Page:The Green Bag (1889–1914), Volume 12.pdf/491

 Tlic Green Bag. would pursue the course adopted by prudent individuals, and would take care to exact such security of the agent as to make it his interest to be faithful. The opposite, however, of this principle is adopted, and oaths are administered upon the most trivial occasions; even a constable is not permitted to conduct a jury to a private room, without being sworn to discharge with fidelity, a duty, which he may be called upon to repeat several times every day during the term. Here the officer is sworn by whole sale and by retail : first being bound by his official oath to perform faithfully all the duties of his office, and then being sworn with ref erence to single acts comprised within those same duties. It is clear that the law here regards the official oath as inefficient; and it is equally obvious that the frequent repetition of that which should be a solemn, religious act, in a hasty and irreverent manner, must have the effect of rendering it wholly inop erative upon the mind of the person whose conduct is intended to be affected by it. Official oaths should never be adminis tered except to officers of high rank, and they should then be taken publicly, and with due solemnity. There is something imposing in the ceremony of installation, when con ducted with proper decorum; and a solemn promise made by an individual under such circumstances, is not only calculated to ren der him more circumspect in his conduct, but invests him with a sacredness in the eyes of his fellow-citizens, which increases his respec tability. But these advantages do not attend the mockery which is daily practiced of pri vately indorsing an affidavit on the back of a commission, and thus qualifying an officer by a secret act, which neither imposes any re straint upon him, nor attracts any respect from others. The manner in which oaths are admin istered in courts of justice has never failed to shock every reflecting mind, which has not been reconciled to this abuse by long habit. Who that has ever entered one of our court

houses during the trial of a cause, has not ex perienced a sense of humiliation at the gross impropriety and carelessness with which the sacred volume is treated, and a direct appeal made to the searcher of all hearts? A clerk is seen sitting, perhaps surrounded by half a dozen lawyers and suitors; the counsel en gaged in conducting a case are either address ing the jury or examining a witness; a per son is called to be sworn, and the clerk with out rising reaches out the book to him, and pronounces the oath in a low, hurried tone, which does not reach the ear of the auditory, and is but indistinctly heard by the party to whom it is addressed; and thus in the midst of confusion is a ceremony performed, which is supposed to bind the conscience of a rea sonable creature. Sometimes, half a dozen witnesses are sworn at once; one grasps the book, another holds up his hand, a third gazes vacantly at the clerk, who in an awkward en deavor to suit the oath to each, includes parts of several forms, winding up with a familiar nod to one, and the words " so help you God," and to another with " and you, as you shall answer to God at the great day," and to a third, "and this you affirm." The witnesses thus prepared to tell the truth, the whole truth, and nothing but the truth, are suffered to mingle again with the crowd, to be called upon at any future hour during the progress of the cause. We cannot imagine a scene more calculated to bring .the solemnity of an oath into contempt, and to cause a practical and popular irreverence towards the holy name. This habitual desecration of the oath is the more to be regretted as it is wholly gratuitous, and is a part of a great scene of carelessness and insubordination; all of which is as wrong as it is needless. It is bad pol icy in every respect to conduct the proceedings of courts in this loose and unbecoming man ner. It does not save time nor labor; but on the contrary impedes the progress of busi ness, admits confusion in the place of system, and deprives the proceedings of the court of that order and solemnity which are necessary