Wilmington journal., 1876-08-04
TIE WeIr OFH.HEAs COHPUS.


This great writ was framed by onr
English ancestors to protect and
guard the liberty of the citizen against
any and every assault. In form it is
simply paper writing signed by a
Judge and directed to any person
holding another in custody and requir-
ing him to bring the body of the per-
son so held and to state the cause OF
detention before the Judge. If the
order is obeyed, the Judge examines
into the cause of arrest and imprisOn-
! ment, and either discharges the pris-
/ oner or sends him back into custody as
the law and the facts of the case may
require. IF the prisoner be lawfully
arrested, he is sent back. if not, he is
discharged. If. however, the party to
whom the writ is directed refuses to
bring before the Judge the bodies of
his prisoners, he becomes guilty of a
contempt of court, and il punished
therefor by fine and imprisonment.
until he does yield obedience
This is the way i'll which tho great writ
of HuGcas- Corpus operates to protect
the citizen from unlawful. arrest aud
unlawful imprisonment. All that is
needed to save the citizen from I'M u.s.
tice aud oppression, is an honest, fear
less Judge. Unfortunately, howe yer,
it has happened and only too frequent
,y, that Judges instead of being hon
est and fearless have been in alliance
with the oppressors OF the people, and
various have been the pretexts resorted
to- III the past by time-sorving Judges
to deprive the people of the benefit
of this great writ:
But none of them were more effect
i've than that resorted to by Judge
Settle and the other members of the
Supreme Court in the Holden-Kirk
war. The writ indeed was duly issued
as the law required, but there they
stopped" "exhausted", they said, by an
insolent speech from a Tennessee cut
Throat acting under the orders of the
Governor of North Carolina. Time
serving Judges acting in collu-
sion with the oppressors of the
people must eyer find some pre-
text for making of no effect
Tia grent writ of Ht.beas Corpus for
oppression can not live where that pre-
cons heritage of our English forefatll-
ers is recognized and obeyed. That
the pretext Of Settle and his brother
Judges that the power of the judiciary
was exhausted was a mere pretext and
nothing else, was made plain by the
Judge Brooks came in sight. The
| moment he issued the writ of Hadeas
Corpus it was obeyed. There was no
exhaustion there, nor was there any
fippant spe Ach from the rude soldier
made to Brooks messenger. So there
are Judges and Judges.
Does anybody believe that Kirk
| would have dared to defy Settle and
his brother Judges unless he had known
they were quite willing to be defed.
quite willing to be exhansted; in short,
unless he knew that they were ready
and willing, as Governor Holden de-
clared would be the case, to ''substan>
TALLY sustain" him? Judge Brooks,
however, was not willing, and SO the
Holden-Kirk war came to an end, and
il was the writ of HaJeas Corpus that
stopped it and one honest, fearless
Judge, whose name was not Thomas
Settlel
And yet Judge Settle asks the peo-
Pile to make him their Chief Magis-
trate. Faithless and recreant to his
sworn duty as a Judge in a great
crisis in the history of his people, he
has the assurance to ask them to make
him their Governor. When a Judge
on the bench he permitted citizens, the
best citizens in the State, to be hung
up by the neck, to be tortured, to be
imprisoned and in every way to be
outraged. And instead of putting a
stop at once to such things by the
l SGIODB uIH VI buo INV, Io
sustained the authority under which
the outrages were committed, utterly
refusing to exercise the ample powers
with which he WAS clothed for the ex-
press purpose of being exercised in just
such an emergency.
And this is the man, people of North
| Carolina, who asks to be your Cover
nor! He sustained Holden in over
| throwing the Constitution and laws of
| the State. Will he hesitate to
| overthrow them himself whenever
party or, other occasion may require {?
Can you trust him He has proved
utterly faithless once, and be it re-
| membered too that Pearson is still
Chief Justice and Rodman and Reade
still Associate Justices! The risk is too
great. We donot want another Holden
Kirk war.
n ~ n W n e. ~