New Orleans Republican. [volume] (New Orleans, La) 1867-1878, 1870-03-13

nal court are to administer the laws accord
ing to the known law as it is; that you can
not make law of your own; that you must
proceed to impeach this party for some
ohense known to the law; that the common
law does not exist in Louisiana; that moth
ing can be predicated as an offense against
the law of Louisiana unless it us prescrlbed
by statute, and that in the Trial of this
ease, therefore, whatever is not announced
as crime, even admitting Mr.. Wickliffe
guilty of it, you can not on your oaths pro-
nounce him guilty; you can not sit here as
a court of honor and chivalry to determine
whether this man be gentleman or not
whether he has the requisite amount Of
education to fill the Office, or to
determine any principles which are
not established by law, and that you
can not deviate from the ru.es OF pro-
ceedings applicable to the criminal
courts, without a violation of the constitu-
ton by which you have undertaken to act
in pursuance OF the rules of justice. There
fore, let no man lay his hand upon his
heart and say he is not bound in con-
science and in honor by these rules. Ii
you do so, we might as well abandon the
case. What shall say about the acts ct
the accused? Do / know what you call
| them; for unless you characterize bis acts
| as being good or bad, and what right Ut
the law does not say they are bad) have
you to say they are bad? What right have
you to set up a code of crimes for me
here? What right have you to lay down
laws, as if you were descendants of the
gods not the gods themselves-and say
that we have violated the laws, and viola
A. IL 1oxy v,Nkxv
announced by the Legislative authority of
the land? Try any man on rules OF that
sort, and who will escape conviction?
Who will 60 unwhipped of justice if each
one of you were to be the Judge of the
propriety of mans conduct? Well may
the learned manager have finished his SEN
tence when he said depart, We cursed"
into "hell fire" he ought to have said,
for if he would have the Judgment rendered
by his own notions of Justice, or yours, he
| would make this court of conscience, o
court of religion, sort of inquisition
where mans faith is to be investigated
for the purpose of ascertaining his fitness
for Office and then followed, not by o
desire of Justice, bat by an auto de .fe, where
a man is to be burnt at the stake for en-
tertaining the opinion which he may, be-
cause the law never denounced it. Talk
to me about such a system of constitu-
tional law. That my reputation, that my
privileges, that my standing before the
community and that of my children is to be
subjected to the within and caprice of even
the Louisiana Senate, or any other
Senate, is preposterous And it B
only by resort to such o
mode of prosecution, it is manifest to my
mind that the managers expect conviction,
and they call these constitutional guaran-
tees-they call these defenses thrown
around you by the law-they call them the
meshes and webs Of lawyers; and one Of.
these papers, protesting to be an organ of
public sentiment, but which appears to be
the secret organ of the Executive of this
State, says if you can not get rid of these
meshes, then you must poke your hands
through and destroy this Turpin of the
treasury, as if we had not had enough
violence in this State. l come here for
peaceful remedy-not to be shot at as o
robber. leone here, if am guilty, to be
hung by the officers of the law, and not
to have this violence threatened, even
against the greatest criminal in the land;
and ought 1 not to appeal with perfect
certainty to such a tribunal as this-a
tribunal, if we may believe its legislation,
seeking to establish law and order in tho
COMMUNICATING to see that justice is
administered according to law; and if
you, upon the heels Of this legislation,
turn around and say that you
will be governed by no law, and listen to
the violent appeals Of newspaper In this
town to bring this man into disgrace and
to drag him there guilty or not guilty.
because, forsooth, they have undertaken
to denominate him the Turpin of the
State, you will falsify your peaceful pro-
fessionS.
There is another proposition which 1
must discuss before I direct your attention
to the facts of the case; that is that man
may violate the law and not be criminal;
in other words, that the essential element
of crime is intention. No man who un-
Intentionally violates the law is criminal.
No. man who does so by accident is crimi-
nal There must be deliberation. There
fore it is that when man is indicted
/! for murder, they charge the act to
have been done with malice, after
thought; therefore it is when a man
is indicted for stealing, they charge
him with the intent to defraud. So
thorough the whole criminal jurisprudence
of the country, whether under the civil or
| law, ~ 10 0uC 2utOAtAOA WAiVA
constitutes criminality, and on the plain
est principles OF justice man is innocent
who does not intend the consequences of
his acts. Upon this subject l read from
the sixth annual report of the Supreme
Court, page 22S, in the case of the State
against Reed. This is a peculiar case,
and / ask attention to it because it goes to
show to what extent intention is an ele-
ment of crime. A man was indicted under
the following statute:
| That whatsoever shall make use of Ian.
guage in any public discourse, from the bar
or the bench or in conversation, or shall
make use of signs or actions having q
tendency to produce discomfort among the
free colored population of this State
Mark the language:
| "If he shall use any language among the
free colored population, having tendency
to produce discomfort, or whosoever shall
knowingly be instrumental in bringing into
this State any paper, pamphlet, or book,
having such tendency as aforesaid, shall,
on conviction" ETC.
The jury found the prisoner guilty; the
! Supreme Court reversed the Judgment,
and said, "The counsel appointed by the
court to defend the accused, moved to
arrest the judgment on the grounds that
the crime was not sufficiently and posi-
lively stated in the Indictment, and that
the accused is not charged with any
criminal intent in uttering the words
alleged to have been spoken. etc.
! The Indictment contains no charge of
| orv criminal intoot ap1 tho 1por1 fa1op;