Burlington hawk-eye. [volume] (Burlington, Iowa) 1845-185?, 1845-10-23
ole 6amk Gpe.


read to us summons from the Court.
which runneth as follows:-
Territory of Io,oa, Des Moines County, SIS.
THE UNITED STATES OF AMERICA,
To the Sheriff Of said COUNTY, GREETING;
You are hereby commanded 10 sum-
mons James G. Edwards. if to be found
in your county. to be and appear before
the Distric, Court for said county on The
frs, day of the next term thereof. to be
begun and holden within and for said
county at the Court House in Burlington,
to answer unto Joseph Upham ina plea
ofthe case to his damage five thousand
dollars. Hereof fai! moi al your peril.
and have you then and there this writ,
with your hoings thereon.
Witness, the Hon. CHARLES Ma
SON. Judge of the said Court,
with the seal thereof hereto at.
l.. S. fixed at Burlington, in said
county, this 18th day Of Octo-
Der, A. d. 1915.
JOHN S. DUNLAP.
Clerk of said Court.
This suit is founded on the brief notice
we gave of the doings of Wilcox and the
shutting up Of Upham's store, IN our last
weeks paper. To show the flimsy ma
vure Of such prosecution and to prove
tina, we are no, scared by it. we republlsh
the article on which il is based. Here it
isl
A Mr. Wilcox, who has been figuring
here pretty largely for some months was
arrested one day last week on requlsl-
zion from Gov. Wright Of New York. 1t
appears ,ha, he Obtained goods to large
amoun.-$SO, OO0-in New York OH false
pre.enccs. I, is supposed he disposed Of
mos, Of them before he came here and
turned them into cash. Sheriff Mcken.
new took him into custody and started
with him for New York on Saturday last.
In the meantime another requisi.ion from
Gov. Wrigh, was brought here by an Of
tirer from that State on still graver
charge and the Store Of Upham attached
as par, Of the III gotten property Of VIII
cox.
The notorie,y Of the circumstances set
forth in the above extract would be an
ample apology for its publicity, if any
apology was needed. But none is need
ed, and we make none. II every rascal
in the land could cover up his rascallty
aud suppress the publication of his mis-
deeds by threatening editors with prose
cutions similar 10 the one tina. has jus, been
issued agains. us. many would go unwhip'
ofjus,ice. In many instances where the
law is weak and fails to convict the guilty,
the press frequently accomplishes the oo-
ject as effec.ually as would the verdict OF
Jury. Rascals know and fear such an
influence and interference on the part Of
the press, and they would Like to insim
date its conductors so as TO insure their 81.
lence. But what is the Press good for 1t
j, is forced to give up the exercise OF this
attributed privilege of warning the
public against swindling and forgery. II
is our duty TO notify the public in relation
to all acts in which their interests are in
volved, and we shall continue to do so,
even if Mr. Upham or any body else should
persist..in piling libel suits against US un,
ill they reach mountain high.
Mr. Upham may find before the sermin.
alton Of this sui, that it would have been
better for him not to have attempted TO
interfere with the independence Of the
press. In vindication thereof, we shall
feel bound to keep The public appriscd of
all swindling conspiracies, and if in such
vindication, he, or his friends Whi,tlesey
and Wilcox shall become implicated, he
may be sorry tina. he did not let the sim
ple announcement we made last week
take its natural course. The part he has
taken in prosecuting us for libel will
give the whole transaction, TO which we
barely alluded, no,oriety which i. never
could have obtained by any thing we had
said on the subject. In his endeavors to
prove that our last weeks paragraph did
him $4,000 damage, we hope his learned
counsel will not include the subsequent
damages that he, himself, has caused TO
accrue by calling to il such particular at
,en,ion, and then charge the whole to our
account. Tha, would be too bad.
We believe this is the frs, libel sui,
ever instituted in this Territory against an
editor, and we hope tina, all lovers Of the
freedom of the press will give this one SO
little encouragement as to make it the
last. We know there are instances on
record where editors have abused their
Office By ul,ering malicious SANDER to the
desrimen. and damage Of innocent indi-
viduals. But such cases are rare, and
even these, in our opinion, had better be
tued down than laced down. If we liv.
ed in England where the law axiom was
"ihe greater the truth the greater the LIBEL
we should not hope to escape; but here,
where the truth can be admitted in evil
dence before a jury Of our peers. we have
~tI r.