Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1867-05-17


word, certainly there is a mischief that I
ought to be guarded against Suppose [
come into court Of equity and allege this
threatened mischief to my life, would a
court OF equity give me relief and enj join
him from committing the meditated wrong?
Not at all but there must be some relief
somewhere against the destruction of so
valuable right as life, and that is furnished
by courts of law under jurisdiction very
we'll known and very appropriate, by COM
plalnt Of the peace and putting the party
under bonds But if that individual, in
stead of threatening my life, threatens to
take away from me some valuable thing,
something to which the idea of property
attaches, and it may be peculiarly valuable
in that respect, the moment the threat is
directed to any right sounding in property,
that instant | can come into Il court of
equity and ask the preventive power of the
court to prevent him from touching my
property. He may be kept off my land,
but he cannot be kent out of my house in
a threatened assault against my person, by
a court af equity.
So there are rights and those, too, of a
political nature, that court of law can
remed dy-ri9hts which are not in any sense
rights Of property, but which yet are rights
that come within the cognizance of rene
dial justice, and rights which some court
can protect. Take the very right so often
spoken of by my learned friends-the right
to vote, the elective franchise vested in me-
It is not property; it does not give me
bread it is not q thing [ can sell or raise
money upon, except by committing crime
but is valuable right that comes within
the cognizance Of remedial Justice If [
go to the appropriate place, in my own
precinct where an election is being held,
as to which [ am illegal voter, and offer my
vote to the judges of election, and they re-
fuse it, and [ am turned off, so that can
not exercise this political right as citizen
what is the consequence? Have I a case
for a court Of equity Not at all. I have
case for court of law, and action against
those judges sounding in damages will give
me the relief to which [ am entitled, COM
pensate me for the loss of the exercise of
that privilege. Or, if I hold political Of
flee, one not connected with property, and
am moved out of that Office wrongfully,
dispossessed, and elected, is it a court of
equity to which [ must go to reinstate me
Not at all. 1t is a court of law that grants
me relief, and which gives me the right, in
the name Of the public, too, by Qu0 aca1'-
1a7tO, to oust the party who has illegally
intruded into my office, and enables me to
be restored.
Now, with these preliminary statements
let us look at these bills and the nature of
tho rights set up in reference to the power
OF a court of equity to give relief. I say of
these bills, from end to end, the rights set
up are political rights; the wrongs are to
such rights, and to such rights alone. There
is not from beginning to end in the bills
anything OF property, any injury to prop
erty, even the slightest. In one of the
bills, and only in one, there is very feeble
attempt to raise an equity jurisdiction as
to certain lands, not followed up by the ap-
propriate allegations-an injury threatened
in tho remote future but the gentlemen
have already noticed that point. They adj
nit that they do not come here to get re-
lief for a certain piece of land in the State
of Georgia or the State of Mississippi
that is not their object Their purpose is
here to preserve and perpetuate the politi-
cal rights of these States and of their citi-
zens.
I said that, looking over the whole field
of equity jurisdiction, [ could not rccollect
a case i'll which a court of equity had ever
taken cogniZanco Of any question or any
right that did not IN some way or other
sound in property as a proprietary right ;
but [ must admit that there is Jurisdiction
over property which has been pushed SO
far by some chancellors-alwa with great
question and great criticism, but at last
perhaps ablished-that would almost
seem to have got the jurisdiction of court
of equity beyond mere right of property
and into the field Of personal rights, un-
connected with property. What now re-
fer to is the Jurisdiction which d court of
equity has sometimes exercised of prohib-
iting the publication of private papers,
to protect property and, therefore, man
uscript which contains a composition, a lit
erary work, though unpublished, being in
the hands of another, and about to be
published by him, court of equity has
jurisdiction to prevent that publication,
and to order the manuscript to be restored
to the proper party. That, clearly, is al
together upon the footing of the proprie
tary right-the right Of property in the
composition, recognized by the copyright
laws, and recognized SO far as inventions
are concerned in our patent laws. These
inventions and these compositions are the
result of labor, and the thing invented or
written comes within the clear description
of property. But / admit that a court of
equity has enjoined the publication of a
mere confidential letter which was not in
tended to be a literary composition, but
WAS ABOUT 10 Ue ptlDllSuGll, w tnG Slc"U IL
jury of the party writing it-as, for in
stance, it might be to make public some Sc
cret of family, which would lead to tor
ture Oh the part Of that family If the thing
were published. A court of equity has
gone SO far as to enjoin the publication Of
such letter, but every chancellor who has
exercised that jurisdiction has done it upon
the footing that the very paper upon which
the letter was written was the property OF
the party, and never sent to the other for
any such purpose as that Of publication.
I admit that it is difficult to see the propn-
etary right in such a case, but it is not diff
fcult to see upon what footing the jurlsdic-
ton of relief was given and every chan
cellor who has given such relief has said,
for himself, that it was upon the footing of
property, and nothing else, that he granted
the relief.
With these views, let us look at the rights
set up in these bills, who set them up, and
what they are. Let us take one bill for
both. The State of Georgia comes here In
this court and selects the equity side OF the
court, with q case which the State OF Geor-
gia says is fit and cognizable for equity ju-
What are the rights ? 1t is al
leoed that it is a State; that it is political