But all this "trial by the country" would be no trial at all "by the
country," but only a trial by the government, if the government
'could either declare who may, and who may not, be jurors, or
could dictate to the jury anything whatever, either of law or
evidence, that is of the essence of the trial.
If the government may decide who may, and who may not, be
jurors, it will of course select only its partisans, and those friendly
to its measures. It may not only prescribe who may, and who may
not, be eligible to be drawn as jurors; but it may also question each
person drawn as a juror, as to his sentiments in regard to the
particular law involved in each trial, before suffering him to be
sworn on the panel; and exclude him if he be found unfavorable to
the maintenance of such a law. [1]
So, also, if the government may dictate to the jury what laws they
are to enforce, it is no longer a " trial by the country," but a trial by
the government; because the jury then try the accused, not by any
standard of their own not by their own judgments of their rightful
liberties but by a standard.
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