The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1900-04-11


crate it, rhi, is land Of Churches.
Sunday. y.school5 and school. and col
lcrcs, Of young men $ Christian asso-
cations and all the means aud ar-
plianccs for Christian religion in all
varieties and forms, perhaps to great
cr extent than any otHcr civilized land
and yet in this year Of 1900 our re :
cord to day cannot compare for mo-
mcnt with the record Of ancient
Egypt Of three thousand years ago,
for it was then the boast Of Egypt
that sin times Of peace none of our
citizens carry arms And here in
the year 1900 am safe in saying that
the majority Of the youth Of our coun-
try carry arms No doubt there Is a
difficulty the way Of our legislature
our consttntion-thc federal consti
tutiun-sccurcs to the citizen the
right to carry arms, but it surely can
not be contcndcd that the little devil
ish pocket pistol, the hip pocket, the
coat pocket the vcst-pOckct pistol
was in the contemplation Of the fran
crs of the constitution when they Sc
cured to the citizen the right to carry
arms. Those wise fathers Of the re-
public never intended to leave as Il
legacy to posterity so bloody curse.
That constitutional provision had re-
lation only to the character of arms
then carried by the soldiers in defense
Of their country and the huntsmcn on
the plain muskcts, rifles, swords,
cavalry pistols, carried as brave men
carry their arms, openly. The dia-
bolical habit of concealed weapons
had not set grown into existence. 1t
was to preserve the right to defend
home, property, person and family and
to defend the country and the right to
hunt game 1t was for this purpose
and similar purposes that the consti-
tutional provision was inserted. He
will be wise man and bcncfactor
to his State who can suggest to the
legislature some law that can grappl.
with this evil Or reduce it. There is
no doubt that law might be framed
making it heinous crime and Sc
riously punishable to manufacture, sell
or buy or use or possess pistol under
a certain size, and the size might be
made such that it would be impossi-
bic to conceal it upon the person and
thus put stop in large measure to
the carrying of concealed deadly weap-
ons. If something like this cannot
be done then all that is left for us to
do is to educate public opinion, to
educate the minds of the jurics and to
Danish from the minds Of the youth Of
the country and the men of the country
the diseased notions Of self defense and
thus We may to some extent reduce
the number of homicides and rid our
land Of the awful curse.
81 have already referred to the
fact that sometimes juries arc con-
demned for what are supposed to be
miscarriages Of justice and failure to
Do what was expected. The jury sys-
tenn has been very much discussed of
late throughout the State, and in
some parts of the State has been con.
demned as being not as successful as
it ought to be- and it has been even
pronounced as failure. In my opin-
ion such condemnation is altogether
undcscrvcd. Our jury law, our sys-
tenn Of trial by jury is good if only
carried into effect. Our statutes re-
quire that tho jury commissioners
shall choose so many names in their
respective counties, men wellqualifed
to serve US jurors, men Of sound
judgment, and Of good moral oharac
ter; there is no County in this State
that cannot furnish sufficient num-
Der for every term Of court-mcn Of
good moral character, sound judgment
and we'll qualified to serve as jurors;
IL the names of such men arc not put
in the box it is no. the fault Of III
law, but entirely the fault Of the jury
commissioners who are unworthy Of
their Offices from whatever cause.
The remedy for that is to impcach the
jury commissioners as unworthy Of
their high trust and place better men
IN Office and not to ask for q change Of
the jury law. If bad meD are listed
and their names put in the jury box it
is needless to look for good men to be
taken out.
Jury trial is q priceless heritage.
1t is protection Of the poor man
against tyranny and oppression. It
is the bulwark Of our liberties, espcc
ially in a rebclion form Of govern.