The Abolition of the Jury System. 13 



cratic governments that the jury system has come by its high 

 reputation. 



Tocqueville sees this and says, that " trial by jury is emphatic- 

 ally a political institution." 



You detect the ring of political intent in the speeches of the 

 continental orators advocating the introduction of trial by jury 

 into their several countries. 



It is easy to see how this comes about. Monarchies and aris- 

 tocracies often make political crimes out of what men of progres- 

 sive and democratic tendencies consider the liberties of the citi- 

 zen. 



The jury becomes popular because, taken from the people, it 

 naturally will be a defense against conviction of these political 

 crimes. 



But in this country, we are expected yet to glorify an institu- 

 tion which has lost all significance and appreciation as a protection 

 of liberty. We have no monarch to declare the liberties of the 

 citizen political crimes. We have no ranks in society who can 

 make crimes out of encroachments by the lower orders upon the 

 claims of privilege. The ballot has taken the wind from the sails 

 ot trial by jury as a defense of liberty, and left it as 



" Idle as a painted ship 

 Upon a painted ocean." 



Trial by jury has not had a cargo to carry in the interest of 

 liberty since the government was founded, and it cannot get one. 



The social conditions in this country are such that trials like 

 the famous state trials in England — Home Tooke's and Hone's 

 for example — can never arise ; and if they should, the ballot will 

 always be the swiftest instrument to cut the knot which they pre- 

 sent. Political rights with us find their solution in suffrage, not 

 in jury trials. Politics settles political rights, courts assenting or 

 dissenting. As long as the courts are in the hands of the people, 

 politics may be trusted to take care of political rights. If it could 

 be shown that courts have stood in the breach for liberty, it will 

 be found that any effective service has been rendered by courts 

 of last resort, where juries never come. 



