Washington standard. [volume] (Olympia, Wash. Territory) 1860-1921, 1886-07-02
The Chinese Conspiracy.

Ed. STANDARDS:
As is now known. the trial of de-
PENDANTS Bales, Gooding, Hetzell,
Joles and Montgomery. charged
with conspiracy to drive out the
Chinese residents CT Olympia, Feb.
ruary 9th, 1856, which was had in
the District Court, before John =.
Hoyt, Judge, last week, resulted in
verdict of conviction against all of
the defendants, and their sentence
to McNeirs Island for six months
and fine of $500 each. The de-
PENDANTS proposed to prosecute
writ of error to the Supreme Court
from said judgment, and desired a
stay of proceeding pending the hear
ing in said Court The stay was de-
MED and the defendants were con-
veyed Immediately to the penitentiary
by the U. S. Marshal. Tho defend
ants claimed that they could have
each given an ample bond for their
appearance to await the action of the
appellate court. They claim that
their conviction is erroneous and il
legal, upon various grounds, Chief
of which are the following:
l. The statute under which they
were held, indicted and convicted,
Section No. 5, Revised Statutes of
the United States, is unconstitu-
tional and void.
2. The grand and petit juries, by
which they were indicted and tried,
were illegally constituted.
Revised Statutes of the United
States, Section $50, provide: eff
two or more persons, in any State or
Territory, conspire or go in disguise
on the highway or on the premises
of another. for the purpose of de-
priving, either directly or indirectly,
any person or class of persons of the
equal protection of the laws, or
equal privileges and immunities I'M
der the laws, or for the purpose of
hindering the constituted authori-
ties of any State or Territory from
giving or securing to all persons
within such State or Territory the
equal protection of the laws, each OF
such persons shall be punished by a
fine of not less than five hundred
dollars nor more than five thousand
dollars, or by imprisonment. with or
without hard labor, not less than six
mouths nor more than six years, or
by both sach fine and imprison-
ment." The act was approved April
20, 1871. aud is known as the Ku
Klux Act.
The defendants, under their sen.
tence, will be released i'll seven
months, and, without stay of pro-
ceedings, or bail, pending the hear
ing OF the writ of error, as the case
cannot be heard in the Supreme
Court before January, 1887, their
sentences will have fully expired and
the writ will have been in vain.
The Supreme Court held. in
United States vs.. Harris, 106 U. S.
Reports, page 629, that Section s.
519, Revised Statutes, before cited,
was and is unconstitutional within
the States, not deciding its effect in
the Territories. But Judge Lorenzo
Sawyer, in the Circuit Court of the
United States for California, decided,
Judge Sabin dissenting, March 81,
1886, in the case of Baldwin and
others, charged under Section s.
519 with driving the Chinese out of
Nicalaus, California, that said Sec
ton was valid Notwithstanding the
decision of the Supreme Court of the
United States. The Judge, who by
the way is the same whose rulings
have practically nullifed the Chinese
Restriction Act, reasoned that Sec
ton 5,519, applied to protection of
the Chinese alien residents of the
State, though it could not avail for
the protection of the resident citi-
zens of the State, and he said if this
put aliens on better footing than
citizens, the fault was that of the law.
1t follows, if the Judges reasoning
is sound, that if an alien resident of
this Territory, Chinese, Irish, Eng
lish or Russian, is molested in his
rights as such resident, he can invoke
the aid of the United States, under
said Section 5,519. But the Judge
was so doubtful of the legal force of
his argument that he advised that
the defendants in custody be allowed
to 60 on their own recoguizarces,
pending a hearing of the cases on
writ Of error in the Supreme Court
OF the United States, and that other
prosecutions under the section re-
cited be suspended until the matter
was finally settled by the last named
court.
It is perhaps unnecessary to say