FREE BOOKS

Author's List




PREV.   NEXT  
|<   236   237   238   239   240   241   242   243   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   251   252   253   254   255   256   257   258   259   260  
261   262   263   264   265   266   267   268   269   270   271   272   273   274   275   276   277   278   279   280   281   282   283   284   285   >>   >|  
e with their action. Several years of unhappy experience make it apparent that in both of these respects the Territory of Utah requires special legislation by Congress. Public opinion in that Territory, produced by circumstances too notorious to require further notice, makes it necessary, in my opinion, in order to prevent the miscarriage of justice and to maintain the supremacy of the laws of the United States and of the Federal Government, to provide that the selection of grand and petit jurors for the district courts, if not put under the control of Federal officers, shall be placed in the hands of persons entirely independent of those who are determined not to enforce any act of Congress obnoxious to them, and also to pass some act which shall deprive the probate courts, or any court created by the Territorial legislature, of any power to interfere with or impede the action of the courts held by the United States judges. I am convinced that so long as Congress leaves the selection of jurors to the local authorities it will be futile to make any effort to enforce laws not acceptable to a majority of the people of the Territory, or which interfere with local prejudices or provide for the punishment of polygamy or any of its affiliated vices or crimes. I presume that Congress, in passing upon the subject, will provide all reasonable and proper safeguards to secure honest and impartial jurors, whose verdicts will command confidence and be a guaranty of equal protection to all good and law-abiding citizens, and at the same time make it understood that crime can not be committed with impunity. I have before said that while the laws creating the several Territories have generally contained uniform provisions in respect to the judiciary, yet Congress has occasionally varied these provisions in minor details, as the circumstances of the Territory affected seemed to demand; and in creating the Territory of Utah Congress evidently thought that circumstances there might require judicial remedies not necessary in other Territories, for by section 9 of the act creating that Territory it is provided that a writ of error may be brought from the decision of any judge of the supreme or district court of the Territory to the Supreme Court of the United States upon any writ of _habeas corpus_ involving the question of personal freedom--a provision never inserted in any other Territorial act except that creating the Territory
PREV.   NEXT  
|<   236   237   238   239   240   241   242   243   244   245   246   247   248   249   250   251   252   253   254   255   256   257   258   259   260  
261   262   263   264   265   266   267   268   269   270   271   272   273   274   275   276   277   278   279   280   281   282   283   284   285   >>   >|  



Top keywords:

Territory

 

Congress

 
creating
 

United

 
courts
 

jurors

 

States

 
provide
 

circumstances

 

enforce


provisions

 

interfere

 

Territorial

 
Federal
 

district

 

action

 
selection
 

require

 

opinion

 

Territories


impunity
 

committed

 
citizens
 
verdicts
 

command

 
confidence
 

impartial

 

honest

 

proper

 

safeguards


secure

 

guaranty

 

understood

 
abiding
 

protection

 

evidently

 

decision

 

supreme

 

Supreme

 

brought


provided

 

habeas

 
provision
 

inserted

 

freedom

 

personal

 

corpus

 

involving

 

question

 
occasionally