Grayville Weekly Herald

For the Herald.
Messrs. Editors:--The frequent acquittal of murderers during a few past years is a serious and growing evil, and it shows that there is great laxity in the administrators of law, not justice, for, did they administer justice, criminals would be punished and innocent men acquitted, which, however, is partially reversed in these days of singularities. I have been led to these remarks by the recent non-conviction of a man in Shawneetown, which shows the extreme looseness of modern judicial procedure in one case, and it is a sample of many others. Life is now lightly regarded in almost every part of the country by a large class of persons, and a regard for the law of the land is at a low ebb, which is no trifling consideration in view of the welfare and safety of society. These evils are a source of regret and apprehension to every good citizen; but how to arrest and reform them, is a question which may well employ the ablest mind. Two extremes exist in society at the present time, the laxity of juries, and mob-law, which are the sources of much mischief and evil. The failure of the courts to punish men who are guilty of crimes, arouses a spirit of contempt and lawlessness in the breasts of those who are impulsive, and emboldens them to punish the guilty by a process which is denominated Lynch Law, which term is quite familiar to every one, from the frequency with which it is used and so incensed do men become, at times, that they form themselves into mobs and vigilance committees to punish rogues when the civil tribunal fails to do its duty, and they often inflict punishment that is too severe for the crime. Procedures of this kind have frequently occurred within a recent period in various parts of the country, and they are of such a serious nature that every one who really desires the permanency of law and order, ought to wake up to his duty, and faithfully perform it whenever he is called upon either as judge, juryman, or citizen. My opinion is that lawyers are allowed too much liberty for their clients, and that it is an abuse and ought to be reformed. I believe that it is sufficient that a lawyer insures an impartial trial to his client and then stop at that point, and to such a condition he ought to be restricted by law, for it is not just that a lawyer should be allowed, after a criminal has had a fair trial, to go on with his demurrs and bills of exceptions, other subterfuges and expedients to defeat justice or screen the guilty, and thus burden the State with costs for nothing, simply that he may get a large fee for his services. This too, is an evil, and ought to be reformed. In this way the ends of law are often frustrated, because the moneyed culprit can pay himself out of a condemnation through the license which the law accords to his counsel. It is a matter of vital interest to society, and a reform of it, in my opinion, would greatly tend to lessen the abuses in the courts. The question is one with which society is interested, and society must work out the great problem of self government and deliver itself from the scourges which afflict it, for they are numerous and are becoming too intolerable to be borne. Mr. Jefferson wrote that, mankind are more disposed to suffer evils while they are sufferable than to rid themselves of them, and men will no doubt rid themselves from their present evils when they become too insufferable to be endured.
S.