The Louisiana Democrat. [volume] (Alexandria, La.) 1845-1918, 1878-04-17
The Law Of the Mob and the Law
of the Land.

We publish, in the present number
of the Law Journal, the recent decision
of the Supreme Court of Louisiana in
the Anderson case, which has so long
attracted the attention of the country.
This decision is said to meet with the
general appreciation of the New Or
leans bar, conspicuously noted for its
legal learning and ability.
AS usual in all similar cases of a po-
litical criminal character, the party
press are proceeding to breathe forth
against the court voice of disrespect-
full condemnation. A public journal
of New Orleans, of vast political influ-
ence, denominates this acquittal of
Anderson as "artiicial JUSTICE" and
Indignantly complains that the court
"has not been able to rise to the height
Of the OCCASION" and "has adhered
with too great subseryiency to the
miserable technicalites of the law, in
stead of boldly attempting to enlarge
and enlighten it in the interest OF
society and for the protection of the
people,"
This jealous sentinel of popular
rights and liberty cannot regret more
than we do the fact that there is no
law in Louisiana, the impartial execu-
ton of which would consign the author
of the Vernon parish fraud to life
time incarceration in the peni-
Tertiary.
But we highly commend the decision
of the learned court, which has nobly
risen above the low and vicious atmos-
phere of politics, and recorded the fact
that the judiciary of great State is
not to be made guillotine to execute
the vengeance of an enraged mob.
This decision presents one of those
grand moral spectacles which loom up
in history, here and there, amid the
lapse of centuries, to illustrate that
wise conservatism of the bench which
has so often preserved popular liberty
from swift felo de SEA sad picture,
too often witnessed in the other de-
partments of government, of Action
torn by bis own hounds, or Saturn
remorselessly devouring his own
children.
So it was, more than ten years ago
in the case of Milligau, citizen of In.
diana, charged with treason, who was
arraigned; condemned by court mar
tial to be hanged, and deprived of the
right of trial by jury. When the Su-
preme Court of the United States fear
lessly rose superior to the pressure of
"the war party" of the North, and de-
cided that the right of the private citi-
zen to trial by jury, even in time of
war, must remain inviolate, and dis.
charged Milligan from the clutches of
military law, there was a fierce protest
against "artificial Justice" and "the
technicalties of the law"
And yet, again, when the whole tri-
umphant North, maddened by the as
sassinatiom Of an idolized President,
demanded fercely the trial and convic-
ton of Mr.. Jefferson Davis, as the head
and front of rebel offending, who does
not remember how the political press
raised the same hue and cry at the dis.
appointment of their expectations
through the wise administration of the
Law. Chief Justice Chase, closing his
eyes to the clamor of the mob, vindi.
Gated the great principle of constitu-
tional law forbidding the citizen to be
twice punished for the same offense
Congress had embodied, in the four.
teenth amendment to the Federal con-
stitution, the penalty of disqualifica-
ton for Office against certain classes
who participated in the war on the
Southern side.
! Mr.. Davis belonged to this class and
was excluded from official prefermen,
by this punitive provision. Mr.. Chase
we'll held that he could not be pun.
ished in any manner, again, for the
same offense, thus upholding great
principle of artificial justice"
The good people of Louisiana may
we'll afford to allow a great mora
criminal to escape, on the ground tina
their Legislature has omitted to pass {
law to punish the crime of which he il
heiniously guilty, if BY his escape f
occasion has been afforded to lay deep
err the foundation-stone of republican
law and liberty in the classic Parthe
non of free government, now in pro
cess of erection for our American pos
terity. Law is thus made more lumi
nous by this temporary occultation o
inexorable justice.-[Southern Law
Journal, Tuscaloosa, Alabama.
!