Herald and tribune. [volume] (Jonesborough, Tenn.) 1869-current, 1872-01-18
THURSDAY, JANUARY Is, 1872.

Acts of the General Assembly to which
we invite the calm, deliberate and UMPIRE
JUDGED attention of our readers of every
political ~pcrsuation; because it is an act
which involves, most seriously, the rights
of every citizen of the State.
The Bill, it is understood, was offer
ed in the interest, and for the benefit of
certain publishers at Nashville, who are
defendants in an action for SANDER where
IN John Baxter is Plaintiff the suit
Cow pending in the Circuit Court OF
Knox County. With the merits of the
controversy w have nothing to do, and,
therefore, do not propose to complicate
oarselyes, in any way, by the expression of
an opinion, either pro or con, as to the
matters at issue between the parties But
it is not only our right. but our duty as
the conductors of a public journal, profess
ing to entertain a "decent regard for the
opinions" as we'll as the rights of the
community, to c~riticise this general law Of
the land.
A citizen of Memphis-an atrocious
and habituaI slanderer it may be-visits,
perchance, the county of Washington,
Carter or johnson and there, under the
p~anoply which this law throws around
him, he finds occasion to indulge his pro-
pensity for defamation. 1t may be his
victim is q female-the mother. wife, SIS
ter or daughter perhaps of one of our
readers. Her acknowledged excellence
her pure and spotless character only make
her the better subject on which to exer-
else his powers Of detraction and, con-
scious of the protection which the Act af-
fords-emboldened by the encourage
ment which the law extends to him, he
pollutes society by stories Of scandal-as-
s~ertions false and malignant as the devil
could wish or suggest. You seek that
protection and redress, at law, which, you
feel, should be extended to persons so out
ragged and so suffering. The defendant,
with perfect ''sang froid," demands of the
Court a change of venue. and the right to
be tried in his own county and then to
obtain the redress which you demand for
the mercilcss SANDER of your mother
wife, sister or daughter, you will, perhaps,
DO required to endure the the expense of
repeated visits. with your witnesses to
Memphis; or to adopt the method so I'M
satisfactory-incomplcte and unreliable
of taking dispositions in a suit at law. In
the latter case you will not have it in your
power to employ an attorney of your
choicc-but be compelled to employ a
strangcr-and the case to be tried by a
Jury of strangers; in all of which the de-
fendant, and offender in contemplation of
law. hasthe advantage-by apcrsonal ac-
quaintance with the Judge, Jury and at
t~ernies. 1t may be that the victim is
poor-yery poor-or, pcrchance, physically
infrm-too poor or too infrm to perform
a trip SO expensive and so fatiguing-
hence the suit must be abandoned and
thus the viIest of all miscreants-the most
detcstablc of all the Shiny reptiles that
crawl on Gods footstool goes ''unwhipPed
of Justice because, forsooth, the injured
party is unable to comply with the rigor-
Gus, unjust and cruel requirements of this
law tho most offensive of all laws which
to-day, disgrace the Statute Books of Ten
nessee. And now, let us ask, why should
not tho horse-thief-the incendiary or the
forger, hailing from the same locality and
committing tho offence in some one OF the
counties named. demand, in like manner,
a change of Venue? You answer perhaps
that one is an offence liable only to civil
action, whilst the other is an offence a.
gainst the criminal law. Yet both ave
offences agaiastthc h,cs Of the land and
this discrimination is but a fimsy pretext-
The crime of forgery is certainly not more
heinous, inthe sight of both God and man,
than is the SANDER of a helpless female.
ale who robs me of my purse
Steals trash:-bnt lie VIII robs me OF my
good name
Steals that which himselfdot not enrich
But makes me poor indeed"
The constitution wisely prohibits the
suspension of any general law for the
benefit of any particular individual {; yet
the Legislature resolved to perform the
major act of repeating our general laws
for the benefit of certain Individuals
The same instrument forbids the passage
of any retrospective law or any laws IN
t.rferiug with vested rights. Yet this
net is made to operate upon suits already
instituted in our Courts, and now the ''ves-
ted rights of litigants. Class Legislation
is forbidden, by both the spirit and letter
of the same instrument, and yet here is
an act which grants privileges and benefits
to a single class of defendants which are
denied to ell others.
We cannot conceive of a highe> compli-
ment which could have been paid to Col.
Baxter; or of an act more disparaging
and ~derogatory of the character and digni-
ty of both the Legislative and the Execu-
tive Departments of our State Govern
ment. than is the law which we hive been
considering. The masses of our readers
of both parties will sopdecide. When the
combined efforts and power of these de,
partments are deemed requisite to defeat