The daily gazette., 1880-12-03
THE SUPERIOR COURT.
The LIBEL SUIT UNDER
ARGUMENT.
MR. LORE OPENS FOR THE PLAIN
TIFF-CoL. WHITLEY TALKS
LAW, AND MIR. BATES PRESENTS
THE DEFENDANT'a CASE

1 aNPoaAtN iOi lnt oAZhTl E,
NEW CASTLE, Dec. AT the
opening of Court, this morning
Charles b. Lore, Esq, opened the
argument for the plaintiff in the
libel suit of the Delaware State Fire
and Marine Insurance Company o..
VIM. L. Croasdale.
Mr.. Lore said -
With submission to the Court -
GENTLEMEN OF THE JURY Il
need not say to you that the case you
are empanelled to try is one, perhaps,
Of as grave import as ever was
brought before jury Of this county.
1t is grave and far reaching for
two reasons: 1t involves necessarily
as one of the elements of it the use
and abuse Of the public press, for it
ls apparent and it pervades this en-
tire case that this is either a proper
use or it is a vile abuse of the press.
| may say one of, if not the most,
potent power now for the dissent
nation of news and for the formation
Of public opinion. That question
necessarily springs out of the case
and is upon the surface. Another
element is private interests. When
| say private interests | embrace in
that private corporations as we'll as
individuals, because corporation is
Just as much person although an
artificial person created by law as
you and | are natural persons Gre
ated, not not by act Of the Legisla-
ture as a corportion but created by
laws which the Creator Himself has
stamped in the formation of our
humanity. We are the offspring eff
the law of God, natural persons,
just as corporations are the otisprings
Of the law of mrn expressed through
their Legislatures.
Starting from that point you have
before you the two parties in this
suit; on the one hand the editor of
newspaper published in the city OF
Wilmington, a newspaper circulated
not alone within the limits Of the
city Of Wilmington, not confined
alone to the narrow boundaries Of
our own little State, which we love
with so much intensity and devotion,
but scattered broad cast throughout
| this land, with power co-extensive
with every line OF railroad that
penetrates from one portion of our
land to the other. IL it be venom
that paper carries its venom all
through this land Of ours and poisons
| every channel with which it comes
| in contact if it be true it ought to
scatter as free and as full as the rays
| of Gods sun, which give the sun
J shine in all our clear days; If 1t be
| slander it is vile and it should re-
ceive the check Of all honest men
with that stern and exact justice
which lays its hand upon the Sian
derer, upon The liDeler and stops the
poison at its fountain. Such is the
| defendant in this case; with just
such power lurking behind the pen
either poison, or filled with a de-
sire Tor public good. The plaintiff
In the case, the persons who came
here and stand before you represent
ing the plaintiff, organized as one OF
The institutions of your State seeking
to do business, whether indilierently
or not, composed Of men OF your
community not only whose means
but whose reputation, whether they
be the labors and accretions OF years
of toll, and labor in your midst, or
whether they be the simple offspring
of a few years. l say in that cor
poration are wrapped up not simply
their means but the regulations OF
these men who have staked Il por-
ton of their fortunes and their per-
sonal names with that corporation
Thus they stand before you; for
that editor represents every particle
of power that press may have, this
defendant having no other than their
simple integrity OF character aud
their intention to do right in dealing
between men, and who have no such
mower to back them. These are the
parties and they have come before
you-this corporation as plaintiff
and editor as defendant-and for
what to recover? Upon the charge
of libel. | need not say to you what
libel and slander is, for you know
inst as |. 1t is one of those charges
| difficult to formulate in words.
was surprised to find looking among
legal writer's that il is a subject most
diliicult of comprehensive definition
The best found was one in Addl'
soma clear, terse and vigorous
writer.
Addison on Wrongs, when he says
"a libel is any publication injurious
to private character or to the credit
of another" You observe that IL
bel is publication, it is something
written, it is something that is en-
braced not simply by words which
flow from our mouths, but by some
r thing on paper printed, and living
, long after you and l are in our
graves. We may mouider away but
+ when your children's children and
their grandchildren, are upon the
e earth, if they happen to come across
;, some old file of this paper-for tnal
a paper will endure for ages-lt thal
q be a slander it will live when oul
d grandchildren are rotting in then
a graves that paper and its MES KEEP
in public records, may show 10 som'
old antiquary this record.
Words uttered in the heat oil pas
sion and hastily are never SO awe, u,
upon as those which a man puts VI
paper in the calmness OF his own Sauc @
tnarv where he may sit, digest, AM
~ lRt