Page:Memoir upon the negotiations between Spain and the United States of America which led to the treaty of 1819.djvu/125

 115

��before the penalty of the law can be imposed: if the proof is not complete and superabundant, the accused escapes, (as 1 have before said) without having any arbitrary penalty inflicted on him. If an individual is prosecuted in an action for a defi- nite crime, and the guilt is not completely establish- ed, but legal proof comes out in the course of the trial, that the accused has committed some still greater crime, lie is acquitted, and suffered to es- cape, because the action was not brouglit aginst that particular offence. The object of legislation being to prevent the perpetration of crimes, by giving a terrible warning and example to the publick, in the punishment of delinquents, and to administer jus- tice with rigorous exactitude, to afford triumph to truth, and to dispel the falsehoods, frauds, and so- phistries that obscure it, it appears that the laws of the United States do not completely fulfil this ob- ject; at least, the practice of the tribunals manifests the contrary. I must further add, that the Presi- dent, in all the States, and the governors, in their respective States, have the power of pardoning ca- pital offences, giving absolute impunity to the cul- prits, a3 if they were perfectly innocent, from a ge- nerosity, in my opinion, badly understood.

What I have said will suffice to give a com- prehensive idea of the legislation and forensick sys- tem of the Anglo- ximericans, and of the faculties and conduct of the judiciary in their republick, to

�� �