Savannah morning news. [volume] (Savannah) 1868-1887, 1884-09-21
THE CASE OF par WOODS.

being the special friend OF the lr16hman,
and the equally impudent and unfounded
claim which Ben Butler makes to being
/ the special friend of the poor laboring
man, it is exceedingly pertinent just now,
says Washington special, to reproduce
from the Congressional Record the posi-
| ton taken by both of these gentlemen in
| the case of Pat Woods. On May 80,
| 1870. Charles II. Porter, one of that crew
! of political adventures which misrepre-
| scented the South in Congress during the
reign of carpet-bagism, was soundly
| thrashed in the streets of Richmond by
| Patrick Woods. Porter had in public
| speech asserted that the negroes were SUI
perior to the dirty Irish and Dutch"
! and Pat Woods, a warm-hearted, honest,
| impulsiye Irishman, declared in conse-
| quence that he would whip Porter on
/ sight, and was as good as his word.
! Woods was promptly arrested by the To-
cal authorities of Richmond and held to
! bail for court.
But this did not satisfy the outraged
dignity of Porter. He hurried to Wash
! ington, and from the seat in the House of
! Representatives to which he had no more
moral right than the man in the moon
| he demanded the protection of that body.
lnstantaneOusly his demand was aceeded
| to, and by direction of the Republican
/ majority w OOuS WIS dIIG5lGu Ou Il IlGTE
| telegram from the Sergeant-at-Arms of the
! House and spirited off to Washington.
| The poor man was handed over to the
| tender mercies of the Judiciary Commit
| tee, at the head of which was John A.
Bingham, of Ohio, notorious for his active
! persecution of Mrs. Surratt, and next to
| him Noah Davis, of New York, and Ben
Jamin +. Butler, Of Massachusetts.
| Woods did not even know that Porter was
] n hn1. of fhn Tlo11ch Of paTnrocaT,4o
| tIves, and so informed the committee and
! disclaimed in the most respectful
manner any purpose to show contempt or
| disrespect to the House. After purging
! himself of the alleged contempt there
could be no possible excuse in law or
reason for the further detention Of Woods,
| and he should have been RENTED for the
! courts of Virginia. But this did not suit the
views of Speaker Blaine, Gen. Butler and
! the other prominent Republicans of the
| House, who had warmly commended the
! action of the officer making the arrest in
refusing to obey the writ of habeas cor
! pus issued by the Virginia courts, and
who did not intend to let go of Woods.
AS MIR. Bingham grandilOquenuy eX-
! pressed it, ''EYerY man, at his peril, must
! take notice who are the members of either
| house."
! At this day, when Gen. Butler is posing
| as the friend of the poor man and Yaunt-
| ing his services in protecting him against
| the encroachments of power, and insist
! ing upon absolute equality as between
man and man, it is scarcely credible that
! at such a comparatively near period he
] was assuming for himself and other men,
| bers of the House of Representatives a
| superiority over their fellow citizens
/ which has not for generations been
| claimed by the privileged classes in Great
| Britain. The majority of the Judiciary
/ (nmmiffpn all R0nnbliRonG roDOrfad q
| resolution that Patrick Wood be i'm
prisoned in the Jail Of the District of
| Columbia, as other criminals are, for three
| months. But three months could not
| satisfy Gen. Butler, and he insisted upon
nine months or six months.
Here are some of the precedents upon
which Gen. Butler and his party associ-
ates relied as a justification for the pun
| ishment of Woods
sin 1l9S Lambert and Perry were fined
ESQ each and committed to Newgate for
| three months for a newspaper paragraph
highly rejecting on the honor of the
House.
Certain persons who had trespassed
on the fisheries of Admiral Griffith, a
member, were found guilty of breach of
privilege, and were ordered to stand CON-
mitted, and were afterwards discharged
on being reprimanded, on their knees.
every man must, at his peril, take
! notice who are the members of either
house returned of record.
"ln 1921 the Commons sentenced one
! Floyd, who had spoken offensive words
concerning the daughter of James l. and
her husband, the Elector Palatine, to pay
fine of $1,000, to stand twice in the pill
lOry, and to ride backward on a horse with
/ the horses tail in his hand. On request
of the Lords, Floyd was turned over to
| them to be dealt with according to law of
privilege, and they sentenced him, that he
| should be Incapable of bearing arms as a
gentleman; that he should be ever held an
infamous person, and his testimony not to
be taken in any court or cause; that he
should ride twice to the pillory with his
face to the horses tail, holding the tail in
his hand; that he should be branded with
the letter X on his forehead, be whipped
at the CARTS tail, be fined $4,000 to the
| King, and be imprisoned in Newgate for
| life.''
Gen. Butler resorted to every parlia-
mentary means to increase the term of
/ imprisonment, and he was ably seconded
by other Republican members. The
House took action on July 7, 1870, and on
a motion of his to extend the term of i'm
prlsonment to March 4, 1871, Messrs.
! Dawes and HOar, then members from
Massachusetts,, now Senators, and Mr..
Joseph K. Hawley, then a member from
Connecticut, now Senator, voted with
him. These three Senators, lust like Mr.
Blaine, love the Irish very much now,
and would like to have their votes for the
Republican ticket in Massachusetts, and
Connecticut. Gen. Butler was so digusted
at the failure of his attempt to prolOng
the incarceration of Woods that when the
vote was finally reached on the original
motion OF the committee to make the i'm
prlsonment three months he sat sullenly
IN his seat and would not vote at all. He
considered that he was very lenient in
his views, for he said in his speech: ssYou
VIII remember that this contempt of au-
thOrlty, contempt of power, has ALWAYS
been very severely punished. You'll re-
member that an ARRAY even within the
precinct OF the palace yard, as between
two private persons, cost the affrayer his
right hand" He evidently thought that
Pat Woods should be grateful that he did
not insist upon cutting off his hand.
James u. Blaine, the special friend of
Irishmen, sat in his char as Speaker of
the House during all of these proceedings.
He lent all the great power of his office to
assist his associates on the floor in their
scheme OF vengeance against poor
frlendless Irishman, who had resented in
the only way known to him what he con-
sidered an insult to his race All this
time the small but courageous Demo-
| cratic minority fought CALAMITY step by
step for the defenseless prisoner, and
never relaxed their efforts until every pos
sible means of resistance was exhausted.
Mr.. Blaine, when Speaker of the House of
Representatives, was extremely fond,
whenever a ffaaFgoraa he opportunity was
presented, of leaving the cnGiif and COM
ing down on the floor of the House in
dramatic style to exercise his right of vote.
| There could have been no more suitable
opportunity than this.
No lrishman ever cast into English dun
geOn was more arbitrarily and uniustlv
| deprived of his liberty than was Pat
| Woods by the body over which James G.
Blaine presided, and not only with not a
sign of dissent from him, but with his
active connivance and hearty sympathy.
1t was the warrant Of James G. Blaine as
Speaker of the House which CONSIGNED
him to the jail of the District of Columbia
for three months, to be treated ''as other
criminals" This action of the House of
! Representatives and of Mr.. Blaine was
! afterwards pronounced by the Supreme
( Court Of the United States to be a gross
invasion OF the constitutional rights of the
citizen and utterly unjustifable from any
| point of view.
What to Teach Girls.