Sidebilder
PDF
ePub

when federal questions are involved; that is, when the controversy deals with the Constitution, laws or treaties of the United States.

II. STATE. The judicial systems of the several States are too widely different to permit of brief explanation. In some of them courts of equity are distinct from those of law, while in others the same tribunals exercise both functions, and in still others all distinction between actions at law and suits in equity is abolished. The manner of selecting judges also varies in different States and from time to time. At the period of the formation of the United States the election of judges by the people was unknown except in Georgia. At the present time, however, the people elect judges in twenty-four of the States. Judicial terms vary from two to twenty-one years, the average being about ten years. The question has been much discussed whether the judiciary should be elective by the people, or appointive by the executive or Legislature, or "councils of appointment." Most of the States have decided in favor of the former alternative, but many of these have found it necessary to lengthen the terms of their elective judiciary in order to lessen the necessary evils of the system, which tends to supplant judicial justice by political shrewdness. The elective system seems to have been a growth of the "spoils " doctrine as a means of rotation in office.

66

Junketing. Any trip, excursion or entertainment by an official at public expense under the guise of public service, is popularly called a "junket. The form these junkets most frequently take, is a legislative investigation requiring travel to various points and large hotel bills.

Jury. A jury is a body of impartial persons sworn to inquire into the truth of facts presented to them and to render a verdict or decision on the evidence. The right to a trial by jury is insured by the fifth, sixth and seventh amendments to the Constitution of the United States and by most of the State constitutions. In criminal cases the right is universal in this country; in civil cases it is general, but may usually be waived by consent of both parties. The petit or trial jury is usually com

posed of twelve persons, but sometimes a smaller num. ber is used. Their verdict must be unanimous in criminal cases and generally in civil cases. A special or struck jury is ordered by the court in extraordinary cases where it is shown that a fair and impartial trial cannot be had by an ordinary jury. A struck jury is obtained as follows: From the complete list or panel of jurors an officer selects forty-eight whom he considers most impartial and in every way best fitted to try the case at issue; from this list each party strikes off, alternately, twelve names; from the remaining twenty-four the trial jury is selected in the ordinary way. A grand jury is composed of twenty-three persons; its function is to inquire concerning the commission of crimes and to present indictments against offenders, where it thinks proper, to a court having jurisdiction to try the case; twelve must concur to find an indictment, or a true bill, as it is called; its proceedings are secret. The Constitution of the United States and all the State constitutions provide that no person shall be tried for a capital or otherwise infamous crime except after indictment by a grand jury. A coroner's jury, or jury of inquest, is composed of from nine to fifteen persons, and its duty is to inquire into the causes of sudden deaths or dangerous woundings. Sheriff's juries try the title to property held by the sheriff when it is claimed by a third party. Juries are also employed for other special purposes, among which is the determination of the value of property taken under the right of eminent domain. `The province of a jury is usually to judge merely of the truth or falsity of the facts alleged, the court deciding questions of law; but in some cases and in a few of the States the jury decides both as to the law and the facts.

Justice, Department of. This department was organized June 22, 1870, and the Attorney-General, whose office was created by act of September 24, 1789, was placed at its head. The Attorney-General is appointed by the President and confirmed by the Senate; his salary is $8,000; he is a member of the Cabinet. The establishment of this department brought under his

control all United States district-attorneys and marshals, and secured uniformity in the trial and prosecution of cases. The Attorney-General rarely argues cases, this work being done by his subordinates. These are as follows:

SALARY.

Solicitor-General.........

$7,000

Assistant Attorney-General..
Assistant Attorney-General.

5,000

5,000

Assistant Attorney-General for the Interior Department.. 5,000 Assistant Attorney General.

5,000

Assistant Attorney General for the Post-Office Department 4,000 Solicitor of the Treasury

4,500

Solicitor of Internal Revenue..

4,500

Examiner of Claims (State Department)..

3,500

The Solicitor-General takes the place of the AttorneyGeneral in the latter's absence. He has charge of the conduct of cases in the courts at Washington. The Attorneys-General of the United States are given below:

Edmund Randolph, Virginia..
William Bradford, Pennsylvania......
Charles Lee, Virginia....

Theo. Parsons, Massachusetts..
Levi Lincoln Massachusetts..
Robert Smith, Maryland...
John Breckenridge, Kentucky.
Cæsar A. Rodney, Pennsylvania..
William Pinkney, Maryland.......
Richard Rush, Pennsylvania.
William Wirt, Virginia....
John M. Berrien, Georgia.
Roger B. Taney, Maryland...

...

.....

.......

................

Benjamin F. Butler, New York.
Felix Grundy, Tennessee.

Henry D. Gilpin, Pennsylvania..
John J. Crittenden, Kentucky.

1789-1794
1794-1795

.....

............

1795-1801

1801-1801

..............

[blocks in formation]

1811-1814

1814-1817

1817-1829

1829-1831

1831-1833

1833-1838

....

[blocks in formation]

..........

[blocks in formation]

.........

Hugh S. Legare, South Carolina....
John Nelson, Maryland.
John Y. Mason, Virginia..
Nathan Clifford, Maine..

[blocks in formation]

Kanawha is a name at first proposed for West Virginia (which see).

Kansas. The larger part of Kansas constituted a portion of the Louisiana purchase (see Annexations I.), but the southwestern corner was ceded by Texas to the United States in 1850. It formed part of Missouri Territory (see Territories) till 1821, and then remained unorganized till, in 1854, by the Kansas-Nebraska Bill (which see) the Territory of Kansas was erected, which included part of the present State of Colorado. After much trouble and not a little bloodshed, caused by the opposing attempts to make Kansas a slave State and a free State (see Border War; Brown, John) it was admitted to the Union under the Wyandotte Constitution, which prohibited slavery, January 29, 1861. The capital is Topeka. The population in 1880 was 996,096, and in the last census (1890) 1,427,096. Kansas has seven Congressmen and nine electoral votes. It is solidly Republican. The State is called after the river of the same name, which in the Indian tongue means "smoky water." Popularly it is known as the Garden State, or the Garden of the West. (See Governors; Legislatures.)

Kansas Aid Society, was a congressional society formed in 1854 for the purpose of aiding free-state emigration to Kansas, in which region the struggle between the free State and the slave parties was then at its height. (See Border War.)

Kansas-Nebraska Bill.-The Missouri Compromise of 1820 had excluded slavery from the Louisiana purchase north of thirty-six degrees thirty minutes north latitude, except from the State of Missouri, and the Compromise of 1850 was not regarded as having disturbed that arrangement. That part of this region lying west and northwest of Missouri, and stretching to the Rocky Mountains, was known as the "Platte Coun

try." In 1851-52 petitions for a territorial organization of this region were presented to Congress, and in 1853 a bill organizing it as the Territory of Nebraska was reported in the House. This bill failed in the Senate. In the next Congress substantially the same bill was reported to the Senate from the Committee on Territories by Stephen A. Douglas. In the meantime, A. Dixon, of Kentucky, had given notice that he would move an amendment exempting this Territory from the operations of the Missouri Compromise. Douglas, not to be outdone in the service of slavery, had the bill recommitted, and reported the following measure: Two Territories were to be organized, Kansas to include all of this region in the latitude of Missouri and west of that State, and Nebraska the remainder. The southern boundary of Kansas was moved to thirty-seven degrees north latitude, the strip between thirty-six degrees thirty minutes and thirty-seven degrees being left to the Indians. Moreover, in order to carry into effect the principle of the Compromise of 1850 (so said the bill), it was provided that: 1. The question of slavery was to be left to the people. 2. Questions involving the title to slaves were to be left to local courts with the right to appeal to the United States Supreme Court. 3. The fugitive slave laws were to apply to the Territories. Further, so far as this region was concerned, the Missouri Compromise was declared repealed. In this shape the bill, known as the Kansas-Nebraska Bill, was passed and signed by President Pierce. This measure divided the Whig party, most of the Southern Whigs joining the Democrats. All Northerners opposed to the measure were known as "Anti-Nebraskas," and these joined the party known soon after as Republican.

Kentuc.-A name applied to the Kentucky boatmen about 1800. They are described as "half-horse, half alligator, tipped with snapping-turtle," lawless and a terror to the reighborhood."

Kentucky was originally a part of Virginia, but was ceded to the national government in 1784, though the cession was not finally settled. for several years. (See

« ForrigeFortsett »