On the record
Were he innocent as a child unborn, still, on the mere doctrine of chances, he might fail in some one case, out of such a multitude.
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gutenberg.orgHorace Mann: “Were he innocent as a child unborn, still, on the mere doctrine of chances, he might fail in some one case, out of such…”
Editor's note · Context
Mann highlights the randomness of justice, suggesting that even the innocent can be caught in legal troubles.
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My instincts, reason, judgment, conscience, may all mislead; but from the first time, now years ago, when I heard this subject broached, my instincts, reason, judgment, conscience, have all been in its favor.
Let me read to you the disparaging and contemptuous remark of the address on that great palladium of human liberty, the trial by jury.
The man of independent circumstances has this liberty; and no man’s circumstances, not even the poorest and the humblest, should be so dependent as to take it away.
A southern slave stands higher, politically, than a northern laborer, if the latter must vote as his employer dictates.
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