The Anderson intelligencer. [volume] (Anderson Court House, S.C.) 1860-1914, 1878-08-15
THE LADD MURDERERS.

the case of the revenue officers charged
with the murder of Amos Ladd in Pick
ems County has not been settled by adju-
dication in the State and Federal Courts,
but the majesty of our judiciary, which
should be the pride and security of every
American, has been made to yield to the
wishes of the Executive department of
The government, in the face of the decis-
ion of Court of competent jurisdiction,
and that, too, where no harm could re-
suit to any party by regularly carrying
the case up on appeal to the Supreme
Court of the United States, and there
securing final adjudication which would
not only settle the case in this State, but
also in every other State in the Union.
The Administration has, however, seen
fit to defy the Courts, and take into its
hands the decision of legal questions
with which it was never the intention of
the trainers of our government for the
Executive to interfere.
The cabinet, however, decided to res
cue the prisoners, right or wrong, with
out seeking the decision of the Supreme
Court, and therefore directed the United
States Marshal to execute the writ of
ha5eas corpus issued by the Clerk of the
United States Court, directing transfer
of the prisoners from the State to the
Federal officers. Accordingly, the
Greenville Mews of last Friday gives the
following account of the manner in
which the transfer occurred:
At s o'clock p. m. yesterday, US.
Marshal R. NJ. Wallace, in company with
W. E. Earle, Esq, Deputy Marshals
Dill and Scruggs and others, proceeded
to the County Jail, and at the door of the
Jail met Sheriff p. d. Gilreath.
Marshal Wallace, addressing the Sher-
if ssid:
~ have come to demand those prisoners
from you under writ of habeas corpus,
a copy of which was served on you some
time ago."
The Sheriff answered: "Do you in
tend to take them from this Jail to some
other2"
He replied, "Not now; but you will
hold them until further orders from me.
The Sheriff replied, 81 shall offer no
resistance, but according to my concep-
ton cf my duty 1 cannot give them up.
There are the keys pointing to nail on
the wall) you can take them if you see
proper to do so, shall offer no resistance"
Thereupon Marshal Wallace took the
keys, vent up stairs to the prisoners cell,
unlocked the door and brought the priso-
ners down and Immediately turned them
over tc the SherihFunder the following COM
mitment:
U. S. MARsHAL's OFFICE,
GRlENvILLE, S. G. Aug, 9th, 1878.
Perry D. Gilreath, Sheriff Of GreenviHe
County, S. c.:
SIR--I herewith deliver to you the
bodies of Hugh P. Kane, VIM. Durham
and G. w. Moose, whose cases have been
transferred to the United States Court,
by writ of habeas corpus, cum causa, and
will commit them to Jail and hold them
until further orders from me or Judge
of the United States Court.
(sIigned) R. M. WALLACE,
U. S. Marshal.
Thus the prisoners have been taken
from the State Courts, and their case is
now pending before the United States
Court, where they cannot be tried, and
they expect to be turned out with
out any trial, as was done with Mattison
in similar case few years ago. This
proceeding on the part of the General
Government is great outrage upon law,
and if sustained virtually places the
lives of the citizens of any State at the
mercy of lawless and riotous men who
may be employed as revenue officers.
The case may do for partisan newspapers
to make political capital. of, as it oc-
Cured in South Carolina, but every State
in this Union is as much interested in its
determination as South Carolina. 1t is
really great question of national law,
for the like of which the United States
Supreme Court was established as a
Court of highest authority, and it was
the duty Of the Federal officials to have
declined TO interfere in its determination,
and we have no doubt they would have
so declined except for the hope that some
trouble would grow out of it in this
State, and thus afford them political
capital. In this, however, they have
been sadly disappointed, and we hope