The daily Republican., 1903-05-20
Wilmington, Del. May 20, 1903.
An Excellent Jury system.

Freqhenters of the Court House
this week have again been i'm.
pressed with the high quality of
the May jurors, both grand and
petit, and many have reverted to
the futile effort that was made last
winter to place the selection of jur.
ors in the hands of two commits
sioners, lone Democrat and one
Republican, in order to keep poll.
tics out of the jury box"
We venture the assertion that not
for thirty years has there been 50
little politics in the juries of this
county as to-day, and at no time
during all those years has the char
acter of the jurors rated higher
than now. The call for special jur-
les to try important cases, that is,
cases held by important and infu-
entail lawyers, is no longer heard,
and while causes are just us great
and vital as formerly, the litigants
are all willing to 60 before the jur
les selected in the ordinary fashion
by the Levy Court.
There never would have been any
demand for special jures except for
the vicious system of Democratic
Levy Courts, of selecting jurors for
the purpose of rewar6ing personal
adherents for political services, most
of which were reprehensible, If not
unlawful. III the days Of Demo
cratic Levy Courts, men were
brought here and sat on juries, de-
termining matters of life and death
rs well as of great material values,
who were thereby rewarded for
crimes against the ballot, for buy
ing or selling votes, their own and
the votes of others, for all of which
they should have been placed i'll the
prisoners box and tried and con-
victed. Truly in those days many
Il criminal was tried by his peers.
Many things have been changed
by the new constitution, cousplcu-
ously the quality of our courts, but
this does not apply to our Jurles.
TIA = IN G a
and Individually to the change III
the political character of our Levy
Court. The change would have
been impossible under Democratic
auspices There has absolutely
been no question as to the quality
and character of our jurors during
the last two years, in none OF the
counties; but throughout the State
there has been general and unquali-
fed confidence in their verdicts,
and every one feels secure to-day,
regardless of his politics, in having
his cause passed upon by a jury in
the State courts
This alone is ample justification
for Republican doinlnance. 70 Sc
cure this much for the State and the
citizen is sufficient compensation to
the commonwealth for the defeat
and annlhilation Of the old, the
Democratic party, There are al
legged Republicans here and there, of
both factions and fT factlonal IN
reason alone, who profess no fear
of Democratic return to power.
In c!NIh llSttlN VI SliltF lIiuS
the party in order to clean the
house and are apparently uncon
sclous OF the evils that would inevi-
tabiy follow III the train Of Demo-
cratic success, the most serious Of
all, as we think would be the evil
OF unfit. partisan, and often criminal
Jurors. The vice Of putting man
on the jury. because "he voted with
the party last fail for the first time,
and h ought to be held, is dis
tlnctly democratic vice; but here
and there, even III these days, we
find a Republican worker who
wants this or that man, almost in.
vallably an unfit man, put upon the
jury for the purpose of holding him
to the party 1t is vic Gus idea
and most damaging to the commu-
nifty. We are glad that the present
Levy Court commissioners have
had the courage no less than the
wisdom to turn their backs upon
these EOrrlDtiup nbpnalS