4199. JURY (Trial by), Lack of Uniform Laws.—
I do not like[in the new Federal
Constitution] the omission of a bill of
rights, providing clearly and without the aid
of sophisms for * * * trials by jury in all
matters of fact triable by the laws of the
land, and not by the law of nations. * * *
It was a hard conclusion to say, because
there has been no uniformity among the
States as to the cases triable by jury, because
some have been so incautious as to abandon
this mode of trial, therefore, the more prudent
States shall be reduced to the same level of
calamity. It would have been much more just
and wise to have concluded the other way
that, as most of the States had judiciously
preserved this palladium, those who had
wandered should be brought back to it, and
to have established general right instead of
general wrong.—
To James Madison. Washington ed. ii, 329.
Ford ed., iv, 476.
(P.
Dec. 1787)
