Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1881-01-25


society, or to punish murder. The fault is entirel
with society and of society. The fault is entirel
with the people OF California, and not with eithe
the them murderess n or murderer The juries are com
posed OF portion OF society, of portion of tn
| State, aud they have permitted themselves to b
| duped and their sentiments to be warped under tn
| specious plea Of emotional insanity or some othe
fool notion, which only exists in the prolific brai
OF able and eloquent counsel, until the jures ysr
dict in murder case is now almost universally "no
guilty" 1t is the Courts, mean the Courts OF Law
| and of society, which have been warped and mold
ed by designing men far bad purposes Eloauen
| lawyers in rhetorical flights assisted by eminen
judges have united, il l may use the expression
| in molding and building public sentiment to its
present false condition, and even that palladium
our liberties, it has been called even the bolc
representatives OF the newspaper press O.
the land, have indorsed and joined in with this CRY
and with this defense of murderers There is bu
one daily newspaper, to my knowledge, in Calfor
nia there was but one daily newspaper in the State
of California to my knowledge that had the courage
and the manhood to denounee the action OF the jury
in the Schroeder murder case in Oakland, and that
was the RECORD UNION, published in Sacramento. Nc
other daily paper to my knowledge. see the reporter
of the Bulletin shakes his head take the Buus
tin, and ] saw editorial in the Bulletin de
nouncing the result-the mest wicked result in my
Judgment, ever attained by jury in any country in
the world If have done any injustice in this par
ticular, have done it unintentionally. ! take q
great many OF the newspapers, not because | like
to read them, and examine editorials which they
give on every subject, sometimes when
they know less about them than the Senator
from the Tenth would have US believe he knows
about anything (Mr. Dickinson, / mean), but be-
cause l like their proprietors Now, let US
examine the list, and see whether | am correct
or not. In the county OF Fresno jury acquitted
murderer, although, as l was informed by these
newspapers and by people from the county, they
ought to have punished the man. In the county of
Sacramento-ana l say il with metaphorcal ashes
on my head, and sitting upon sackcloth-the iuries
have followed the same line, and have acquitted
murderer and murleress upon the same fiimsy plea
Of emotional insanity, the result of insult offered
to female relative of tie murderer Why, mans
life is not safe in this State, unless be is member
of this Senate, when it is permitted for defendant
to justify himself by proving that somebody told
HIM that his wife had said in the back room
that he had killed had said some
thing improper to her. The Senators, of course
need no such protection as that which l ad.
vocate In the county of Napa jury has recently
acquitted man. In the county of Solano, where a
man was shot down without word of warning
by man he believed to be his frie d, the Jury
acquitted the man finally, under the same specous
plea that insult had been offered at some
time to some female relative OF the murderer. In
the county of Alameda to which have already
partly referred, the Judge, in my judgment, enun-
ciated principles OF law unknown before in crimi-
nal law or civil Jurisprudence, IN order to permit
the murderer to 20 unpublished. In the county of
San Francisco they eau convict q Chinaman, and
further than that they utterly powerless-when
the murderer goes to the store of the murdered man.
armed for the occasion, and there deliberl ltely
shoots him after having had plenty of time TO
think about the matter, and the jury ac9uits
him. because he had been called vile name twenty
four hours before. In the county of Napa-but |
believe have already alluded to that-aud in other
counties in this State in the county of Nevada
the Jury could not find man guilty OF murder in
the first degree, although be had shot one of the
best that ever walked the streets of Nevada
City, without pi piovoca ion or justification The Sem
ator from Nevada knows well to whom allude for
| knew r. w Sigourney and l never met better
man. And SO it goes all over the State. China
men, and Cinnamon alone, can be convicted. A
white man needs but to come into Court ard
there Judge and jury will listen to pathetic
appeals of his lawyer, and the judge will admit
testimony to be introduced that would dis
grace Justices Court IN the back
nit the defen liant TO Prove that a
femae relative has been abused insulted and the
jury then retire to their urybox enter upon rrayer
or poker and return verdict Of not guilty because
he was insane, like the celebrated verdict in the
Hiscock Cole case in Albany. The jury in that case
brought in verdict that the defendant sane
the moment before he fred and he was sane the
moment after, and that he was ins, ,ne at the mo-
ment he fired the shot TO such pitch has public
sentiment arisen and grown in this State, that your
life is not safe; that the punishment for murder has
become mockery and a bye-word, and whenever
man is charged with murder, we all say, Why, he
will be acquitted, of course" "By their fruits
shall We Judge them," is the language used
in the oldcn time, and l call on you to applv
it to society in California in eference to the punish
ment OF murder. Why, sir, California has become
almost city of refuge for murderers. In the olden
time as you know, six cities of Judea were set
apart as cities of refuge to which the murderer
could flee and be safe, and then the aveBger OF
blood obliged to stay his hand California
euioys the unenviab'e distinction Of being a new
city of refuge. There is man in this State per-
haps that might be convicted Of murder, not be
cause he is any more guilty than anybody else but
because all the newspapers OF the State are clsmor-
ing that he be punished, because he unfortunately
killed a newspaper man, and give the
newspaper llscn Of this St.te credit, for
whenever you hit of their number they
are united in protecting themselves aeainst
the assassin, and Clarence Gray of Santa
Barbara will probably be convicted of mur-
DER / know nothing about the circumstances
of the case. / allude to it only as Illustrating how
newspaper men combine to protect themselves for
every newspaper man in the land has denounced the
act as cawardy murder and called upon the peo-
pie of Santa Barbara to punish the murderer They
have done what society ought to do-s)ught to pro-
tect themselves and have, so far as am inform ed
employed counsel to assist in the prosecution II is
the duty of society to change this condition of
things so, also, the Courts. 1t is the duty OF the
Legislature to met ard change the course of the
ship OF State or it will shortly find itself upon the
breakers of anarchy. he COL organization will
he sprngnc up all over the State unless something is
done in this matter to change the condition of af.
fairs unless society seeks to change its course,
Lyuch will raise his Court once more
in CaIifornia The old right of the
Individual has only been suspended temporari-
" for the good of society upon the promise of
etv to protect the individual against all other ind:-
yiduals and if that protect II is not given
and that promise not kept to the indv dual,
eau any blame the individual il he seeks to pro-
tect himself and to seek in his own conduct and se-
cure by his actions that protection which society re-
fuses 10 give himl There is need of reform in this
matt r. 1t may be that the bull that have had the
honor to introduce goes too far. / have
sought howev-r simply in that bill to restore
the Biblical doctrine and have sought to guard the
rights and to protect the minor children of the de-
ceas- by providing that the same statute of limit
alto shall be to them in this as it is in other
lave endeavored to protect the weak
and feeble by giving them the right to
allow somebody else to do their work for them, and
think that is fair because, of course, woman can.
not protect herself or avenge the death of her hus
band have simply provided that the widow may
hire some able bodied cit zen, like the Senator from
the Thi lteanth, VINO can redress her wrong.
Mr. Zuck-Which Senator do you mean from the
Thirteenth!
gigantic in intellect but small in size. The other is
gigantic in intellect ard in size also. People may
not have reached, society may not be ready yet to
stand upon the platform that have presented.
But the bill that ha' introduced is very little IN
a1yapce of the same. 1t may be that il needs
amendn ents. Then | W lid ask the Senator who
moved its indefinite postponement to amend the
bill not to repeal it entirely, but recognize the
princpe recognize the fact that society has broken
It's contract and that the individual ought in justice
to be permitted to defend and protect himself
Our State is grand and it is noble. Our
State contains within its borders elements of great
ness which if rightly used, will permit California
to become one of the brightest stars in the galaxy
of States that adoTn this nation, but in order that
California shall prosper; wise laws are needed Tor
the people The duty OF the Legislature is to heed
the warning cries of the people and change bad laws
Change laws which rob the Individual OF his rights
while not giving him any protection IN return.
When had the honor to be a member OF the AS
semby, called the attention OF the Legislature
then to the fact that in my humble judgment, un-
less the warning cries that came up from the labor
ing men of San Francisco were heard, that the time
would come when the laboring people OF San Fran
cisco would arise In their and their strength
and sweep both political parties from power in San
Francisco, and my warning was not needed, and the
result proved that / correct for the laboring
people of San Francisco did arise, believing them
selves to be injured and outraged and carried the
city OF San Francisco, sending here majority Of
Senators and Assemblymen, representing the labor
lug people of San Francisco. SO now believe that
there cry from all California-from the
hill and the valley and the city aso-whch says to
the Legislature, .t Protect u.s." There comes cry
from sorrowing widow and weeping orphan, Give,
oh, give me back m father and the husband that
cared for and protected US ! Give, OH give me back
the arm that shielded US from danger and gave
daily bread y And there cry from
outraged homes all over the State. There comes a
cry from weak hnmanity everywhere. Society must
keeps its contract. Society must protect the weak
against the strong. Society must protect the good
against the bad the people will take the law into
their own hands and administer swift. though sure,
justice the murderer, 10 liter what his station
in society.
speech of senator Nye.
It. iaf