Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1866-03-22

last from no dlSpOSltlOn 10 SallctloH "Hib We Nic
compelled to regard as violation of orders 1.-THE
part of those officials but i'll order to do them no
Injustice by unnecessary haste.
| The letter of Col Beadle, which publish else
where, makes it necessary for us, as public jour
nalists, to notice transaction which we, in COM
/ mon with our citizens, greatly regret, and which
will, no doubt, be<eondemnel by the authorities,
when it comes before them for consideration
The facts, az we understand Them are these:
There being several negroes to be tried by Court
for larceny, VIM. A. Wright, Esq, the presiding
Justice of the Court, called upon Col. Beadle,
specially in reference to their punishment, did
Mr. Holmes, the States Attorney, upon Major
tWickersham, for the same purpose Each were
assured by these officers, that interference
would be made by their authority, provided the
testimony of negroes were permitted, ami in case
of their conviction, the same punishment would
be inflicted as upon white persons, for similar
offence. They were positively assured by both of
these gentlemen that such would be the case
And here we will state that Col. Beadle must
certainly have misunderstood Mr.. Wright i'll sup
posing he called upon him to see if the necessity
of whipping could not be obyiated, for that gen
tleman knew what the law demanded punish
ment for larceny, and his oath required him to
execute it. The inquiry of Mr.. Wright must have
had reference to offences of less grade, the pun
|ish1nent of which extended only to fines and i'm
prisonment in order, if possible, to avoid what
would be useless punishment to the abandoned
creatures who fill State dockcts and also to
save tho costs of the prosecutions to the county.
| When the negroes were tried, one of the first
| legal gentlemen of our bar assigned as coun
sci, and he made an able and honest endeavor to
acquit them. The negroes were granted the right,
as has always been the i'll Courts. when
negroes are defendants, to introduce negro testi
mony, but i'll these particular cases. they declined
to do so, and several of them duly convicted
of larceny and sentenced to be whipped.
The sentence was executed on five of them,
and shortly thereafter, two armed soldiers,
| followed by several highly excited negroes,
marched into the Court House while the Court
was in session, and upon the demand of the Chair
man, stated their orders to arrest the Sheriff.
and the written order being required they retired,
having only verbal orders.
| Mr.. Wright, after consulting with the other
members of the Court, Immediately waited on
Colonel Beadle at his Office, and that officer sub
sequently addressed note to the Court, asking
suspension of the punishment until lie could re-
ceive further instructions from Raleigh
| We are extremely gratifed to see by Colonel
Beadle's letter that Ma or Wickersham did not
order the arrest of the Sheriff, but that his armed
guard was only sent to direct the whipping to be
suspended, and still more gratitied to learn
that the armed men i'll the Court room, not
designed, and no intention to Interfere with the
operations of the Court was desired.
1t is sincerely to be regretted that the officers
in question should not have been directed 10y the
circular order from Colonel Whittlesey, under
date of Feby Is, 1866 which says:
"To avoid conflict of jurisdiction between the civil
Courts and officers of this Bureau the following instruc
l. In alt breaches of criminal law by freedmen
Of eo"red WITNESSES 10 BEING By law mc
rided That punsments for crime are necessarily the
| same for whites and blacks
and to have permitted themselves to be gov
ernod by order, bearing date Jan. 9, 1866,
which prohibits whippings, and which is conse
quently rescinded by the later order.
It is to be regretted further that the officers
should have acted 50 hastily, upon the false
statement of negro, who made the charge
from the rumOrs at1oat in excited crowd when
they had been positively assured by the Chairman
and County Attorney, that the negroes should
have fair trial and be allowed the benefit of any
and all witnesses they might wish to Introduce,
which only such rights have always been
accorded to the negro by our law.
We regret further, that the law WAS not permit
ted to be executed here it has been in other
counties of the State. In Cumberland Judge
Buxton recently sentenced negroes to be whipped
for d similar offence, and the punishment in
fcted without interference by the officers of the
Bureau.
In Orange county, ut the session of the Superb
or Court held last week, almost under the eye of
Col Whittlesey, we learn from correspondent of
the Raleigh Sentinel, Z" that twelve persons, two
white and ten colored, were tried for larceny. In
each case, the accused had the benefit of able
counsel and impartial trial One only "a
black was acquitted, and the Others both white
and black, received from 10 to 80 lashes etcb
which we will venture to say will have very ben
efcial effect in securing our community from the
many and vcxatious annoyances to which we have
been subjected. If the law should be as impair
tally and vigorously carried out i'll other counties
the wholesome influence resulting therefrom, will
soon restore the former good name which our
State enjoyed for honesty"
We cannot believe that it is intended that ne
grocs are to go unpublished here, and to be
properly punished elsewhere and are compelled
to believe that the officers here, i'll the excess of
zeal for the welfare of those committed to their
care, have overstepped their authority, and we
honestly think have acted contrary to the best i'll
terests of the community and of the negro popu-
lation. And while very readily accept the
statement of Colonel Beadle, that he acted as he
thought his duty required, and in good faith to-