Juries versus Justice by Editor

International Tract and Missionary Society · Oakland, California · Jul 16, 1885

FromSigns of the Times, Vol. 11, No. 27.

Juries versus Justice.

By Editor

THE juries in San Francisco have not maintained the very highest reputation in the world, and the action of one in a recent trial has not increased the general respect for such bodies. We have no personal acquaintance with the parties, and no personal feeling in the matter, except such as must be felt by every citizen of the State who obeys the law and loves order and good government.

Mr. Claus Spreckels is well known as a heavy dealer in sugars. He has a sugar plantation on one of the Sandwich Islands, with extensive refineries in San Francisco. The public prints have charged that our commercial treaty with Hawaii was made to the detriment of the country and in the interest of a monopoly. The San Francisco Chronicle was severely outspoken against the treaty and the action of what is largely claimed as a sugar monopoly in San Francisco. For its remarks on this subject a son of Mr. Spreckels entered the office of the Chronicle, and without a word passing between the parties, he twice shot Mr. M. H. De Young, the publisher of the paper.

On the trial two lines of defense were introduced: insanity and self-defense. The two pleas are antagonistic to each other, and the proof was remarkably deficient on both. But he was acquitted by the jury.

It is not our custom to take much notice of local matters. We do not publish a "newspaper" for such purposes. But we feel compelled by a sense of duty to the public, to the peace and safety of the community, to notice this. Such verdicts take away from our feeling of security under the protection of the law. Under such verdicts the Government ceases to be "a terror to evil doers." They are fruitful of outrages on one hand and of lynchings on the other.

If the Chronicle had slandered Mr. Spreckels, he has abundant means to vindicate himself in the courts. And if the son intended by this shooting to maintain the reputation of the family, he has most signally failed. The newspapers, with almost one voice, from one end of the land to the other, are giving them a notoriety which no man and no family will covet.