Cottonwood report. [volume] (Cottonwood, Idaho) 1893-1901, 1898-04-01
THE ooMmosnsT FELONY.
Committed Daily in Almost Ever;

sanctity and obligation of oaths is so
/ common in our courts OF justice that
hardly day passes when the Judges OF
the Quarter Sessions do not note some
instance of what they know to be per-
jury. The Bibles on the witness stand
are polluted by the lips of multitude
of perjurers in the course of every term.
Some Judges believe that the evil is
growing one. Judge Ludlow once said
that the longer he remained on the bench
the more hesaw of the difficulty of en-
forcing respect for an oath. Indeed. 1T
Is certain that for every person convicted
of the deliberate perjury which is
crime, and which Is susceptible of legal
proof, there are hundred who escape
because of the trouble of proving the
offence to the satisfaction of the law.
Not few cross-examiners conduct their
examinations on the assumption that no
witness ever tells the exact truth II he
can avoid it, and the assumption is be-
lieved to hold good in one out of every
three instances.
There are many witnesses, too, who
swear falsely without intending it. In
exactness of memory, confused ideas as
to the meaning of words or the timidity
into which the DULLES and brow-beaters
of the bar throw them will often account
for conflicting testimony when apparent
ly perjury had entered it somewhere.
When the Prince of Wales was young
and "perjured himself like a gentleman
In the Mordaunt case. he gave to one
species of deliberate perjury something
of the semblance of honor 1t is now, as
1t has long BEEN the fashion to regard
with contempt any man who goes into
court and swears against the chastity of
woman whose favor he has enjoyed.
In such cases perjury is looked upon as
venial, II not, indeed, creditable, and is
rarely punished
The Beecher-Tilton case was probably
one of the greatest exhibitions of per-
jury that has ever occupied the attention
OF the American people in a court of
justice. Such a mass of unreconcilable
testimony under the solemnityof an oath
has seldom been sent to a jury. That
trial had many injurious effects on the
public mind, but none, perhaps, was so
serious as the disregard of truth on the
part of persons who, it might have been
supposed, could not bring themselves to
the act of perjury. Religion, character
and confidence in veracity all suffered
cruel blows as the long procession of
liars and moral lepers passed in review.
The country was divided as the jury was,
in picking out the perjurers. Yet many
OF those who believed that Mr.. Beecher
had perjured himself commended that,
aside from any penal consequences which
might have resulted to himself, 1t was
his duty to shield. Mrs. Tilton at all haz-
al ds Whoever the perjurers were, there
Is no room for doubt that the perjury
which was committed and the half-ap-
proving or f1ippant manner in which it
was treated set an example for an i'm
mense amount of false swearing in
merican courts in after years.
There Is also another form of perjury
which Is tolerated or encouraged outside
of courts-the lying that pervails in cases
fol damages. The courts of Philadelphia
have been overrun with it in the past
ten years. The corporations of the city
or the state against which there may exist
q popular prejudice, as well as the city
government itself. have been the victims
of it time and again. The passenger rsil-
way and railroad companies, especially
the traction companies, have been
mulcted of several millions of dollars
largely because of the evidence of per-
jurers who think that rich man or a
corporation is fair game whenever 1t Is
possible to cook up against either, on
any plausible pretext, suit for damages
The grossest exaggeration, the meanest
dGceptions, the most bare-faced of down
right lying, all bolstered up by some
miserable shyster who Is to have a big
percentage of the fruits of perjury, are
unblushingly resorted to in such cases
and easily impose upon the minds of the
jury. few months ago Judge Wiltbank,
Just after he went on thebench, acclaimed
vigorously against the perjury which he
had witnessed in a case for damages
against the city but l have not heard
the Judge had not yet been seasoned
to 1t like his older colleagues.
The majority OF oaths are taken by
must occur whether, If it were not for
the solemnity and impressiveness and
the sense of fear which may be supposed
to accompany them, perjury might not be
more extensive. The injunction to kiss
the book carries with 1t the apprehen-
SION of future punishment more wildly
to thousands of minds than the process
of affirmation by uplifting the hand. But
the use of the Bible in administering
oaths to witnesses is often perfunctory
mechanical and hurried in the tumble of
words that fall from the lips of the
court clerk. Then, too, the copy of the
sacred volume Is as likely as not to be
SO dirty or dilapidated that 1t becomes
al offence to press 1t to ones lips or
even to touch It, In some of the public
offices and the Magistrate courts 1t can
not be touched without risk of personal
defilement. Thus the religious character
of a biblical oath is weakened. and not
a few jurists believe that nothing would
b3 lost If 1t were dispensed with alto
gether, while there would be distinct
sanitary gain. 1t used to be chiefly the
Quarkers and persons who had no faith
In the Bible that sued the privilege of af-
flrmation. but thousands of men and
women now affirm simply because they
cannot bring themselves to handle the
filthy, greasy book on which the sacred
formula is administered in our temples
of the justice.
Nearly seventy years ago William Nor
gan was accused by the Masons in west
ern New York of bearing false witness
and breaking his OATH 1t was said that
the, oath contained the most searching
penalties for those who would disregard
it. When Morgan's murdered body was
found there was a tremen dous cutlery that
he had been slain for perjury to his
order in revealing it's ritual. The whole
State of New York was vonvu1sed. The
excitement spread throughout the middle
States and New England and the south;
1t seemed at one time as If Masonry
might be suppressed, and the famous
William Writ was nominated for the
Presidency on the issue. To-day there
are 100000 Masons in the United States
and their oath-bound secrecy as to their
ritual Is seemingly more inviolate than
over. Guides" or monitors" have been
published. purporting to reveal it; the
Morgan case has been thrashed over
time and again, but whether there has
been any truth in them or in him is still
a mystery to the outside world, which
can be neither affirmednor denied No
obligation is apparently more binding OF
the sons of men than the oath which
holds this remarkable organization To-
gether, and none is better maintained. SO
far as those outside OF the pale of