se is
acquainted with even the lowest element of learning, and if,
perchance, one can be found, he is made foreman. The Negro is never
thought of, but if, perchance, one should be selected, and in such a
manner is he prominent, even his color makes him conspicuous, he also
is on a par with his companions; men of influence are never selected.
Before I conclude with the jury may I say a word of those who select
them? In most States they are selected by the county commissioners, in
some by a jury commissioner. These commissioners, in most cases, are
none other than tools, instruments who have no minds of their own, but
like a reed before a gust of the mighty wind that blows nobody good,
as serfs and pampered menials bend irrespective of that higher
principle, that innate quality of man that places him above the brute
creation, serving in abject slavery for the carrying out of party
crime and cunning as well as subtle devices.

A court constituted of such elements as described, is an "Ideal One."
One to be desired, and the only one at whose hands justice, and only
that as gold refined, shall be tried, counterpoised and mete out to
every man justice, in the name of Heaven and at the hands of man.

But may I ask how are our courts of the South constituted? are any two
of the above qualities to be found in the most prominent of our
Southern courts of criminal jurisdiction? If Diogenes of old would
seek in our Southern courts for such a man, hereto, as in Greece, such
an one could not be found, for truth is no longer enthroned on its
sacred altar.

Having defined the true elements of which the courts of our Southland
are constituted, I shall pass to consider, THE MANNER IN WHICH THE
Negro is dealt with in these courts. Is the criminal Negro justly
dealt with in the courts of the South? is a question that I think is
more frequently asked than words can answer, language describe, or
man's wisdom unravel. Our woes have gone out to the ends of the earth
and, the stagnant waters can no longer contain its contaminating
germs, and now, even on the other side of the globe, we hear the
re-echo of our cries from this damnable cruelty wafted back to us by
the zephyrs that sustain expectations impregnated with hope telling of
some bright future.

What of the Negro in the sunny South? what of his rights as a citizen?
what of his treatment at the bar of justice? are questions also
propounded on the other side and since the trial cause o