Memoir, Correspondence, And Miscellanies, From The Papers Of Thomas Jefferson Volume I Part 11

If the princ.i.p.al offenders be fled,* or secreted from justice, in any case not touching life or member, the accessaries may, notwithstanding, be prosecuted as if their princ.i.p.al were convicted.**

* 1 Ann. c. 9. -- 2.

**As every treason includes within it a misprision of treason, so every felony includes a misprision, or misdemeanor. 1 Hale P. C. 652. 75S. 'Licet fuerit felonia, tamen in eo continetur misprisio.' 2 R. 3.10. Both princ.i.p.al and accessary, therefore, may be proceeded against in any case, either for felony, or misprision, at the Common law.

Capital cases not being mentioned here, accessaries to them will of course be triable for misprisions, if the offender flies.

If any offender stand mute of obstinacy,* or challenge preremp-torily more of the jurors than by law he may, being first warned of the consequence thereof, the court shall proceed as if he had confessed the charge,**

* 3E. I.e. 12.

** Whether the judgment of penance lay at Common law. See 2 Inst. 178.2. H. P. C. 321. 4 Bl. 322. It was given on standing mute: but on challenging more than the legal number, whether that sentence, or sentence of death is to be given, seems doubtful. 2 H. P. C. 316. Quaere, whether it would not be better to consider the supernumerary challenge as merely void, and to proceed in the trial. Quaere too, in case of silence.

Pardon and privilege of clergy shall henceforth be abolished, that none may be induced to injure through hope of impunity. But if the verdict be against the defendant, and the court, before whom the offence is heard and determined, shall doubt that it may be untrue for defect of testimony, or other cause, they may direct a new trial to be had.*

* 'c.u.m Clericus sic de crimine convictus degradetur, non sequitur aliapoe-na pro uno delicto, vel pluribus ante degradationem perpetratis. Satis enim sufficit ei pro pcena degradatio, quse est magna capitis diminutio, nisi forte convictus fuerit de apostatia, quia hinc primo degradetur, et postea per manum laicalem comburetur, secundum quod accidit in concilio Oxoni celebrato a bonas memoriae S.

Cantuaren. Archiepiscopo de quodam diacono, qui seapos- tatavit pro quadam Judaea; qui c.u.m esset per episcopum degradatus, statim fuit igni traditus per manum laicalem.'

Bract. L. 3. c. 9. -- 2. 'Et mesme eel jugement (i. e. qui ils soient ars) eye n't sorcers et sorceresses, et sodomites et mescreauntz apertement atteyntz.' Britt. c. 9.

'Christiani autem Apostatae, sortilegii, et hujusmodi detractari debent et comburi.' Fleta, L. 1. c. 37. -- 2. see 3 Inst. 39; 12 Rep. 92; 1 H. P. C. 393. The extent of the clerical privilege at the Common law, 1. As to the crimes, seems very obscure and uncertain. It extended to no case where the judgment was not of life or limb. Note in 2. H. P.

C. 326. This, therefore, excluded it in trespa.s.s, petty larceny, or killing _se defendendo_. In high treason against the person of the King, it seems not to have been allowed.

Note 1 H. P. C. 185. Treasons, therefore, not against the King's person immediately, petty treasons and felonies, seem to have been the cases where it was allowed; and even of those, not for _insidiatio viarum, depopulatio agrorum, or combustio domorum_. The statute de Clero, 25 E. 3. st. 3. c.

4. settled the law on this head. 2. As to the persons, it extended to all clerks, always, and toties quoiies. 2 H. P.

C. 374. To nuns also. Fitz. Abr. Coron. 461. 22 E. 3. The clerical habit and tonsure were considered as evidence of the person being clerical. 26 a.s.siz. 19 & 20 E. 2. Fitz.

Coron. 233. By the 9 E. 4. 28. b. 34 H. 6. 49. a. b. simple reading became the evidence. This extended impunity to a great number of laymen, and toties quoties. The stat. 4 H.

7. c. 13. directed that real clerks should upon a second arraignment, produce their orders, and all others to be burnt in the hand with M. or T. on the first allowance of clergy, and not to be admitted to it a second time. A heretic, Jew, or Turk, (as being incapable of orders) could not have clergy. H Co. Rep. 29. b. But a Greek, or other alien, reading in a book of his own country, might. Bro.

Clergie. 20. So a blind man, if he could speak Latin. Ib.

21. qu, 11. Rep. 29. b. The orders ent.i.tling the party were bishops, priests, deacons, and sub-deacons, the inferior being reckoned Clerici in minoribus. 2 H. P. C. 373. Quaere, however, if this distinction is not founded on the stat. 23.

H. 8. c. 1; 25. H. 8. c. 32. By merely dropping all the statutes, it should seem that none but clerks would be ent.i.tled to this privilege, and that they would, toties quoties.

No attainder shall work corruption of blood in any case.

In all cases of forfeiture, the widow's dower shall be saved to her, during her t.i.tle thereto; after which it shall be disposed of as if no such saving had been.

The aid of Counsel,* and examination of their witnesses on oath, shall be allowed to defendants in criminal prosecutions.

* 1 Ann. c. 9.

Slaves guilty of any offence* punishable in others by labor in the public works, shall be transported to such parts in the West Indies, South America, or Africa, as the Governor shall direct, there to be continued in slavery.

* Manslaghter, counterfeiting, arson, asportation of vessels, robbery, burglary, house-breaking, horse-stealing, larceny.

[NOTE F.]--Coinage for the United States

_On the Establishment of a Money Unit, and of a Coinage for the United States_.

In fixing the Unit of Money, these circ.u.mstances are of princ.i.p.al importance.

I. That it be of _convenient_ size to be applied as a measure to the common money transactions of life.

II. That its parts and multiplies be in an _easy proportion_ to each other, so as to facilitate the money arithmetic;

III. That the Unit and its parts, or divisions, be _so nearly of the value of some of the known coins_, as that they may be of easy adoption for the people.

The Spanish Dollar seems to fulfil all these conditions.

I. Taking into our view all money transactions, great and small, I question if a common measure of more _convenient size_ than the Dollar could be proposed. The value of 100, 1000, 10,000 dollars is well estimated by the mind; so is that of the tenth or the hundredth of a dollar. Few transactions are above or below these limits. The expediency of attending to the size of the Money Unit will be evident to any one who will consider how inconvenient it would be to a manufacturer or merchant, if instead of the yard for measuring cloth, either the inch or the mile had been made the Unit of Measure.

II. The most _easy ratio_ of multiplication and division is that by ten.

Every one knows the facility of Decimal Arithmetic. Every one remembers, that, when learning Money-Arithmetic, he used to be puzzled with adding the farthings, taking out the fours and carrying them on; adding the pence, taking out the twelves and carrying them on; adding the s.h.i.+llings, taking out the twenties and carrying them on; but when he came to the pounds, where he had only tens to carry forward, it was easy and free from error. The bulk of mankind are school-boys through life. These little perplexities are always great to them. And even mathematical heads feel the relief of an easier, subst.i.tuted for a more difficult process. Foreigners, too, who trade or travel among us, will find a great facility in understanding our coins and accounts from this ratio of subdivision. Those who have had occasion to convert the Livres, sols, and deniers of the French; the Gilders, stivers, and frenings of the Dutch; the Pounds, s.h.i.+llings, pence, and farthings of these several States, into each other, can judge how much they would have been aided, had their several subdivisions been in a decimal ratio. Certainly, in all cases, where we are free to choose between easy and difficult modes of operation, it is most rational to choose the easy. The Financier, therefore, in his report, well proposes that our Coins should be in decimal proportions to one another. If we adopt the Dollar for our Unit, we should strike four coins, one of gold, two of silver, and one of copper, viz.

1. A golden piece, equal in value to ten dollars:

2. The Unit or Dollar itself, of silver:

3. The tenth of a Dollar, of silver also:

4. The hundreth of a Dollar, of copper.

Compare the arithmetical operations, on the same sum of money expressed in this form, and expressed in the pound sterling and its divisions.

A bare inspection of the above operations, will evince the labor which is occasioned by subdividing the Unit into 20ths, 240ths, and 960ths, as the English do, and as we have done; and the ease of subdivision in a decimal ratio. The same difference arises in making payment. An Englishman, to pay 8 13s. 11d. 1/2qrs. must find, by calculation, what combination of the coins of his country will pay this sum; but an American, having the same sum to pay, thus expressed $38.65, will know, by inspection only, that three golden pieces, eight units or dollars, six tenths, and five coppers, pay it precisely.

III. The third condition required is, that the Unit, its multiples, and subdivisions, coincide in value with some of the known coins so nearly, that the people may, by a quick reference in the mind, estimate their value. If this be not attended to, they will be very long in adopting the innovation, if ever they adopt it. Let us examine, in this point of view, each of the four coins proposed.

1. The golden piece will be 1/5 more than a half joe and 1/15 more than a double guinea. It will be readily estimated, then, by reference to either of them; but more readily and accurately as equal to ten dollars.

2. The Unit, or Dollar, is a known coin, and the most familiar of all to the minds of the people. It is already adopted from South to North; has identified our currency, and therefore happily offers itself as a Unit already introduced. Our public debt, our requisitions, and their apportionments, have given it actual and long possession of the place of Unit. The course of our commerce, too, will bring us more of this than of any other foreign coin, and therefore renders it more worthy of attention. I know of no Unit which can be proposed in compet.i.tion with the Dollar, but the Pound. But what is the Pound? 1547 grains of fine silver in Georgia; 1289 grains in Virginia, Connecticut, Rhode Island, Ma.s.sachusetts, and New Hamps.h.i.+re; 1031 grains in Maryland, Delaware, Pennsylvania, and New Jersey; 966 grains in North Carolina and New York.

Which of these shall we adopt? To which State give that pre-eminence of which all are so jealous? And on which impose the difficulties of a new estimate of their corn, their cattle, and other commodities? Or shall we hang the pound sterling, as a common badge, about all their necks? This contains 1718 grains of pure silver. It is difficult to familiarize a new coin to the people; it is more difficult to familiarize them to a new coin with an old name. Happily, the Dollar is familiar to them all, and is already as much referred to for a measure of value, as their respective provincial pounds.

3. The tenth will be precisely the Spanish bit, or half pistereen. This is a coin perfectly familiar to us all. When we shall make a new coin, then, equal in value to this, it will be of ready estimate with the people.

4. The hundredth, or copper, will differ little from the copper of the four Eastern States, which is 1/108 of a dollar; still less from the penny of New York and North Carolina, which is 1/96 of a dollar; and somewhat more from the penny or copper of Jersey, Pennsylvania, Delaware, and Maryland, which is 1/90 of a dollar. It will be about the medium between the old and the new coppers of these States, and will therefore soon be subst.i.tuted for them both. In Virginia, coppers have never been in use. It will be as easy, therefore, to introduce them there of one value as of another. The copper coin proposed, will be nearly equal to three fourths of their penny, which is the same with the penny lawful of the Eastern States.

A great deal of small change is useful in a State, and tends to reduce the price of small articles. Perhaps it would not be amiss to coin three, more pieces of silver, one of the value of five tenths, or half a dollar, one of the value of two tenths, which would be equal to the Spanish pistereen, and one of the value of five coppers, which would be equal to the Spanish half-bit. We should then have five silver coins, viz.

1. The Unit or Dollar:

2. The half dollar or five tenths:

3. The double tenth, equal to 2/10, or one fifth of a dollar, or to the pistereen:

4. The tenth, equal to a Spanish bit:

5. The five copper piece, equal to 5/100 or one twentieth of a dollar, or the half-bit.

The plan reported by the Financier is worthy of his sound judgment. It admits, however, of objection, in the size of the Unit. He proposes that this shall be the 1440th part of a dollar; so that it will require 1440 of his units to make the one before proposed. He was led to adopt this by a mathematical attention to our old currencies, all of which this Unit will measure without leaving a fraction. But as our object is to get rid of those currencies, the advantage derived from this coincidence will soon be past, whereas the inconveniences of this Unit will for ever remain, if they do not altogether prevent its introduction. It is defective in two of the three requisites of a Money Unit. 1. It is inconvenient in its application to the ordinary money transactions.