An Essay On The Trial By Jury by Lysander Spooner (best love novels of all time TXT) ๐
- Author: Lysander Spooner
Book online ยซAn Essay On The Trial By Jury by Lysander Spooner (best love novels of all time TXT) ๐ยป. Author Lysander Spooner
Unless They Judge On This Point, The People Are Liable To Have Their
Liberties Taken From Them By Brute Force, Without Any Law At All.
The Jury Must Also Judge Of The Laws Of Evidence. If The
Government Can Dictate To A Jury The Laws Of Evidence, It Can Not
Only Shut Out Any Evidence It Pleases, Tending To Vindicate The
Accused, But It Can Require That Any Evidence Whatever, That It
Chapter 1 (The Right Of Juries To Judge Of The Justice Of Laws) Section 1 Pg 5Pleases To Offer, Be Held As Conclusive Proof Of Any Offence
Whatever Which The Government Chooses To Allege.
It Is Manifest, Therefore, That The Jury Must Judge Of And Try The
Whole Case, And Every Part And Parcel Of The Case, Free Of Any
Dictation Or Authority On The Part Of The Government. They Must
Judge Of The Existence Of The Law; Of The True Exposition Of The Law;
Of The Justice Of The Law; And Of The Admissibility And Weight Of All
The Evidence Offered; Otherwise The Government Will Have
Everything Its Own Way; The Jury Will Be Mere Puppets In The Hands
Of The Government: And The Trial Will Be, In Reality, A Trial By The
Government, And Not A "Trial By The Country." By Such Trials The
Government Will Determine Its Own Powers Over The People, Instead
Of The People's Determining Their Own Liberties Against The
Government; And It Will Be An Entire Delusion To Talk, As For
Centuries We Have Done, Of The Trial By Jury, As A "Palladium Of
Liberty," Or As Any Protection To The People Against The Oppression
And Tyranny Of The Government.
The Question, Then, Between Trial By Jury, As Thus Described, And
Trial By The Government, Is Simply A Question Between Liberty And
Despotism. The Authority To Judge What Are The Powers Of The
Government, And What The Liberties Of The People, Must Necessarily
Be Vested In One Or The Other Of The Parties Themselves The
Government, Or The People; Because There Is No Third Party To Whom
It Can Be Entrusted. If The Authority Be Vested In The Government,
The Governmnt Is Absolute, And The People Have No Liberties Except
Such As The Government Sees Fit To Indulge Them With. If, On The
Other Hand, That Authority Be Vested In The People, Then The People
Have All Liberties, (As Against The Government,) Except Suc As
Substantially The Whole People (Through A Jury) Choose To Disclaim;
And The Government Can Exercise No Power Except Such As
Substantially The Whole People (Through A Jury) Consent That It May
Exercise.
Chapter 1 (The Right Of Juries To Judge Of The Justice Of Laws) Section 2 Pg 6The Force And. Justice Of The Preceding Argument Cannot Be Evaded
By Saying That The Government Is Chosen By The People; That, In
Theory, It Represents The People; That It Is Designed To Do The Will Of
The People; That Its Members Are All Sworn To Observe The
Fundamental Or Constitutional Law Instituted By The People; That Its
Acts Are Therefore Entitled To Be Considered The Acts Of The People;
And That To Allow A Jury, Representing The People, To Invalidate The
Acts Of The' Government, Would Therefore Be Arraying The People
Against Themselves.
There Are Two Answers To Such An Argument.
One Answer Is, That, In A Representative Government, There Is No
Absurdity Or Contradiction, Nor Any Arraying Of The People Against
Themselves, In Requiring That The Statutes Or Enactments Of The
Government Shall Pass The Ordeal Of Any Number Of Separate
Tribunals, Before It Shall Be Determined That They Are To Have The
Chapter 1 (The Right Of Juries To Judge Of The Justice Of Laws) Section 2 Pg 7Force Of Laws. Our American Constitutions Have Provided Five Of
These Separate Tribunals, To Wit, Representatives, Senate,
Executive,[2] Jury, And Judges; And Have Made It Necessary That
Each Enactment Shall Pass The Ordeal Of All These Separate Tribunals,
Before Its Authority Can Be Established By The Punishment Of Those
Who Choose To Transgress It. And There Is No More Absurdity Or
Inconsistency In Making A Jury One Of These Several Tribunals, Than
There Is In Making The Representatives, Or The Senate, Or The
Executive, Or The Judges, One Of Them. There Is No More Absurdity
In Giving A Jury A Veto Upon The Laws, Than There Is In Giving A Veto
To Each Of These Other Tribunals. The People Are No More Arrayed
Against Themselves, When A Jury Puts Its Veto Upon A Statute, Which
The Other Tribunals Have Sanctioned, Than They Are When The Same
Veto Is Exercised By The Representatives, The Senate, The Executive,
Or The Judges.
But Another Answer To The Argument That The People Are Arrayed
Against Themselves, When A Jury Hold An Enactment Of The
Government Invalid, Is, That The Government, And All The
Departments Of The Government, Are Merely The Servants And Agents
Of The People; Not Invested With Arbitrary Or Absolute Authority To
Bind The People, But Required To Submit All Their Enactments To The
Judgment Of A Tribunal More Fairly Representing The Whole People,
Before They Carry Them Into Execution, By Punishing Any Individual
For Transgressing Them. If The Government Were Not Thus Required To
Submit Their Enactments To The Judgment Of "The Country," Before
Executing Them Upon Individuals If, In Other Words, The People
Had Reserved To Themselves No Veto Upon The Acts Of The
Government, The Government, Instead Of Being A Mere Servant And
Agent Of The People, Would Be An Absolute Despot Over The People.
It Would Have All Power In Its Own Hands; Because The Power To
Punish Carries All Other Powers With It. A Power That Can, Of Itself,
And By Its Own Authority, Punish Disobedience, Can Compel
Obedience And Submission, And Is Above All Responsibility For The
Character Of Its Laws. In Short, It Is A Despotism.
And It Is Of No Consequence To Inquire How A Government Came By
This Power To Punish, Whether By Prescription, By Inheritance, By
Usurpation. Or By Delegation From The People's If It Have Now But
Got It, The Government Is Absolute.
It Is Plain, Therefore, That If The People Have Invested The
Government With Power To Make Laws That Absolutely Bind The
People, And To Punish The People For Transgressing Those Laws, The
People Have Surrendered Their Liberties Unreservedly Into The Hands
Of The Government.
It Is Of No Avail To Say, In Answer To This View Of The Ease, That In
Surrendering Their Liberties Into The Hands Of The Government, The
People Took An Oath From The Government, That It Would Exercise Its
Power Within Certain Constitutional Limits; For When Did Oaths Ever
Restrain A Government That Was Otherwise Unrestrained? Orwhen
Did A Government Fail To Determine That All Its Acts Were Within The
Constitutional And Authorized Limits Of Its Power, If It Were
Chapter 1 (The Right Of Juries To Judge Of The Justice Of Laws) Section 2 Pg 8Permitted To Determine That Question For Itself?
Neither Is It Of Any Avail To Say, That, If The Government Abuse Its
Power, And Enact Unjust And Oppressive Laws, The Government May
Be Changed By The Influence Of Discussion, And The Exercise Of The
Right Of Suffrage. Discussion Can Do Nothing To Prevent The
Enactment, Or Procure The Repeal, Of Unjust Laws, Unless It Be
Understood That, The Discussion Is To Be Followed By Resistance.
Tyrants Care Nothing For Discussions That Are To End Only In
Discussion. Discussions, Which Do Not Interfere With The
Enforcement Of Their Laws, Are But Idle Wind To Them. Suffrage Is
Equally Powerless And Unreliable. It Can Be Exercised Only
Periodically; And The Tyranny Must At Least Be Borne Until The Time
For Suffrage Comes. Be Sides, When The Suffrage Is Exercised, It
Gives No Guaranty For The Repeal Of Existing Laws That Are
Oppressive, And No Security Against The Enactment Of New Ones That
Are Equally So. The Second Body Of Legislators Are Liable And Likely
To Be Just As Tyrannical As The First. If It Be Said That The Second
Body May Be Chosen For Their Integrity, The Answer Is, That The First
Were Chosen For That Very Reason, And Yet Proved Tyrants. The
Second Will Be Exposed To The Same Temptations As The First, And
Will Be Just As Likely To Prove Tyrannical. Who Ever Heard That
Succeeding Legislatures Were, On The Whole, More Honest Than Those
That Preceded Them? What Is There In The Nature Of Men Or Things To
Make Them So? If It Be Said That The First Body Were Chosen From
Motives Of Injustice, That Fact Proves That There Is A Portion Of
Society Who Desire To Establish Injustice; And If They Were Powerful
Or Artful Enough To Procure The Election Of Their Instruments To
Compose The First Legislature, They Will Be Likely To Be Powerful Or
Artful Enough To Procure The Election Of The Same Or Similar
Instruments To Compose The Second. The Right Of Suffrage,
Therefore, And Even A Change Of Legislators, Guarantees No Change
Of Legislation Certainly No Change For The Better. Even If A Change
For The Better Actually Comes, T Cmes Too Late, Because It Comes
Only After More Or Less Injustice Has Been Irreparably Done.
But, At Best, The Right Of Suffrage Can Be Exercised Only
Periodically; And Between The Periods The Legislators Are Wholly
Irresponsible. No Despot Was Ever More Entirely Irresponsible Than
Are Republican Legislators During The Period For Which They Are
Chosen. They Can Neither, Be Removed From Their Office, Nor Called
To Account While In Their Office, Nor Punished After They Leave Their
Office, Be Their Tyranny What It May. Moreover, The Judicial And
Executive Departments Of The Government Are Equally Irresponsible
To The People, And Are Only Responsible, (By Impeachment,
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