Fort Worth daily gazette. (Fort Worth, Tex.) 1882-1891, 1889-02-20

proposed to locate court in the Terri
tory, and the people are as near to these
several jurisdictions as they would be to
that particular jurisdiction. So, then,
in point of convenience to litigants, in
point of saving expense, The house bill
has an advantage over the senate bill and
over the bill presented by the senator
from Arkansas Mr.. Jones
I thought, leaving out the speculative
questions that arise in this case, / would
call attention TO these practical facts: In
the first place, the necessity of new
jurisdiction there: in the second place,
the danger of locating a court among
such people to be administered by the aid
of jurymen who neither understand our
laws, our language, or our customs; and
in the next place, the relief which the
house bill would give to Iitigants and to
the government in the saving of expense
and travel, and the placing OF the courts
sufficiently convenient to these several
persons.
For these reasons trust that the SEN
ate substitute may not be adopted for the
house bill
Senator Coke said: Mr. President, the
arguments of the senator from Arkansas,
in my Judgment, are conclusive as to the
eXpediency and impolicy of establishing
the court in the Indian Territory in ac-
cordance with the provisions of the senate
substitute for the house bill The crowd
ed condition of the court at Fort Smith,
the great number of prisoners there, the
inability of the court TO do the business
that goes into it from the Indian Terri
tory, show with equal conclusiveness that
some sort of relief is demanded.
In my Judgment the bill as passed by
the house of representatives, which di-
vides the jurisdiction of the Indian Ter
ritory between Fort Smith on one side
and Denison and Paris, Tex. on the
other, meets exactly the requirements of
the case. The mileage for witnesses and
for officers travelling over the Indian
Territory from near the Texas borders TO
Fort Smith is immense. The expense is
very great. The division proposed by the
bill as passed by the house, giving juris-
diction from a certain line in the Indian
Territory to Denison, and from certain
other line to Paris, Tex. and giving the
remainder of the jurisdiction to Fort
Smith, will not increase the expense in
any respect, but viii decrease very greatly
the immense distances that have to be
Travelled now by officers and witnesses
and parties III attending the Fort Smith
court.
l believe with the Senator from Arkan-
sas that the court should not now be
established i'll the Indian territory. I do
not believe that court should be estab-
lished there with powers to adjudicate
the rights of white people until that ter
ritory has erected over 1t a territorial
government and is more directly under
the laws and customs of the government
of the United States in its judicial pro-
ceedings than it would 0e with the court
established as proposed by the senate
substitute for the house bill. l believe
it will be matter of regret if the sub
stitute is adopted that it was ever done.
Those people are not in q condition for
such a court. The rights of the people
of the United States which exist now or
may hereafter exist in that territory and
be litigated Should not be submitted to
such a Jurisdiction.
If those people are fit now for the eX-
ercise of that sort of jurisdiction it is
time that they were prepared for the ex-
ercise of it by the erection of a Terrific
rial government over them. Until that
Is done they should not be entrusted with
any such jurisdiction and the great dis
lance of Fort Smith from large portion
of that Territory suggests that the iuris-
diction should be divided between that
court and courts in Texas near to the In
dian Territory border as provided in the
house bill.
The bill prepared in the house with great
care and passed there, which is here for
consideration now, and for which the
senate committee has offered a substitute
is, in my judgment, the best solution of
the whole question. L therefore shall
vote for the bill as passed by the house
and against the substitute of the senate
committee.