Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1867-09-13

@nl Win great rest oct aud esteem, your
: 1fleha ana Fellow citizen,
! COLUMBIA, August Z, 1867. 'oN'
/ To Messrs. ID. w. Ray, w. Ii. TalIey J. p Thonss
! II. NJ. Law, and others.
! Important Decision by Judge Fo>vIe
| We learn from the Register that judge
Fowle decided, at the late term of Martin
Superior Court, that colored men, having
the qualifications prescribed by statute, are
eligible, under the existing laws of the
State, TO sit on juries, now that slavery is
abolished. The following is an abstract of
the ruling:
A. Martin Superior Court before his
Honor Judge Fowle, as the grand iury
were about to be drawn, Henry A. Gillian.
Esq, acting for the Attorney General,
challenged the array, on the ground that
the Jury had not been drawn by the Coun-
| by law.
| The challenge was allowed by the Court
the Venire discharged, and tho Sheriff di-
rected 10 proceed forthwith under section
9th, chapter 31st, Revised Code, to obtain
a jury. Whereupon the Sheriff, tho Clerk
OF the County Court, and the three Justices
of the Peace, who had been selected to as
slst IN drawing the jury, requested the
Court to instruct them as to their duty in
regard to placing persons Of color on the
| renire, whose names had been placed in
! the jury box by the County Court.
His Honor charged them, that in order
to constitute proper jury according to our
laws, 1t Is necessary, first, that the Jurors
shoul1 be men of ordinary intelligence;
! second, of good character; third, freehol-
ders
That from colonial times until 1865. our
people had been divided into three classes.
1st, white men; I'd, free persons of color;
3D., slaves.
That the third class were excluded
from the jury box because they were
slaves
That the second class were excluded be-
cause, under the theory of slavery, every
person OF color was prima .fdcie slave, and
that, as every freeman was entitled to be
tried by his peers, the free person of color,
against whom the law raised the presump-
sion OF slavery, was not regarded as the le-
gal peer of the white man. That the con-
stltution and laws of the State never, by
express enactment, excluded n colored man
from serving the jury, when ho possessed
the qualifications required, and that his ex-
cluslon was owing to this construction, as
to the legal p0TeS, and this construction
was the necessary result of the institution
Of slavery.
This is SO, else Henderson, CASTOR and
the other fathers of the law in North Caro-
lima, excluded for a long series of years
free persons OF color from the jury box,
through mere inattention or omission.
which Is not for a moment to be consid-
cred
In 1865, th5 Con gention Of North Caro-
lima abolished the institution of slavery.
and all men were declared freemen. it
followed as necessary sequence, that, as
soon rs the institution (Out of which this
constructions grew was abolished, when
there were no words of exclusion in the
constitution or laws, free persons of color
became entitled to all the rights which
were incident to free men. One of these
rights was to serve upon juries, when pro-
perly qualified.
The colored man, therefore, is entitled
to have his name placed upon the jury
lists, whenever he possesses the qualitica-
tlons required by law, and you will be sus-
tanned by the law, in summoning jurors,
who are freehOlders, regardless of color.
We learn from the Norfolk Journal, that
when the new jury was drawn, three color
ed men were found on it, The first case
decided by them was the State VS.. Warren
Lilly, colored, for larceny. The fact that
the accused had stolen quantity of fodder
having been fully established, and then
Immediately brought in a verdict of "guil-
ty;" the three cSlored jurors being as
prompt in their decision as the whites.
"Colored jurors (the Journal adds are
now recognized by the laws of the Old
North State, and in this respect she may
be said to be thoroughly reconstructed p"
Gen. Beaurcgard-His Political Views.
General Beauregard is Oh a visit to Long
Branch, from which point q correspondent
DF 41,O IL
him :
L found him quietly ensconced in the vi
cinity of the Mansion House, where he was
by q few select souvenirs of
other days, and in his conversation ex-
pressed himself feelingly and frankly in re-
lation to that trying ordeal through which
the country had passed, and the equally
terrible one through which it is now MAX
ing its transition. He is sanguine of the
future if cOnciliatory measures be adopted
md that the government will for ages pre-
sent an undivided 'front.' standing as q
monument of terror, and receiving tho
lomage OF an appreciative world.
When Intercepted in relation to Mexican
sffairs, he very frankly disclaimed having
vt any time sympathised or encouraged the
Austrian-French alliance for the possession
If Mexico, and looked upon the invasion
ID IN uIOpIa1 1uebI SeLSIdCSu III tne OTdIu
If Louis Napoleon. He also entertained n
nope that there would yet arise one that
would in time bring out of chaos the distract
I'd elements now existing in Mexico, which
would eventually become an integral part
If the American Union. He spoke of Gen.
Grant III very complimentary terms, and
pronounced him u thorough military tacti-
ian, but III square stand-up fight, with
equal numbers, he considered Lee his SUI
)erior.
reports of Foreign Diplomats to their Cow
ernments-PubIic Debt Statement-AN New
Sensation story of the Maryland DIsOr-
ganizers-POstaI Affairs,