Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1866-04-19
E. WHITTLESEY,
Assistant Commissioner.
RALEIGH, April 9TH, 1866, 8 o'clock P.

!
RALEIGH, April 9TH, 1866, o'clock P. NJ
Coz. E. WHITTLEsEY Asst Com'r.
| Sir Yours of this date was not received until
| half anahour ago, because of my attendance upon
| Court until that hour
If your note of the 4th not intended to in
stitue comparison as to the ''severty of differ
ent modes of punishment" and to charge, that
'un Just discrimination against the negro will
be the result" because, by the laws of North Car
| Olina, freedmen had been sentenced to be pub
Ecly whipped by Courts whereas mo o. S..
| Court infiict the punishment of whipping, %
| and that ''white men charged with larcency and
| other crimes ale for the most part reserved for
! trial by Military Commission" and therefore not
whipped then [ misapprehended your meaning
You have not been charged with saying that un-
just determinations against the negro race have
| been made "by the adjudictions of our Courts. "
[ have merely called your attention to the fact
that no such determinations have been made, and
cited you to the proof. Unless such discrimina-
ton is made, there is no reason why our Courts,
administered according to the rules of the Com
mon Law, so far as negroes are concerned, per-
mitting them to introduce every witness white or
black, who knows any thing important for the de-
fence, should be excluded from trying offences
committed by negroes, because "under existing
orders certain white criminals are ''to be tried
by NIilmitary Commission"
AS you disclaim intending to complain F'that
any civil Court had made unjust discrimination
against the negro race IN It's adludlcatlons, and
as IL is your duty TO see CnaG is done UQ6
negro race, the inference is, that experience has
satisfied you that there has been such discrimi-
nation
I deem it right and proper to state, that our
people, whom [ believe to be sincerely desirous of
discharging faithfully their duties to the United
States Government and whose character for hon
esty and impartiality in the jury box has almost
passed into proverb, feel accutely the degrada-
ton to which they have been subjected, in being
held amenabe for criminal offences, to tribunal,
f1oo
pies of Magma Charta, guaranteeing to every free
man a trial by jury, and awarded punishment, in
many instances, by men totally unversed in the
laws, which they have assumed to administer. In
regard to the question propOunded as to the admls
sion of negro evidence against white persons, 1
presume that you are not aware that Judge is
never expected to express an opinion In advance,
upon question that may soon be brought before
him for judicial decision / fell, however, justi-
fed in saying, that if the chief difficulty in the
way of yielding the exclusive jurisdiction in Grim
nal matters to Courts, consists in the appre
hension that any just discrimination against the
negro race would be made in regard to the right
to testify such apprehension ought to be removed,
by the recent act to which you refer, in as much
as by Sec 9th it is declared that whenever matters
relating to freedmen shall be fully committed to
the Courts of this State, ''That persons of color,
not otherwise incompetent, shall be capable of
bearing evidence in all controversies at law and in
equity where the rights of persons or property of
persons of color shall be put in issue and would
and also in pleas of the State where the violence,
fraud, or injury alleged shall be charged to have
been done by or to persons Of color. In all other
civil and criminal cases such evidence shall be
deemed inadmissible unless by consent of the par
ties to the record"
As this provision extends to negroes all COM
mon law rights " in every possible contingency in
which their rights of person or property shall be
put in issue trust that your influence will be ex.
erted for the purpose of putting an end to that
unusual and irritating tribunal, which has been
established for the trial of freedmen, and yet ell
trely ignores that foundation stone of Anglo-Sax-
on Liberty, to-wit Trial by jury, and which our
people believe not unfrequently makes unjust dis.
crinination against the white and in favor of
the negro.
If not permitting negroes to testifyin cases af-
fecting white persons alone, where the parties in
terested refuse to consent to their being admitted
as witnesses, is to be considered reason for IN
reference with the administration of the Laws OF
North Carolina, all rghtminded citizens will hail
with delight the coming of that hour, in which
tribunal thus perpetuated, shall be numbered with
the things that were.
Very Respectfully, . (
DANIEL G. FOWLE,
Judge Sup. ct. of Law.