938
AMERICAN HISTORICAL ASSOCIATION
sponsibility are as liable to be chosen as the wise, the virtuous and the responsible. This remark is justified by the fact that the office is without emolument and is extreemly burdensome, and will there- fore seldom be sought by those who nre best qualified to fill it. In all civil cases there is an appeal to the supreme tribunal of the state at Saltillo a distance of near seven hundred miles from the inhabited parts of Texas. There are but few men in Texas who are qualified to prepare cases for the supreme court and when appeals have been taken they have generally been sent back several times to be reformed so that decissions in such cases are seldom had. It has become proverbial in Texas, that an appeal to Saltillo is a payment of the debt. It amounts to a total denial of justice especially to the poor, and this is the frail tenure by which the most important rights of the people of Texas are suspended. The manner of trying culprits for high criminal offences is such that it amounts to no tryal at all. The tryal by jury is not sanctioned by law, and the rights of the accused are committed to an alcalde who is ignorant of the formulas of the laws, and of the language in which they are written who prepares the cause for the judgment of the supreme tribunal in Saltillo, thus the lives, liberty and honor of the accused are suspended upon the tardy decission of a distant tribunal which knows not nor cares not for his suffering, and the rights of the community to bring offenders to speedy and exemplary punishment are sacrificed to forms equally uncertain and unknown. The formula required by law in the prosecution of criminals is so difficult to be pursued that most of the courts in Texas have long since ceased to attempt its execution. The tryal by jury has been attempted in some of the municipalities, but being unsupported byt~e sanction of law it.also has failed of success. A total interegnum 1D the administration of justice in criminal cases may be said to exist. A total disregard of the laws has become so prevalent, both amongsi the officers of justice, and the people at large, that reverence for la.ws or for those who administer them has almost intirely disappeared and contempt is fast assuming its place, so that the protection of our property our persons and lives is circumscribed almost exclu- sively to the moral honesty or virtue of our neighbor. The people and authorities of Bexar· in their representation in December last speaking of the judiciary system in Texas use the fol- lowing strong and conclusive language. "In the judiciary department there never has been any adequate organization and it may be said with just cause that in this depart- ment there is not and never has been any government in Texas." Besides the evils which menace Texas for the want of a judici&J.'Y there are others of no less appalling effects. This country is in danger of being inundated by bands of northern indians who are
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