Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1868-12-11
BRUNSWICK COUNTY,
Nouz,nh1- 1G:h 1879
Reau,ies of Reconstruction.
+. III. ilosAFY,
Justice of Pe&ce

We feel that we could not give our read.
ers anything more interesting than the
following Presentment by the Grand Jury
of Orange county, which We copy from the
Raleigh Sentinel, showing some of the fruits
of Radical rule
STATE OF NORTH CAROLINA, !
Orange County.
SUPERIOR COURT OF LAW, FALL TERN. 1868.
To the Honorable 4. ". Iowqee,
Judge Presiding i:
The Grand jury for the county Of
Orange, called from the body OF the peo-
pie, as custodians and conservatOrs Of the
public peace and security, are gratiied to
be able to report that good order and Sc
curity prevail throughout the county.
They congratulate the court aud the
country, that the unconstitutional and OPP
pressive military tribunals, under which
the country has so long suffered, and the
rights of the people SO long languished,
have been removed, and the people are at
last RENTED to their gaarsakeed rights
under the OBSERVATION-DISCLOSURES among
which are, freedom of speech, freedom Of
the press, the right to bear arms, the great
writ of civil liberty, the habeds corpus, and
the right to be heard in open court, to
prosecute or defend, before q sworn jury
of their peers and under the instruction Of
Judges who should be learned in the law,
sworn to do right, and responsible for any
malfeasance in Office all of which have
been denied them for three years But
while there is much to call for congratula-
ton, there is much which, in the iudg-
ment of this Grand Jury, calls for severe
animadversion.
LIST. We present Lieut., Crockett, of the
United States army, who stationed among
US as Bureau officer, was guilty of high
crimes and misdemeanors, as well a. acts
of despotjsm, which Congress itself could
not justify. Among his crimes. WAS allow
ing two felons, Wesley and Lorenzo Wat
son, to escape from Jail upon paying him
$50 and gold watch. Among his acts Of
despotism was his arrest of Chief Justice
Ruffin, an old servant of the people anu
the State, one who, for hall century has
rendered valuable services to both. This
venerable patriarch and jurist Whose jn-
dicial opinions have been quoted and re-
lied upon in every State in the Union, and
even ia England was, in the SD year Of
his age, summoned to appear before the
government of the United States, III the
person of Lieut.. Crockett, Of the Doth
Ohio Regiment.
Isaac Ruttin, a freedman, complained to
Crockett, that the Chief Justice had not
paid him for services rendered. A writ or
summons is placed in the hands OF the
freedman, commanding the Chief Justice,
living in the county of Alamance, to appear
in the county of Orange, to answer the
complaint. The writ, instead of being
served by the Sheriff or Marshal, was serv-
ed by the freedman, entering the parlor of
the Judge with pistol i'll his bosom and
executing the process. The Chief Justice
attended and non-suited the freedman,
even before Crockett, by showing that he
had been fully paid. Nor was this all:
Chief Justice Ruffin was again summon
ed by another bureau officer to appear in
the town of Greensboro, to answer like
complaint made at that temple of Justice.
He attended and non-suited the complain
ant, but recovered no costs in either suit.
The Bureau threatened to tie up the COM
plainant by the thumbs for his false claim,
and there ended the matter with the Chief
Justice.
But it just began with William Faucet,
one of our neighbors. Lieut.. Crockett or
dered him to give up to Anthony Faucet,
a freedman, thresning machine and two
COWS, and threatened to arrest and send
him to Raleigh unless the order was obey
ed-and all before he had heard but one
side of the question.
VIM. Woods, another neighbor, was or
dered by said Crockett of the Bureau to
give up his son, boy of ten years Of age
to Mrs. Betsy Brown.
These things being done in the name OF
the Congress of the United States, the
Grand Jury do present Crockett, Congress
and the United States for these crimes
against civil liberty and the Constitution.
Cd. We present, as dangerous to lber-
ty, all secret political organizations,
Klans, Red Strings, Heroes of America,
or by whatever name they may be known,
or for whatever purpose they were organ
lied.
Sd. The Grand Jury do further present
an editorial article in the daily Standard
of the 10Th of September last, entitled
Work" and certain printed address.
signed by IS members of the Legislature,
including the Lieut.. Governor and the
Speaker of the House of Representatives,
and extensively circulated among tie peo-
pie of the State, and said to have been
written by Judge Reade, of the Supreme
Court as infamous productions, calculated
to 1nclte to rape, rapine, plumber, murder
and arson, on such scale as The mind re-
coils from with horror inexpressible. And
the Grand Jury have to deplore that
already, in a neighboring county, as they
have been Informed, and as direct conse-
quence of the suggestions contained in
those and similar documents, acts of vio-
lence, even to the barbarous cutting off of
mems ears, have been perpetrated in re-
taliation upon the ignorant and deluded
blacks who have carried those suggestions
into effect.
The Grand Jury deprecate and sternly
denounce all such acts of violence, but.
while they do SO, they feel profound sym
pathy for the betrayed and ignorant suffer
ers, in that they have been made, and will
be left to suffer, while the guilty authors
and circulators of those Infamous teach
ings will escape the just punishment of
their crimes and occupy high places of
honor and trust in the government of the
State.
The Grand Jury saw, with grave con-
Germ, the introduction of a bill in the last
Legislature called the SO Armed Police +"