Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1914-06-05


There ought to be fuller and freer
communication betwixt the judge and
the Jury, the same as there is betwixt
the Judge and the lawyer. If the jury
has specific difficulty of fact it ought
to have the right to state it to the
Judge, and ask for help. If the judge
has a specific difficulty with a verdict.
he ought to have the right to state 1t
to the jury, and ask for help.
The court is made up of judge, jury
and lawyer, and each ought to confer,
to reach justice of the matter which
they have in hand.
In very many cases there ought not
to be the intervention Of grand jury.
In misdemeanors it ought to be suf-
ficient to put the person to trial upon
information of the states attorney.
The compulsory system Of rotation
Of the judges automatically operates to
delay the trial of causes, to continue
causes from court to court, to defeat
the enforcement of rules, to encourage
wastefulness at many points.
This matter ought at least to be left
to the wise discretion Of the legisla-
lture
There are some needed reforms not
hindered by the Constitution. There
ought to be shorter and palmer indict-
ments in the court of sessions. There
ought to be fewer challenges to jurors,
and generally only for cause. There
ought to be fewer rules Of evidence;
ell testimony ought to be relevant, and
generally competent, subject to the
opinion Of the trial judge.
| These artificial rules Of evidence
have been created by lawyers and
judges through many years and the
same agency ought to abolish them, or
they ought to be abolished by act of
the legislature.
| There ought to be fewer appeals, and
fewer new trials, and those for meri-
torious reasons only. 1t is better that
disputes be settled quickly and finally,
than that they be settled with mathe-
matical accuracy. The American Bar
association advocates a statute that no
Judgment should be set aside for error
| in any matter Of evidence, pleading or
procedure unless it should appear that
the error complained Of had injuri-
ously affected the substantial rights
of the parties.
A verdict in the trial court ought to
be presumptively right; and the con-
vict ought to abide his time in prison
until the contrary appears. That prac-
tice would abolish frivolous appeals,
would give confidence and come GER
tainty to verdicts, and would be a
wholesome object lesson to the public
as to wrong-doers. My conviction Is
strong that verdicts upon a full and
fair hearing, are generally right, and
ought to stand.
know that many of these sugges-
tions do not meet the approval OF a
preponderating opinion of the bar,
| else they would have been enacted in
to the body of the law.
But would not be true to the bar,
to the people, or to myself, did 1 not
speak the truth as l see 1t. 1 speak
| il not in a spirit of controversy or of
complaint, but with the sole object
that it may stir up the minds Of patri-
otic men.
What shall say of the notable law
yers who for more than a century
have stood in these houses and on this
spot betwixt their clients and the pen
alties of the law?
Job cried out in agony, Neither Is
there any daysman betwixt us that
might lay hands upon us both"
Those who have not stood where
that storm beats and you have not seen
it's lightning, not felt the hug Of it's
power, have no adequate conception
Of the fine courage Of the true lawyer.
On occasion he lays down life itself
for his cause.
MIR. Gladstone gave it as his opinion
that mo change, practical or specu-
lative, has any terrors for the profess
sion of the law. 1t will survive the
mutation of this or succeeding genera
tons"
l think it is not too much to say
that without the true lawyer justice
would perish from the earth.
The county Of York has always had
distinguished bar.
It's first great eXemplar was William
Smith. He was one of the commits
sioners to build the court house at
Pinckneyville in 1871, and he must
have practiced there.
He is said to have been born across
the line in North Carolina, and some
time in the sixties of the eighteenth
century.
Judge O'Neall says that he went to
school with Andrew Jackson and Will
liam H. Crawford at the famous acad-
emy of Joseph Alexander on Bullock S
creek.
He came to the bar in 1884 and set |
tied at York. His residence was fine
estate: it embraced an entire block on
the southern end of this Main street. |
and the mansion house was in the |
midst of it.
Mai. James F. Hart subsequently |
acquired the property; the residence
was destroyed by fire in 1881; and the
Mr. Smith was made judge in
1908: he was twice elected to the Unit |
ed States senate; he was several times