Wessington Springs herald. (Wessington Springs, Aurora County, Dakota [S.D.]) 1883-1891, 1886-06-04
A REMARKABLE CHARGE.

Judge Rogers Instructs the Grand Jury at
Chicago That the Anarchist Leaders Are
Open ~ Indictment by Reason OF Their
AbsSc of the Right of Free speech 60
Such an Extent rs to Cause the Recent
Rioting and B!oodsled.
CHICAGO, May 19.-The charge OF Judge
Rogers to the grand jury, or that portion
OF it which refers to the recent crimes OF
the Anarchists in this city, has excited
favorable comment all over the country,
will be found below:
1--WE hear a good deal about the freedom
of speech. There is a good deal OF miscon,
ception of the constitution of the United
of Illinois upon this subject. Ihave copied
the provisions upon this subject upon which
persons rely who continually say that IN
this free country men have a right to say
what they please. There is no such right.
The constitution of the United States says
that Congress shall make no law abridging
the freedom of speech or of the press or the
right of the people peaceably to assemble
and to petition the Government for a re-
dress of grievances. The same principle is
carried into the State constitutions, and IN
the constitution of the State of Illinois, in
its bill of rights, there is a provision that
| every person may freely speak, write and
publish on.all subjects, being responsible for
the abuse of that liberty. lrefert to these con-
stitutional rights because some men are so
1uCOuSiSlCiU 10 W cay oudU ououAN ~
no such rights as that, yet claim the pro-
lection of that right in its bloades sense,
and, indeed, interpret it to suit their own
mind-that a man may get up in a public
speech and advise murder, arson, the de.
struction of property, and the injury. Of
people and their lives. That is a wild Ii
cense that the constitution of this country
has never recognized. any more than it has
been recognized il: the worst despotisms of
old monarchical Europe. 4 x
'lf l advise this company that the fore
man of this jury is a man that ought to
be hanged or punished for some assulned
~offense, and that advice is followed and q
person acting under the incentives that l
have given commits that offense against
your foreman. he is guilty of murder, and
of murder as he. 1t is in the light of such
things as this that you have to look at this
great question of the freedom of speech.
Mere presence at a public meeting or at
private meeting, the mere fact that a
man is standing by an idle spectator, does
not make him criminal or responsible.
These things you should guard against if,
in the investigation of cases brought before
you resulting from the terrible scenes in
She Haymarket, and you consult as to who
threw a bomb and killed, or shot a pistol
! INT killed, or ask who melted them to do
that, you must be sure that you do not pre-
sent men who are guilty only of being at
tracted by a crowd and being in that pres
ence. l say that crimes were perpetrated
on that occasion. They say. the police came
array, and were about to break up a peace
able meeting. say to you now that the
law of our statutes and the old common
law of England, that has been brought
down to us and has been preserved through
divisions of the courts and through the
books of elementary writers, all inculcate
the principles that l have stated, and they
say that men who arise and talk and inciJe
are the guilty men, and that it is the duty
/, of the peace officers of a community to
trate, occupying in that position . other
capacity than that of a justice of the peace,
would have a right to interfere. Any
officer, any JUSTICE of the peace, any sheriff,
any Constable, the mayor of your city, the
police of your city, have a right to pre-
know that there is an unlawful assem-
blage, and that men are being melted to
the commission of crime, they are bound
| by their oaths and their duties to the city
to go and prevent the crime. In doing
that they have a right to stop men who
ments, and men who are excited in process
sions by red or black flags. These are all
excltements, and they have a right to stop
them: What is an ~incendiary speech but
exciting men to crime? What is a red or
black flag in a procession but a menace
and threats? 1t is understood to be en-
blematic of blood, and that no quarter will
be given. Flags of this sort ought not to
be permitted to be borne in professions IN
this city. y y
When I refer to n crimes committed 1
do not mean to charge them upon any par
ticular people or nationality. The great
body of people of all n~ationalities love
peace and quiet and hate crime. It may
be that there are more people of two or
three n%ationalities involved in these
troubles than of others, but l have never
believed that as people the Ger
mans, the Irish. the Bohemians, the Scam
%dinavians, the Poles, or the Americans
were engaged in them as a body.
There is no doubt that every living man
when he sees proper, if his contract does
not bind him to the contrary, has a right
to stop work. Bodies Of men may stop
work, may ~strike-that is, quit work and
demand an increase of pay. There is no
violation of law in that. But when they
go one step further and say: We WON'T
work n we WON'T letanybody else work,
then they do wrong and violate law"