Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 04.pdf/92

 The Supreme Court of Georgia. sparingly returned, to deliver a number of literary addresses. The most remarkable of these were a series on Truth, — "Truth in Thought and Emotion," " Truth in Conduct," and " Truth at the Bar." From these and other papers I extract a few paragraphs at random. "Energy in goodness is often attended with a corresponding energy in well-meant evil. A strik ing instance of this is furnished by the history of religious persecution. Not many centuries ago it seems to have been one of the most sacred duties of a good man to burn a better one than himself."

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and fraud are forces of such potency that they can be met and resisted only by forces of like kind, I think wisdom is already a lost art, that we are on the confines of perdition, and that erelong we shall tumble over the wall and be swallowed up in the pit." The following paragraphs are selected from "Truth at the Bar," — an acute and metaphysical statement of the philosophy of legal procedure : —

"Some meritorious cases, indeed many, are lost in passing through the justice of procedure; but they are all justly lost, provided the rules of procedure have been cor rectly applied to them. The following ex That a just debt is un tracts from a Com recognized, a just title defeated, or a guilty man mencement Address acquitted, is no evidence contain a frank rec that justice has not been ognition of the de done by the court or jury. moralized state of It may be the highest evi Southern opinion, and dence that justice has a courageous asser been done, for it is per tion of his own prin fectly just not to enforce ciples : — payment of a just debt, not to uphold a just title, '. And I will venture not to convict a guilty to add, at the risk of man if the debt or the title meeting with some dis sent possibly in my au or the guilt be not veri fied. It is unjust to do dience, certainly beyond THOMAS J. SIMMONS. justice by doing injustice. it, that there is the same A just discovery cannot reason for rigid honesty in politics and public life, in elections and with be made by an unjust search. An end not attained electors and elected, as in ordinary private busi by just means is not attainable at all; ethically, ness or personal conduct. The political devil is it is an impossible end. Courts cannot do justice no more to be fought with fire without terrible of substance except by and through justice of pro consequences to the best interest of the com cedure. They must not reach justice of substance munity, than is the devil of avarice or envy or by violating justice of procedure. They must real ambition, or any other of the numerous devils ize both, if they can; but if either has to fail, it which infest society." must be justice of substance, for without justice of procedure courts cannot know, nor be made to "I speak from a standpoint quite outside of know, what justice of substance is, or which party politics and party lines, and what I say may be too ought to prevail. As well might a man put out his visionary and dieoretic for practical working; but eyes in order to see better, as for a court to stray if we have reached a stage of degeneracy where from justice of procedure in order to administer virtue has ceased to be practical, and where vice justice of substance."