Nashville union and dispatch. [volume] (Nashville, Tenn.) 1866-1868, 1868-01-17
UPRIGHT AND FEARLESS.


respOndence.
To fully understand the following cor
respondence, the reader should remember
that in September or October last, Gen.
Candy issued an order requiring the courts
of South Carolina TO empanneI their juries
from the list of registered voters, the ma
jority of whom were negroes. When
Judge AIdrich convened his next court, he
refused to obey the order, and proceeded
to form his iuries according to the laws Of
the State, then in force and unrepealed.
Whereupon Gen. c.. suspended Judge
A.; and, though not removing" him,
ordered him to discontinue the exercise of
his Office. Judge A. submitted. and fhe
following is the'sequel:
BARSwRIf, s. C., December q, 1867
SIR have been informed that Mr.. Hood
the Treasurer of the State, has been in
structed by you not to pay my salary after
the 3lst of October.
When l received your special order No.
lS3, suspending me, | did not suppose you
intended to deprive me of the property in
my Office. 1t never occurred to me that,
because / could not conscientiously carry
out your general orders as TO iuries. /
was to be punished by being deprived of
the salary, which in the impoverished state
OF the country, is the only means left to
me for the support of my family.
trust that it is only necessary to bring
to your notice the fact that the Judge has
a aproperty in his Office, and that, during
his suspension, he cannot be legally de-
priyed of its emoluments.
AS l have no idea tlrat your purpose is
to infict a personal injury on one who, /
trust, has shown himself as jealous and
honest in the discharge of his duties as you
have in the discharge of yours, therefore
respectfully submit this question to your
more mature consideration, in the hope
that, upon investigating the legal PROPOSE
ton, you will see you have unintentionally
done me an injustice.
Very respectfully, your obedient servant,
A. p. ALDRICH,
Law Judge of South Carolina.
Maj. Gen. Candy, commanding district.
HEADQUARTERS SECOND MILITARY DIS
TRIcT, CHARLESTON, s. c., January 4th,
1868.-A. P. ALDRTCH, Barnwell Court
house, S. C.-SIR: have the honor to ac-
knowledge the receipt of your communica-
tion in relation to the salary claimed by
you, as Judge of the Court of Common
Pleas and General Sessions, and to state in
reply, that, az your action involved Sc.
rious delay in the administration of JUS
tice, and imposed upon the State, in it's i'm
poverished condition, additional expenses
for the maintenance of prisoners, and for
holding special terms of the courts in sew
eral of the districts of the Southern circuit,
| did not consider it proper or just to add
to those burdens by authorizing compensa-
tion to be made for services that were not
rendered.
Very respectfully, sir, your obedient ser
want, ED. r. s. CANBY,
Brevet Major General Commanding.
BARNwELI, Jan. z, 1S68.-SIR reply
Immediately to your note of the 4th Janu-
airy, just received.
l did not expect, and did not ask, that
you, military commander, would con-
ader the eonstitntionaiity OF the recon.
siruction acts. But did expect that YOU
would point 10 the clause in thosea act which
empowered you TO suspend me from the
performance OF the duties of my office, and
then to deprive me of my property in that
Office, by ordering the State Treasurer to
withhold the salary which the State con-
tracted to pay me when was commissioned
one of her Judges. You will remember,
that am still Judge of South Carolina.
You have not ventured TO remove me yet,
and if you had, you cannot deprive me of
my office. You cannot point to any
authority in the acts, but excuse your in-
Justice and usurpation by saying, "that as
your action involved a serious delay in the
administration of Justice, and imposed upon
the State, in its impoverished condition,
additional expenses for the maintenance of
prisoners, and for holding special terms of
the courts in several of the districts in the
Southern Circuit, l did not consider it
proper or just to add TO those burdens by
authorizing compensation for services that
were not rendered"
| Indignantly repel this slander / was
in the actual performance of my duties,
under thG laws of the State of South Caros
lima, that had conferred on me my judicial
Office, and to whom, alone, am account
able. When you, by a highehanded usur.
patton of authority, not conferred on you
by any law of Congress, or article of war;
suspended me in the very effort, | was
making to administer justice to a suffering
people. What JUSTICE was to be admins.
tered by such iuTies as you had directed to
be drawn? Hou know or should have
known, that your order as to iuries, was not
authorized by any act of Congress. You
know or should have known, that juries,
selected as you directed, presented the
most serious impediment TO the adminis-
tration of justice. You know or should
have known, that my oath of office prevent
ed me from carrying ont your Order-and
yet as 4 mere partisan, without consider
ing the dignity of my position, the charac-
ter of my beloved State, or the RESPONSE
bility of your own station, in the very wan
tonness of power, you put upon me an in
dignity which was unworthy of the great
government you represent, and must add,
appears TO me now TO be not only resentful,
but unmanly. LET YOUR BROTHER OF
FICERs OF THE OLD ARMY JUDGE.
A a conscientious Judge and man OF
| honor, | could not carry ont your order
| without violating my oath of Office said
80 frankly. You suspended me. yielded
without a murmur, and now, because
have conscience that will not permit me d,
as | think, to violate my oath of office
with high-handed tyranny, you not only
deprive me of the dignity of that office,
but rob me of its support, and then in
sultingly tell me that my action has in.
volyed serions delay in the administra-
ton of Justice" forgetting that it was youE
| own unauthorized and officious interference
with the laws Of the State that placed the
first and only impediment in the way OF
Justice. With what consistency can you
| talk about the impoverished condition -
of the State, when only on the Sd of De-
cember last, you issued general orders No.
! I3e. assessing tax for the very salary you
have directed the Treasures to withhold,
and did actually make an appropriation
for its payment? How does it help the
people Of an impoverished State, to wiring
taxes out of them, which you afterwards
direct to be locked up in the treasury?
Why trouble yourself about State bur-
dens. when the people, / mean white peo'
pie, tax-payers,) with singular unanimity
approve my course and sustain me under
my present trials?
No. sir. am not deceived, nor is the
country. by this mere subterfuge. You
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