Sacramento daily record-union. [volume] (Sacramento [Calif.]) 1875-1891, 1890-07-12
A JUDICIAL OUTRAGE.


B. Richmond, Hugh'o. Pentecost, Hudson
futile and l.. v Moulton, as well as the
editor, B. o. Flower, earnestly, convincingly
and Indignantly protest in the Arena for July
against the ruling of the United States
Courts in the case of DR.. Reid, the spirit
ualist They take the position, and we
think correctly, that the decisions are
direct assaults imperiling the liberty of
citizenship.
Reid is spiritualist he claims that he
has peculiar psychometric and clairvoyant
powers Just what is their cause and
origin he does not affirm, but permits it to
be believed that they are spiritual.
Among his tests were that of reading
sealed letters and giving intelligent and
correct answers. For this service he
charged small Fee He received the
letters and returned the replies through
the United States mails. He was indicted
for using the postal service to perpetrate
fraud and was tried by a United States
Court in Michigan, and on conviction ap-
pealed to the Circuit Court, which affirmed
the decision of the Court below
On this trial the principal witnesses
against him were those who claimed that
two years previously Reid had confessed
to them that his test was a trick and
fraud. In his defense he offered forty wit
nesses to prove that he did actually and
beyond all possibility of fraud just what he
claimed to be able to accomplish The
Court refused to allow him to introduce
such testimony, on the ground that it was
out Of all reason that he could do anything
that he claimed; that any evidence of
supernaturalism could not be heard by the
Court or jury; that the Court knew and
all knew that there could be no such
thing as spirit communication with NOR
tails; that there is no precedent for such
thing; that it would be an outrage upon
law to permit such testimony as was Of
fered.
The defendant then offered in open
Court to demonstrate his powers and to
read and answer any letter the Judge
might take from his pocket and hold
sealed in his hand. He offered that proof
in answer to the charge that he had de-
frauded by pretending" to read sealed
letters.
The Court refused the offer, declaring
that it was ridiculous, impossible and
charged Reid with assuming Divine gift
possessed by no one else Counsel con-
tended with the Court that the best evil
dence of which case in its nature is sus-
ceptible, should be produced, and that
demonstration was the best evidence; that
not a single witness had testified that he
had been defrauded that the offer to
prove by forty witnesses that the claim of
Reid was true, was legitimate offer To |
all this the Court replied that any claim
to unusual, apparently superhuman power,
and to spirit converse, was outrageous, in
defiance of precedent, and would not be
permitted
The action of the Court was outrage
ous;" it was subversive of the liberty of /
the citizen; it was a dangerous assault
upon the most vital principle of human
freedom; it strikes at the very root and
foundation of self-goyernment. Whatever
the powers of Reid may be; whether he is
aided by spiritual influences, or is pos
sessed Of mental vision beyond the gen.
eral knowledge or experience of men
whether he is mind-reader, psychometric,
fraud, hypnotic, clairvoyant or the
devil, makes no sort of difference what
ever; cuts no figure in the case of any
character whatever He was on trial for
an alleged crime; he enjoyed the presump-
tion of innocence.
Now his right to be heard in his own
defense was undeniable, in Justice: but
when the Court, upon the basis OF its own
prejudices, beliefs and traditions. refused
him the right to prove that he could do
genuinely what hewas charged with doing
fraudulently, and cut him off from sa-
cred right and reduced him to the pitifnl
condition of a slave who could not be
heard in his own defense, ii practically
declared, as Mr.. Richmond has well put ii.
that the liberty of the citizen should per-
ish that precedents might be maintained.
Suppose priest had been before the
Court on the charge of defrauding, in ac-
cepting aims for the church, in payment
for service at the altar in offer of prayers
for mitigation Of the pains of purgatory
visited upon the souls of the dead Should !