St. Johnsbury Caledonian. [volume] (St. Johnsbury, Vt.) 1867-1919, 1874-07-24
''Poland's Gag Law"

only papers i'm the District which Oh
pose the denomination of Judge Polan,
for Congress. have been diligcnt il
gatheringupall the opprobrious epithet.
of the Democratic and Independent
Gate Greeley organs in relation to III
act passed at the late session of Con.
grcss, which they call "PolImd's Ga.
Law or Poland and Edmund'S Gag Law
II seems To he their only stock in trad"
NJ tlr'I IF chem have published the act
itself, on stated what its provisions
were. except to miS-Statc them. They
assume that it is something terrible
Is to he indicted for libel, and taken t.
Washington for trial.
Now. with your leave to have Il little
space i'll Your columns, propose to
show how utterly groundle>s and ride
ulon> the whole cutlery is. In the first
place | will give the act entire:
AN ACT coHt;rrjng jnrjSIjcfon "po,,
the fUmiH0I CuHrf Of the District ~
f"I"mbi". ard for either purposes. BE il
enacted 10y the Senate and House oi
Representatives of the United States OF
America i'll Congress assembled. That
the Criminal Court of the District OF
Columbia shall have Jurisdiction of all
crimes and mi>dcmc:Inors committed in
said District. not awiully triahlc in ANY
other court. and which are required 10y
law To hc prosecuted 10y indictment oi
Information.
$50. >. That the provisions of the
thirty third section of the judiciary act
of IL? shall apply t" courts created 10y
act of Congress in the District of Coum-
ha."
In order to understand the full force
of the second section. ii is necessary To
quote tn" :ssd section of the judiciary
act of l1~9. which is made applicable
+" the courts of the District. That
reads aS follows:
$50. 81. And Ice it further enacted.
/ That for amy crime or offence against
the nitrd States. the offender may. hl
amy justice OF Judge of the United States.
"r 10y amy justice of the peace. or other
magistrate of any of the nitcd States
where hc may he found agr"cahly tn
the usual mode OF process against of
tenders III such state. and at the cN-
pcn>c of the nitcd States. he arrested
and imprisoned or bailcd. is the cas-,
may he. tnr trial before such court of
the mtcd States as 10y this act has
r"%niZnncc of the offence"
I'll" rest az the section relates merely
To the form and mode of proceeding.
and is not material to the consideration
of the scope and effect of the act
Now upon the face uf the act would
ANY one suppose that it WAS such ter
rihlc weapon against the press. aS has
/ been represented Does there appear
in il. or in the section of the old Judi
riary act adopted hv it. anything about
indictments ior libel. or about try inc Il
man in the District of Columbia for an
offence committed in some other place ,
Judge Poland has stated in pub
ll>hr'l letter that in his action in regard
T." the bill. which he reported from tin,
Judiciary Committee. he never once
Thought oi newspapers "r amy effect the
bill could have upon them. Here in
Vermont | shall spend II" time To vim
dictate his character for VcrlcitN II
these papers choose to make any uurS-
tl"n in regard t" that. it may safely he
left t" the people without argument.
| But they say. if he did not know that
such would hc lis effects. and 81 in
tended. he must have been very stupid.
to" stupid t" z" to Congress. They
say the newspaper men were sharp
enough (" see it at Il glance. and did.
l. that -" B.! The bill WAS passed in the
House several weeks before the close of
the session. and passed the Senate scv-
rIal days hctor" the end of the session.
and the terrible secret contained in il
WAS not discovered 10y the press until
some days after the session closed. 1t
passed in the House some weeks before
Senator Carpenter reported IL bill one
section "i which 80 alarmed some por
ton of the press. The hill was FULLY
examined 10y the judiciary committee
of the House, and upon that committee
were three of the Sharpcst democratic
lawyers, Eldridgc, Potter and Jewett.
and nobody saw any such mischief i'm
it. II passed the House not secretly.
and III il night session.. as has been
stated, hut in open day with twenty
newspaper correspondents looking ON
and listening. 1t WAS considered bv
the judiciary committee in the Senate
consisting of seven able lawyers our
own Senator EdmlMdS at the head. On
that committee are two democrats
Thurman and Stevenson -both able
lawyers, and sharp men. They reported
1t to the senate unanimously, and il
passed the senate unanimously. under
the eye OF another bcvy of newspaper
correspondents. Verify the mischief of
the bill was deeply concealed to escapc
so much observation. | think JUDGE
Poland may possibly escape the charge
of dulncss: if not, many more must also
he convicted.
But if the law does not bear any such
construction. and can have no sucb
effect a> claimed, then everybody con-
rcIned may go free. This think can
show i'll Il few words.
Libel consists in the malicious pubIi-
cation of falSehoodS, which tend to de-
grade or disgrace Il person, or to subject
him to punishment. by the common