The New Orleans daily Democrat., 1878-11-01
JUDGE LUDELrHUs v1DAL1A SPEECH
NO. III.

LII previous AfWelGH LII THIS paper, and lin
der the above heading, some general obssrva
| tions were made upon the speech lately deliy
cred by Judge Jrdeling ut Vidalia, Ill Con
eordla parish. while electloueerlng for sutpor
| In his candidacy for the Congressional repre-
| sentation Of the Fifth District Of the State
| We held up to public 1idicule and seorn th,
| very irnpudent assertion OF Mr.. L11deling thu,
| "the Judges Of the Supreme Court OF tht
United States know nothing of Leaisiara
law. and "blunderingly" decided against hin
| the case which Involved the question Of the
| lawtulness Of q certain railroad sale made ju
dleially by Has sheriff at Monroe. on February
D. 1866. at Which Mr.. Lldeling and his asso
elates were declared to have been the pur-
chasers, and for which they obtained from
the sheriff title-deed. It is common enough
| occurrence for d lawyers clients, when he has
lost his suit, to borate the Judge, the lawyer
and every one about tho court, for-~-
No roRue e'er felt the halter drnw
With good opinion Of the law"
but 1t has never, until now, come under o,lt
observation that D. member Of the legal pro.
fesslon, himself having served long
term upon the bench Of u court oi
last resort and final appellate jurisdiction
and. therefore, having considerable experience
IN the performance of the very delicate an1
oftentimes difficult duties and Responsibilities;
of the judicial office, not only 80 far forgot
himself and the respect due to the court rs TO
impute to the members Of so high D. tribunal
Ignorance Of the law, according to which Mr..
LudeIng naturally thinks his case ought to
have been decided. but to characterize the de-
eision as absurd nonsense for these are the
words Mr.. Iudeling Is reported, aud without
any denial Of their use on bis part. TO have
applied to the decision Of the Supreme Court.
How could Mr. Ludaling II, ut any time Ia the
future he should be employed to plead case
before that court, dare to look those honor
able and eminent Judges In t,e face, after
substantially proclatmiug In aTpublic speech
that they are fools and "ignolam,lses p
True, nh hour or two has been humoro,,sly
accorded TO u defeated suitor to curse the
court, but the decision In LudeIngs 8 case is
now four years old. o sufficient length Of time
one would Think for tho subsidence Of all
anger and passion Oh the part Of himself and
his disappointed Go-speculators. Because,
forsooth, tho Judges Of the Supreme Court
would not like tho Judge below, that stolid
but determined Radical, W. d. Woods, from
Newark. O., violate their oaths and their
oonsciences by saying that tboy were unable
to SEQ anything wrong in Llldelings CON
duct, but, on the contrary, did declare In
tho strongest and most trenchant words to be
found In the English language, that tho trnns-
action was ~ gross fraud" In Ludclng; ~
llagrant breach Of trust on the part of Horne;
IN great wrong" on tho part Of the whole
combination; 20 grossly inequitable' trans
action from beginning to end; "an inexousa-
bic violation Of confidence" on the part of the
directors Of the railroad company, tho court
concluding their opinion in this very plain,
comprehensive and positive Judgment "The
defendants can take nothing from such sale,
thus made. We're we to sustain 1t, we should
sanction great moral and legal wrong. give
encouragement to faithlessnees to trusts and
confidence reposed, and countenance Combipn-
tions to wrest by the forms Of law from tho un-
informed and confding their just rights"
therefore. according to Judge Ludoling these
learned Judges are Ignorant of Louisiana
law and, In deciding against his construction
OF that law, uttered absurd nonsense"
The fact is that the mere statement of tho
facts OF the case, sustained as thoy were by
the most irrefragable testimony, even by tho
admissions OF the defendants themselves,
was 30 convincing as to render impossible all
explanations and attempts nt defense, The
fraud was SO apparent and loud as TO create o.
stencil and actually cause the Judges to hold
their noses. Such case, such brazen at
tempt to justify palpable and open piece of
had never been heard in that court
No wonder that their judicial indignation was
provoked when thoy found themselves asked
to approve ''a judicial robbery"-(tho very
language of the opinion when spoken from
the bench). No wonder they sickened and
were disgusted when such q rotten and ollen-
sive corpus was placed before them to dissect
with their judicial knife. But they were
equal even to this disagreeable operation, and
The way In which they went right to the bot |
tom Of the subject and proved the perfect
confidence of tho operator In his steadiness OF
nerve for skill and caution were not needed. |
Dur late eminent surgeon, DR.. Warren Stone, |
Sr.. when called in on one occasion by stu
lent to assist and instruct him how to operate |
IN tumor or boil, from which some poor fel- |
ow was suffering, the rough but kindly old
surgeon said grutlly, while amming his Ian
'et into the holland giving instant relief to
he patient, "Why didn't you do that?" So
'aid tho Supreme Court Of the United States
o the Circuit Judge, w. B. Woods but with
70 little effect that that obstinate and MOTTO
ignoramus came back at his ST.
,eriors in an opinion he afterwards rendered
n another branch of the same case and for
which within the next three MONTHS q we'll
deserved chastisement will surely be ad-
ninistered to him by the appellate
ourt This man Woods, who so dshonors
he bench on which he sits, actually had the
mpudence to place this dsrespectful insinu-
tion against his superiors on the records of
lis court. I'VE copy from his own manu-
cript.]
THE defendants Nudeling and associatesl
lain the right to retain the property until