counsel to elicit the truth
was thwarted. "A hostile audience. with
which the courtroom was packed, was per-
mitted to cover the accused with contumely.
'COnSpueZ Zolap greeted his entrance. In
vective from court, prosecutor and wit
nesses took the place of evidence and of
argument. There was no right of cross
Examination no law Of evidence: witnesses
who were summoned defiantly stayed away;
those who came refused to testify further
harangue the jury for the prisoner and
against the prisoner, and retired amid ire
pressible applause HearSay was the main
staple of the proceedings. A perfect pande-
monium prevailed throughout the trial and
at the end of two weeks as everybody had
known from the beginning, the heroic de-
PENDANT was convicted and sentenced, and
his principal witnesses were degraded or
dismissed from the public services.
However satisfactory such a method of
administering criminal justice may be TO
the French people, who cling to ii through
all changes of government, it could not but
excite horror and disgust throughout the
Anglo-Saxon world. The proceedings were
read wherever Zola's fascinating romances
had preceded them. Every safeguard of
personal liberty enjoyed in England and
America for two centuries had been vio-
lated. We could not read the account of
the trial without contrasting 1t with our
utterance from every lip Thank Cod ]
am an American! Heroic Zola 1t is pleas
ant to think of him enjoying the free air
OF Switzerland after all. having taken
French leave of his country. instead of
rotting in the dungeon to which her despot-
ism under republican mask would have
consigned him.
THE JURY SYSTEM.
This signal event. so shocking to our
sense of justice and right. has done more,
am happy to believe. than whole volumes
of argument TO strengthen and perpetuate
our faith in our wholly different system of
procedure for the ascertainment of facts on
which life. liberty or property are to be
brought in Judgment. 1t will help TO pre-
serve In its integrity our precious trial by
jury. by which man can be deprived
of life or liberty by the sentence of court
h; hos baa n