They must
judge of the existence of the law; of the true exposition of the law;
of the justice of the law; and of the admissibility and weight of all
the evidence offered; otherwise the government will have
everything its own way; the jury will be mere puppets in the hands
of the government: and the trial will be, in reality, a trial by the
government, and not a "trial by the country." By such trials the
government will determine its own powers over the people, instead
of the people's determining their own liberties against the
government; and it will be an entire delusion to talk, as for
centuries we have done, of the trial by jury, as a "palladium of
liberty," or as any protection to the people against the oppression
and tyranny of the government.
The question, then, between trial by jury, as thus described, and
trial by the government, is simply a question between liberty and
despotism. The authority to judge what are the powers of the
government, and what the liberties of the people, must necessarily
be vested in one or the other of the parties themselves the
government, or the people; because there is no third party to whom
it can be entrusted.
Pages:
10
11
12
13
14
15
16
17
18
19
20
21
22
23
24
25
26
27
28
29
30
31
32
33
34