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392 CORRESPONDENCE AND PUBLIC PAPERS.
not only that punishment be proportionate to guilt,
but that all proceedings against persons accused or
suspected, should be accompanied by the reflection
that they may be innocent. Hence, therefore, it is
proper that dispassionate and careful inquiry should
precede these rigours which justice exacts, and which
should always be tempered with as much humanity
and benevolence as the nature of such cases may admit. Warm, partial, and precipitate prosecutions,
and cruel and abominable executions, such as racks,
embowelling, drawing, quartering, burning and the
like, are no less impolitic than inhuman; they infuse
into the public mind disgust at the barbarous severity
of government, and fill it with pity and partiality for
the sufferers. On the contrary, when offenders are
prosecuted with temper and decency, when they are
convicted after impartial trials, and punished in a
manner becoming the dignity of public justice to prescribe, the feelings and sentiments of men will be on
the side of government; and however disposed they
may and ought to be, to regard suffering offenders
with compassion, yet that compassion will never be
unmixed with a due degree of indignation. We are
happy that the genius of our laws is mild, and we
have abundant reason to rejoice in possessing one of
the best institutions that ever was devised for bringing offenders to justice without endangering the
peace and security of the innocent. I mean that of
Grand Juries. Greatly does it tend to promote order
and good government that in every district there
Should frequently be assembled a number of the most
| Title | The correspondence and public papers of John Jay - 3 |
| Creator | Jay, John |
| Publisher | G.P. Putnam's Sons |
| Place of Publication | New York, London |
| Date | [1890-93] |
| Language | eng |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Title | 00000427 |
| Type | Books/Pamphlets |
| Transcript | 392 CORRESPONDENCE AND PUBLIC PAPERS. not only that punishment be proportionate to guilt, but that all proceedings against persons accused or suspected, should be accompanied by the reflection that they may be innocent. Hence, therefore, it is proper that dispassionate and careful inquiry should precede these rigours which justice exacts, and which should always be tempered with as much humanity and benevolence as the nature of such cases may admit. Warm, partial, and precipitate prosecutions, and cruel and abominable executions, such as racks, embowelling, drawing, quartering, burning and the like, are no less impolitic than inhuman; they infuse into the public mind disgust at the barbarous severity of government, and fill it with pity and partiality for the sufferers. On the contrary, when offenders are prosecuted with temper and decency, when they are convicted after impartial trials, and punished in a manner becoming the dignity of public justice to prescribe, the feelings and sentiments of men will be on the side of government; and however disposed they may and ought to be, to regard suffering offenders with compassion, yet that compassion will never be unmixed with a due degree of indignation. We are happy that the genius of our laws is mild, and we have abundant reason to rejoice in possessing one of the best institutions that ever was devised for bringing offenders to justice without endangering the peace and security of the innocent. I mean that of Grand Juries. Greatly does it tend to promote order and good government that in every district there Should frequently be assembled a number of the most |
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