In connection with this subject I desire to suggest the advisability,
if it be found not obnoxious to constitutional objection, of investing
United States commissioners with the power to try and determine certain
violations of law within the grade of misdemeanors. Such trials might
be made to depend upon the option of the accused. The multiplication
of small and technical offenses, especially under the provisions of our
internal-revenue law, render some change in our present system very
desirable in the interests of humanity as well as economy. The district
courts are now crowded with petty prosecutions, involving a punishment
in case of conviction, of only a slight fine, while the parties accused
are harassed by an enforced attendance upon courts held hundreds of
miles from their homes. If poor and friendless, they are obliged to
remain in jail during months, perhaps, that elapse before a session
of the court is held, and are finally brought to trial surrounded by
strangers and with but little real opportunity for defense. In the
meantime frequently the marshal has charged against the Government his
fees for an arrest, the transportation of the accused and the expense
of the same, and for summoning witnesses before a commissioner, a grand
jury, and a court; the witnesses have been paid from the public funds
large fees and traveling expenses, and the commissioner and district
attorney have also made their charges against the Government.
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