Wilmington journal., 1873-07-25
VOL. %.
THE DANA Libel CASE.

| Il NA III L. CASEs
Charles A. Dana, Editor OF the New
York .Son, i'll his paper, printed and
published i'll the city of New York,
charged certain parties in Washington
City, among them one A. r. Shepherd,
President of the Metropolitan Paving
! Company, with official misconduct. A
warrant of arrest was issued by a
Police Justice of Washington, who
has no juri diction whatever of such
offences, and certified by the Federal
Commissioner, Davenport, of New
York, who no doubt thought his en-
dorsement clothed The document with
plenary Federal authority to take libel
suits at once into the Federal Courts.
Upon that warrant and certificate Mr..
Dana was promptly arrested, and an
attempt seriously made to carry him
off to Washington. The counsel of
Mr. Dana resisted the proceeding, and
| the matter was at length referred,
though with extreme reluctance, to
| Judge Blatchford, who decided on
| Wednesday that it would be a violation
of the Constitutional rights of Mr..
Dana as citizen to send him for trial
to a Court where there is 10 trial by
jury, as in the Police Court of the
District of Columbia.
The theory that the publisher of a
newspaper in New York or in North
Carolina. charged with an alleged libel,
can be dragged to Washington City to
answer the charge in the local Courts
there, simply because a copy of the
paper containing the alleged ibelous
matter was circulated there, will ex-
tend the jurisdiction of the local
Courts of Washington over the whole
country.
Had Judge Blatchford made himself
a party to this infamous attempt to
override the rights of States ana OF
individuals, a death blow would have
been struck to trial by jury, and the
freedom of the Press in America
The Journal naturally appreciates
the Importance of the decision of
Judge Blatchford to the freedom of
the Press. Had Mr.. Dana been car
ried to Washington City for trial, there
would have been nothing to prevent
Judge Bond from procuring the neces-
sary warrant of arrest from some pa1ti
zan police Justice in Washington
against the Journal, or to prevent the
arrest of it's editors and their trial
before the the Police Court-a Court
that has no jury. The effort to muz-
zle the Press by depriving it of its
right to trial by jury, was a far-seeing
and a far reaching one.
We cordially concur in the following
Outspoken sentiments of the Yew York
York Ere,.ing Post in saying that if
there really be any statute by whic!
this can be done, then the sooner we
know it and the sooner we grid mp our
loins to enter into contest against it
the better. It is contrary to common
mon law, and Mr. Dana's case becomes
if there is any such statutory power, a I
common cause with every journalist 0.
the country who cares for and means
to exercise the right of freedom OF
speech on public affairs and public
officers.
The power of influencing public af-
fairs by the exercise of perfect free
dom of criticism is. we believe, con-
scientiously used by all respectable
journalists. For their words they are
willing at all times, we also believe, to
answer before any impartial legal tri-
bunal. But they will insist upon being
tried where the alleged offence is COM
n,itted, in that community where those
words are published, where their char
acters are known and where Justice
will be done them without fear or
favor. If Mr.. Dana's cas-, shall be
made a precedent whereby ''e are ha-
BILE TO answer before a Washington
police court and q Washington jury for
every exercise of the right of liberty
of speech i'll any state Of the Union,
we shall have ut length one question:
on which the press of the whole coun
try, outside Of the District, Will be
united.