The Address and Reasons of Dissent
447
extinguished by an aristocratic Senate; and that trial by jury and the liberty of the people went out together. At the same time we regret the intolerable delay, the enormous expense, and infinite vexation, to which
the people of this country will be exposed from the voluminous proceedings of the courts of civil law, and especially from the appellate jurisdiction, by means of which a man may be drawn from the utmost boundaries of this extensive country to the seat of the Supreme Court of the
nation to contend, perhaps, with a wealthy and powerful adversary. The
consequence of this establishment will be an absolute confirmation of the
power of aristocratical influence in the courts of justice; for the common
people will not be able to contend or struggle against it.
Trial by jury in criminal cases may also be excluded by declaring that
the libeller for instance shall be liable to an action of debt for a specified
sum, thus evading the common law prosecution by indictment and trial
by jury. And the common course of proceeding against a ship for breach
of revenue laws by informal (which will be classed among civil causes)
will at the civil law be within the resort of a court, wher