It is seldom that redress is ever endeavored to be obtained by process of law. This reluctance cannot be wondered at in the face of so many unblushing recommendations and encouragements from unprincipled attorneys in open court to willful violations of law; not to be wondered at when the injured prosecutor experiences nothing but abuse and malicious, or rather mercenary, invective, while the vile criminal is allowed to walk out of court unhurt and plumed with the laurels of victory, even in the worst cases which can possibly be conceived. If one person becomes irritated against another, no matter for what cause, either real or imaginary, he thinks not of investigation in the courts, but either sets in to break up his antagonist by private and malicious mischief, or he waylays, ambushes or seeks an opportunity to create a quarrel, so that life can be taken under the plea of justifiable homicide! But sordid, corrupt and sinister motives do not always stop at acquitting the guilty; they occasionally labor as hard to harrass and punish the innocent! The author’s case, in his trial at Mobile, is one instance out of many where everything was strained to convict innocence. Sometimes one object in view, and sometimes another. Grand juries are not unfrequently acted on in a very disgraceful manner. One person, through spite, or for getting the property of another in some covert way, will seek an opportunity to get a bill from the grand jury. Another, to avoid paying a just debt, or to screen himself in some other case, for the purpose of producing intimidation, or, as it is more commonly called, “running him off,” will seek to get a bill from the grand jury. Others, if the truth is too plainly spoken, will seek to command the grand jury for _libel_. Under such a system, the worst of men are generally the most expert in law, and always the readiest to fly to it to subserve their purposes. Alarming abuses in one direction seldom fail to be carried on in the contrary direction pretty much with equal proportion. Lynch law is an unavoidable consequence of a mockery of civil law. No nation can long prosper under a reign of court corruptions. If the guilty, as a rule, escape, and justice not strictly administered, the sources of wealth will soon languish and decay. If the fashions of the courts are to favor the worst at the expense of the best members of society, the necessary results cannot fail to come shortly afterward. Under such a deplorable state of things, confidence and security cannot dwell. Suspicion and distrust everywhere; industry, the desire to accumulate, and also productive capital, will all be defective.