Wilmington journal. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1844-1895, 1873-10-31
The Legislature.
". J. YATES, EdUor Of The Charlotte
ITlJI/-;-fff

Dear Sir-The Raleigh Sentinel Of |
the 10th inst. contains an article copied |
from your paper, which | am persuad- |
ed reflects rather unjustly upon the |
present General Assembly, and having |
great respect for your political wisdom |
and intelligence, and high regard for |
your personal character, l am induced !
to address you this communication |
suggesting some particulars wherein 1
think your article does the Legislature
injustice. The article is headed "The
Legislature" and opens rs follows !:
The Legislature of North Carolina
re-asse nbles in November. Unless it
does something more and better than
at the last session, it would be better
to never meet again. The article then
proceeds to point out what particular
legislation the people need and by i'm
plication, taken in connection with the
paragraph just quoted, casts severe
reflection upon the Legislature for not
having at its last session enacted such
"practical " Legislation as would have
accomplished the purposes you seem
to desire to see cOnsummated. The
several purposes you desire to see eff
fected by 'practical Legislation I
propose to notice seriatim.
1st, in the order You suggest. q lie
gislation, such as charging the juris-
diction Of Magistrates. | take il that
you mean by the term g Magistrates.
Justices OF the Peace. So understand
ing you join issue with You, and con-
legislation My observation leads me
| to the conclusion that the Superior
| Courts ere able at present to attend to
~ 4
| der existinglegislation IN al the counties
of the State with reasonable dispatch,
| except in those counties containing
| large towns and cities. such rs Neck
| lenburg, Wake, New Hanover, Craven,
Cumberland, and perhaps Rowan,
| Guilford, Wayne, Beaufort, Chowan
and few others. For tho convent
ence of the people OF these towns and
cities it is within the power Of the
General Assembly to provide for
Especial Courts" and the present
General Assembly, at It's last session,
was liberal in manifesting a disposition
to make the provision in every case
where it was asked, / believe, except
in the case of Gollsboro', and I sup
pose there would have been nc diff
Guilty in that case ii it had been GER
tain that the people were united in de-
manding it. II then the convenience
of the people is answered without this
enlargement of the jurisdiction Of the
Justices of the Peace, / suppose no
one will cont end that the Justices can
exercise this jurisdiction more intelli-
gently, as a general thing, than the
Superior Courts, OF more beneticially
for the people. Onc danger. / may
say, OF charging this jurisdiction, as
suggested III Grimm nj matters, might
be unprecedented, and that is that Gull
prits might escape moro easily ade-
quate punishment, as il is notorious
that Justices are usually more lenient
than the Superior Courts in intiicting
punishment for crimes. If the Supe-
rior Courts are able to attend to the
needs of the people in reference to
judicial matters without inconvenience,
and are capable of attending to them
more intelligently than the Justices, I
confess I do not see the necessity or
propriety of this enlargement of
jurisdiction.
Your I'd suggestion is to make it a
punishable I" offence to interfere with
laborers by hiring them away from Il
man VINO has made a bargain for their
services, and more speedy punish
ment for rogues and rascals." In ref
erence to this suggestion invite Your
attention to the existing legislation on
this subject. See Chapter JS OF the
laws of 1865, ratified the I'd day o:
March, \. D., 1866, as amended by
Chapter l24 of the Laws of 1867
Taking the two acts together it will
appear that the existing law provides
lat II ANY person shall entiee, per-
suade and procure any servant by in
denture, or ANY servant who shall have
contracted in Writing to serve his en-
ployer, to unlawfuliy leave the service
Of his master or employer or ii any
person shall knowingly and unlawfully
! harbor and detain. ill his own service,
and from the service Of his master or
| employer, any servant who shall I'M
Ia .fully leave the service Of such mas
ter or employer. then, in either case
! such person and servant may be sued
singly or Jointly, by the master, and
on recovery he shall have Judgment
for the actual double value of the
damages assessed and, III addition,
''such person and servant shall also
pay penalty of one hundred dollars
to any person suing for the same,
singly or jointly, one-halG to his use
and the other to the use Of the War
!
suit is brought, and the offender shall
moreover be guilty of a n1isdemcanor,
and fined, at the discretion Of the
Court, not exceeding one hundred dol
lars aud imprisonment not exceeding
SIX months.
Thus, it will be seen, this important
subject has not escaped the attention
OF the legislators, and If the present
! General Assembly, nj its last session,
took no action IL reference thereto, 1t
was because they saw that an efficient,
Ii not an amply sufficient, law was a.
ready in force.
Bird. Iour Article states that "a
more stringent vaGraut law should be
enacted SO as to compel men and
women TO work OF show some means
of living without steaIing" IF you,
or any one else, can suggest ga more
| stringent law upon the subject Of
| vagrancy, within the bounds of pro-
! priety, than the law already in exis-
tence, / should like to hear the sug-
| gestion. See Chapter II of the Acts
! OF 1866. The law defines assvagrant to
| be ''any person who may be able to
labor and ''has no apparent means of
| subsistence, and neglects to apply
| himself TO some honest occupation for
We support OF himself and family, or
d person found spending his time in
| dissipation, Oh gambling, or saunter-
ing about without employment, or en-
! deavorinG to maintain himself or his
family by undue and unlawful MEANS"
and he is made guilty OF naisde-
nieanor, and may be punished by fine
or imprisonment, or both, or sentenc-
! ed to the workhouse for snch time as
the Court may think fit. think this
pretty stringent and efficient law to
suppress vagrancy if our people will
only see to it that the law is executed.
If they do not choose to do that then
no Jaw will accomplish the purpose,
and it is useless to charge the vagrancy
of the State upon the Legislature.
4th. You are made to say eve hope
some member of the Legislature viii have
! the independence to inaugurate
movement for the establishment Of
the whining most and Dillorv Tho