The daily phoenix. [volume] (Columbia, S.C.) 1865-1878, 1872-10-26
A Judicial FIrebrn ntI-Judge Thos. j.
Mnckcy's Charge 10 tho Grand Jury Of
Chester. October ~, 1872.

Ine com menCemeQG OF Ln6 present term,
which was begun on the first Monday of
September. and thence adjourned to this
day, I charged and admonished you gene.
rally upon your powers, your duties and
responsibilities. 1 then took occasion to
refer to the causes that led the Govern.
ment OF the United States to intervene
with its military and judiciul power for
the protection of American citizens in
this State in the free exercise of their
unquestionable civic rights. need say
nothing further to vindicate that inter.
vention. It was timely, merciful and
just.
shall now charge you specially upon
the matters to which it is your bounden
duty to Immediately give your most dill.
gent attention.
Gentlemen of the grand jury, you are
watchmen, stationed to survey the whole
country, and by your action to oheok
and bring to merited punishment, all
who dare to invade any right of person
or property. You are the eye of the
law. Nay, more, you are the right arm
OF the law. You can bar or unbar the
gates OF justice. If you fail. then all the
agencies that the law provides for the
protection of society must also fail, and
the court itself is made the paralyzed
spectator OF the triumph of crime.
l shall now point your attention to
events which transpired in this County
about eighteen months ago; and which
demanded, but never received, the con-
sderation of this court; and which be-.
ing IN their nature then exclusively
within the jurisdiction of the State,
have not been acted on by the Federal
courts. In the month of March, 1871,
anumber of citizens of the State were
slain by fire of musketry and pistols on
the public highway in this County. They
we're slain In an armed collision between
two organized forces, and some were
slaughtered. it is currently alleged and
generally believed. while flying for their
lives from the scene of conflict. The
bodies OF several citizens, who were thus
slain, lay for some time unburied, and
the blood OF some of them may yet be
seen sprinkled on the rails of fences that
skirt the roadside. The court is bound
to take judicial notice of these terrible
iaots-for they have passed into the his
tory OF the times; and Justice, which has
long slumbered here, should awake and
requlte with condign punishment the
guilty doers Of those deeds of blood.
No inquest was ever held upon the
dead bodies Of the men who thus died
violent deaths. The County, it is true.
vas without q coroner; the law, there
fore, devolved the duty upon the nearest
magistrate, but he criminally failed to
perform it. That no inquest was held
In such case is not the least startling
and significant fact connected with the
event Of which Ispouk. At or about The
same period, public officers in the Coun-
", duly elected and qualified pursuant
to law, were threatened with death or
great bodily harm, unless they resigned
their offices, in obedience to the orders
OF band of unknown conspirators, who
made their lawless demands in written
communications, which bore various
CHASTITY symbols of terror, and in public
notices, which the conspiiators, unre.
strained by the fear of the law, and IN.
abashed by manly shame, nailed upon
the door of this court house, ns if to
insult and defy public justice in her
chosen temple.
Gentlemen Of the grand jury, this also
was great crime. II was a crime which,
IN It's very nature, strikes ut the exist
ence of government itself. If bold, bad
men can thus work their will, then the
foundations of organized society must
soon be upheaved. The citizen elected
to public Office represents in his official
sphere the sovereignty and will of the
people. and by the people alone can he
be Justly deprived of the franchise with
which he is invested. If lie violates the
trust reposed in him, either by malfea-
sance or misfeasance, by committing or
emitting an act which the law prohibits
or enjoins, he must be held responsible
IN tho courts established by the people
to remedy all public and private wrongs.
These remedies were not evoked to cor
rect real or supposed evil; but officers
we're compelled by these deadly menaces
to surrender their commissions, bearing
the broad seal Of the State. This was
the law OF the strong hand. The court
cannot be silent, nor unconcerncd, or
inactive, knowing these things; for thoy
are known to all men. No, gentlemen
of the grand jury, better would it be,
than for this court to sanction or toler-
ate such crimes as these, that the solid
walls Of the building in which we now
sit should crumble around us and bury
Judge and jury in their ruinsl Justice
would then, indeed, be silent; but it
would be q silence without shame; and