Southern sentinel. [volume] (Plaquemine, Parish of Iberville [La.]) 1848-1858, 1853-06-25
Law and Justice.

We trust that the next Legislature will en-
act some new law relative to "libel." Whether
it be in the inei1icieney of the statutes, or the
state of public opinion upon the subject, no
suit for libel would prove successful in this
State; and moreover, the plaintiff in the cases.
Notwithstanding, would find his reputation in
jured if he attempted such a suit. Thus the
necessity for som new law upon this subject.
Abuse and vituperation, through the press and
upon public thoroughfares, in the present con-
dition of the laws and the degenerate senti.
ments of communities, can be INDUCED in with
perfect impunity; or, if the person who is the
unfortunate party against whom degrading cpl
thets are leveled, should presume to take the
law in his own hands and attempt to get that
satisfaction for insult and injury which nature
grants him, and should in consequence fall be-
meath the de adly bullet of the revolver, his muir
derer we'll knows that seyc,defence can be easily
established, and that but little danger for such
an act is to be apprehended through judicial
investigation-most particularly if the perpe-
traitor enjoys anything of a respectable posi-
ton in the community in which he lives.
These are solemn truths. No one more than
ourself is opposed to the barbarous and fend-
ish practice of dueling; but, if there is is no
law for libel, and we persist it is obsolete in
this State; no law for sweeping abuse, for de.
s%truction of character-no law to arrest the ciril
murderer in his headlong career-the duel
would be a small evil in comparison 10 a con-
%tinuance of such a state of things. The low
est and most ~despicable coward feels himself
safe behind an invulnerabIe battery, in the in
efficiency of the law either to punish him for his
abuse, or for blood that he may draw in defen-
ding himself from the attack of one whom he
has illuminated and wronged-and knowing,
too, that if he is challenged, a heavy penalty is
the consequence of so rash m act, and that he
runs but little danger of affording satisfaction
to his opponent by that means.
Perhaps it would be difficult to enact any
law to reach the evil Of which we speak; and
that, unless the moral power of a community
is arrayed in direct abhorranee and condemna-
ton of the public slanderer and retailer of low
and vile epithets, such evil will continue to ex-
list, and to infuse its nefarious breath into the
social circle, at the domstic hearth, and amidst
the vacations and everyday transactions of life.
The following paragraph-whieh originally
appeared in the Della, and which accidentally
came before our eyes since the above article
was in types SO appropos to the subject of
this article, that we give it insertion, as some
veriication of the above remarks:
"There is a great deal of legal and social
often displayed in the punishment
out for the same offence and in the pub
lie Judgment formed in relation to it. A swag-
gering bully, with the spirit of a blackguard
and poltroon, takes occasion TO insult a decent
nan, his inferior in strength, and at length
him to such an extent, that the insulted
nan turns upon his tormentor and strikes him.
This is his justification for the murderous in
of his heart; and, drawing a pistol or 4
suife, feIls his victim to his feet. He is, per-
nance, brought up for trial, but he knows his
is certain. The first blow is his
and safeguard. For so slight an insult
comparatively s~peaking-as a blow, Justice
ooks smiling upon the numbering avenger, and
he public applaud The verdict which sends
i'm, with blood stained hands, among his fell
wv men, to take the first life which may offend
he desperate brute"