Martinsburg independent. [volume] (Martinsburg, W. Va.) 1875-1900, 1886-04-17
JUDGE FAULKNER,s CHARGE
To the Grand Jury IN Relation to th
Burns LUnching.

To the Grand Jury In Relation to The
Burns Lu,achtng.
GENTLEMEN LIN addition to the yari-
Gus classes of crime to which your atten-
ton has been called, it becomes my pain
full duty TO direct you 10 specially enquire
touching a grave and serious offence COM
mitted within the jurisdiction of this court,
since the last regular term. An offence,
which-if / am correctly informed from
common rumor-was participated in by a
large body of citizens of this State, among
whom, it has been currently reported, were
to be found men who had been regarded by
the community as citizens of sound judg-
ment of elevated character, and OF I'M
questioned integrity. This may or may
not be true, and | allude to the reported
fact, simply for the purpose of observing,
that, whether it is true or false, these facts
should have no influence upon your con-
illusions in any investigation you may
make, as to the occurrence to which shall
direct your attention, for if the possession
of such elements of character have won the
confidence of their fellow citizens in the
past, they cannot hold them up before a
Court of impartial justice as shield to
protect them from indictment and pun
ishment, should they have so far forgotten
their obligations to society as TO set at de-
fiance the officers ofthe law, and trampe
under foot the declared will of the people,
embodied in their organic law, where it an
nounces those fundamental principles of
liberty that "No person shall be held to
answer for treason, felony or other crime
not cognizable by a justice, unless on pre-
sentiment or Indictment by Grand Jury"
that "No person shall be deprived of life,
liberty or property without due process of
law, and the Judgment of his peers" and
to carry out more fully these provisions, it
further provides that an accused shall be
confronted with the witnesses against
him, shall have the assistance of counsel,
and a reasonable time to prepare his de-
Tense" TO secure to the citizen the prin-
ciples announced in our Bill of Rights,
and to preserve them after they We're once
recognized against the encroachment of
despotic power, has tested more severely
than all else the independent and liberty
loving characteristics of the English
speaking race; but when the people this
Republic and OF this commonwealth en-
grated these principles on their organic
law as charter right of the citizen, it
was not to protect him from kingly power,
or the brute force that could be welded by
the executive department; but it was a
guarantee against the power of a Temporal
ry majority TO control the destiny, the life,
liberty or property of the citizen. 1t was
a surrender by the people-yoluntarily
made--of the right to try, convict and sem
tence, except by "due process of law" one
charged with criminal offence. This is
tine EXPRESSION OF the Will OF the people
the declared compact on which the founda-
tion oforganized society in this State rests,
and its guarantees can only be annulled by
the people in the manner and in the form
prescribed by that instrument.
Notwithstanding gentlemen, that upon
the maintenance of these principles and
the enforcement of these personal rights,
depends the security of your life, the pre-
servation of your liberty, and the protec-
ton Of your property, the startling fact
confronts US, that at midnight on the 18th
of February, 1886, an organized body of
citizens marched into the County Seat OF
your County, guarded with armed men
its streets, surrounded the County Jail,
and in violation of these principles, took
therefrom one held by warrant Of law,
charged with heinous felony, and consti-
tuting themselves his judge and jury,
found him guilty, and proceeded to carry
that judgment into execution by hanging
him until dead.
There may have been periods in the his.
tory of the past, when the agencies provid-
ed by law for the punishment of crime had
become so corrupt and indifferent, that the
people found it necessary to prescribe the
very rights guaranteed by these provisions,
TO rise in their power, and upon the princi
piles of self-preservatiOn, take into theiI
hands the administration ofjustice. IL the
pen Of the historian has recorded circum-
stances which justified such action, the
fact cannot be appealed TO asa justifca-
ton for the acts doneIat midnight on the