Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1869-04-23

The fitting and inseparable incident and
result of this state of things was alone
wanting to make the history of other conn-
tries repeat itself in our OVID, and that is
now no longer wanting, to wit midnight
assassination In fierce. public, passion
ate, bold. daring, outbreaking violence,
there is something which, though calling
for disapproval of the act, yet in some
sort preserves the respect for the actor.
History shows, however, that this kind of
acts are rare in an age and country where
people blush not at bribery and where the
laws of religion, morals and decency are
not the laws of the land, and where the Of
hcers of the one are the open vlolators of
the other. You and your readers have of
course heard of the attack upon the Editor
of the Sentinel at the North Carolina Rail
road depot in this place, by the Speaker of
the Lower House of the Legislature and
others, members of the government, as
we'll as private individuals. This attack,
however, was neither passionate, nor bold,
nor daring, nor outbreaking, nor very per-
sistently fierce, though made in public
The worst feature in it was that the Gov
ernor of the State should in the Court OF
Justice, in the presence of, and IN defiance of,
the Magistrate upon The Bench, declare his
previous knowledge of the attack, and his
done. And yet the Governor was neither
punished for contempt of Court Or bound
over to appear at Court for trial as a party
to breach of the peace of the State he had
sworn to preserve. But the Governor was a
b1other-in- law to the Magistrate and proba-
bly, knew how little danger there was that the
Magistrate would uphold the dignity of the
bench bv furnishing him for contempt of
court. Will the grand jury do its duty and
indict the Governor and his son as we'll as
Mr.. Turner?
Your readers know also that not many
nights after the attack at the depot, a
would be assassin stole stealthiIy to Mr..
Turner's window and attempted to murder
him, aud failed only because the ball was
detected from its course by the pane Of
glass and the shutter slat through which it
passed. 1t is too infamous a crime to
charge upon any man, no matter whether
carpet Dagger or scalawag, therefore I do
in these two attacks we're the same individ-
uals. 1t IS, however, great misfortune
for the instigators of the first attack that
the second followed so soon thereafter
What a spectacle for q man who loves his
country, and yet, from what we learn, His
Honor, Judge Watts, within a stones
throw from whose court, that week in ses-
sion, the murder and assassination was at
tempted, did not deem it matter of suffi-
cient Importance to call to the attention Of
the grand jury
To a thinking man this midnight attempt
to take the life of an enemy, as it were under
the eye of the court, in the presence Of the
Legislature in the face of the Executive, and,
SO far as it appears, made with IMMUNITY,
affords food Cor most painful reflections,
just cause for most painful apprehensions.
Governments are instituted for the protec-
tion of the citizens and fail Of their pur-
pose when they fail to extend that protec-
ton. and SO failing, remit the citizen to
his right, by tho law of nature, to protect
himself. If the government, through the
officers thereof, is unable or unwilling to
protect individuals from the violence of
bands of armed men, by furnishing the
offenders with proper severity aud suf1i-
cient certainty-if, through it's weakness,
ineficiency or other cause, men in their
own houses are not safe from the ball of
the midnight assassin; if the condition of
the country be such that man dare not
show light in his own house lest it may
afford some lurking enemy the opportu-
nifty to direct ball to his heart, it may be
properly said that the government fails in
accomplishing the purpose for which it
was created, and that the time has come
when self defence, the law of God asd of
Nature, justifies the citizen in taking back
into his own hands the protection OF him
self, his family and his property. This is
no new proposition. Vigilance commit
tees, such as those of California, and other
kindred organizations, are legitimate and
justifiable re- suits of the application of this
theory of Republican government to such
a state of affairs, and supply by combina
ton and organization outside of the law
abuses 10y preventing the necessity for
each individual to redress his own wrong.
Men, SO long as they are men, until human
nature is SO changed that when one cheek is
smitten the other will be turned for like
infection in very deed, until man can
really bless the hand red with his own
LIES blood, until woman can forgive in
her heart the murder of her child, will
seek protection for the future, and redress,
retaliation and revenge for the past. Our
preference as Southern people would lead
us to do this openly and in the broad light
of day, by appeal first to the law and after
to our own strong arms. Unfortunately, how
ever, we know that if the officers of the
law fail now in their duty of protection to
US, they fail not because of weakness or
but because of completely with, or
Indifference to, the crime, regard for the
criminal or hatred to the victim The
power being ample it follows that it is the
will that is lacking.
It is enough to make ones heart sick to
contemplate the result of such a state of
affairs. L sincerely trust the day may never
come when the necessity for US to take our
protection into our own hands shall arise
Herein lies the trouble. In such times it
is impossible to control men or to prevent
them from committing acts of unnecessary
for when "blood is up" reason
and Judgment are in the back ground
Violence, produces violence as like begets
ike. Had Mr.. Turner been killed in either
IF the attacks made upon him, it would
doubtless have been the beginning only of
blood shedding, the first mouthful only
hat the greedy earth would have drunk
Up. The Governor, who had toreknow-
edge of the day attack and who afterwards !
publicly approved of it, and publicly in
open court justified band of armed men
in attacking one individual, and the mem
Der of the Legislature, who, before the
night attack, said the man who would |
shoot Mr.. Turner in the back would be, or
ought to be, pardoned, would doubtless |