The hydraulic press., 1861-03-09
LEGISLATIVE OUTRAGE.

1t will be recollected that several weeks
ago, Horace Smith, of Auburn, Placer county,
followed young man to San Francisco
named Samuel T. Newell, and assaalting
him With bowie knife on the streets of
that city, killed him. The alleged cause of
the assault was certain slanderous language
which Newell had used with reference to the
general conduct of Smith's wife. Smith
was arrested an1 Imprisoned. His counsel
made an application befufe.Judge Campbell,
of the Twelfth District Court, for change
of venue which, after hearing all the argu-
ments pro and con in the case, that gentle
Smith could get as fair and impartial a trial
in San Francisco as any place else. Not sat-
s6ed with this denial, the friends and rela-
tives of Smith appealed to the Legislature,
and that supple body, with all the magnan-
| unity of a free agent abusing delegated
power, buried bill through both houses,
granting what the Court had denied.
The Constitution of the State divides the
powers of the Government into three CO.
ordinate branches, and it was designed by
the trainers of that instrument, that neither
branch should trespass upon or interfere
with the rights and duties of the other. The
judiciary branch, of all others, was regarded
as the most sacred, and, consequently, the
most independent in the exercise of its pre-
scribed functions. Where the statutes fail
to define its course of action, the common
law is a directory; and ever since the founda-
ton of English jurisprudence was laid, this
has been regarded as authoritative and de-
cisive in the settlement of litigated cases.
But our Legislature is body above and
greater than the English or American COM
mon law. 1t is composed of body of men
more wise and sagacious than Kent, Story,
or any of the old fogies Of their school, The
Courts, which, from time immemorial, have
been permitted to decide on all such cases
as the propriety of a change of venue, and
with which right no law, or lawyer, ever
before had the brazen impudence to inter-
fere, have, in this State, been checkmated
by an assemblage Of shallow pated boys;
body of men whose shameless acts thus far
have proven them willing to perpetrate
almost any outrageous act against the liber-
ties end we'll being of society
We have no language sufficiently strong
to reprobate this proceeding. 1t is a stab
at the Judiciary which can never be justified
or excused. 1t is precedent which, if fol-
lowed hereafter, as it is very likely to be,
must overturn the entire fabric of our juris-
prudence, and destroy public confidence in
the integrity of the Courts. Our Legislature
did not stop to think of this. 1t seldom
wastes much time in reflection. The ele-
ments of which it is composed are not cx-
actly of the thinking kind. Party lines and
personal considerations appear to be the
chief motors of its action, let the results be
pernicious as they may.
In these remarks we do not intend to
prejudice the case of Horace Smith. He is
terms of intimate personal friendship for
years. We always found him amiable, hon.
orable and generous-an agreeable COM
panion and devoted friend. Our sympathies
are all With him. Indeed, if the defence set
up by popular rumor be trne, we can go
further, and justify the act of killing; for the
man who goes about publicly to defame the
character of virtuous woman--especially
wife and mother-dcserves to die. But we
are not writing to this point. 1t is the out
rage committed by the Legislature to which
we especially allude. That body has done
an act, in taking the matter out of the hands
of the Court and passing bill for change
of venue, which has disgraced it in the eyes
of all law-abiding citizens, and is calculated
to bring the blush of shame to the cheek of
every true Californian when he thinks of it.
CHANGING THE VENUE.-The bill to change
yenua in tho % co IF IIor, M C,,,;tb