The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1882-03-02
LIFE AND PROPERTY PROTECTED BY
LAW.

One os the main ingredients civil liberty, and at the
same time one of Its greatest blessings Is the protection
against individual passion, violence, views opinions
caprice well but disturbing interference-the
supremacy Of law--LIKBKR-
1t has been a cardinal doctrine in
countries in which the right of self
defense against criminal accusations,
for the security of life and liberty, has
been recognized, that the accused can
not be tried or condemned without his
personal presence, or without having ac-
tually answered the charge made against
him. So, under the earlier common law,
if the accused refused to plead, no fur
ther step could be taken in his trial,
and he was put to torture to compel
him tn say whether he was guilty or
not. Later, a more humane provision
took the place of this, in treating re-
fusal to plead as plea of not guilty,
and proceeding with the trial. In our
| own Constitution it was provided, in Ar
tiele 6 of the amendments, that:
"In all criminal prosecutions, the ac-
| cused shall enjoy the right to a speedy
and public trial, by an impartial jury of
the State and district wherein the crime
shall have been committed, which dis
tTict shall have been previously ascer-
tanned by law, and to be informed of the
nature and cause of the accusation; to
| be confronted with the witnesses against
him; to have compulsory process for OBJ
tanning witnesses in his favor, and to
have the assistance of counsel for his
defense"
Under this provision, it is obvious that
the trial of no person accused of high
crime (tO say nothing of Others) can law
fully go on without his personal pres
ence, and that he cannot be deprived of
the right of speaking in his own defense.
Counsel are merely the agents and as
sistants of their client, and if he chooses
to speak for himself, their functions are
for the moment suspended. 1t Is well
for liberty and innocence that this is so,
for if we once admit that trial can go
forward either i'll the absence of the ac-
cused or when he is denied the right of
self-defense, one of the greatest safe
guards against malice, tyranny, and OPP
preston is destroyed, and in evil times
the power either to proceed without the
presence of the accused, or to send him
out of court for any cause, or gag, or
otherwise keep him silent, might be
used so as to pervert the cOul is of justice
into engines of the most wicked and
dreadful tyranny and OppressiOn.-
SENATOR EDMUNDS'S ARTICLE IN NORTH
AMERICAN REVIEW FOR MARCH ON THE
CONDUCT OF THE GUITEAU TRIAL"
The foregoing is sound and correct
doctrine. The only violations of it in
this country were under the rule of the
political party of which this Senator
Edmunds is prominent leader. Under
old Federalism things were done with
high hand. But their reign of terror in
179S-99 was carried on under the sem
blance of law at least. The arbitrary
arrests under Republican rule made no
pretence of regarding the civil law,
although the victims were citizens
amenable thereto. Fort Lafayette was
filled with victims and Seward's little
bell and the american Bastile" will go
down into history side by side with the
Presidential Hayes fraud. Hon. Edison
B. Olds, ex-member of Congress from
Ohio, a man well advanced in years,
was seized in his own house, without
process of law, incaTcerated in Fort
Lafayette and brutally treated. He was
never informed of any accusation, never
had a trial of any kind, and after several
months imprisonment, was released.
This is only one instance out of hundreds
similar in character and equally out
rageOus. Indeed, lawyers, not in the
military service of the country, engaged
in these disreputable proceedings. OF
course they were the same sort of men
who in 1876-77, approved of stealing the
Presidency through perjury, forgery and
fraud.
What black arraignment the history
of the Republican party will show when
it is fully and truthfully written. The
Guiteau trial for the murder of Presi-
dent Garfield will come in as part of
that history. The Republican is party
of violence, of lawlessness, of monopoly
and of plunder; disregarding justice and
the rights of the people.