Morning journal and courier., 1890-04-28
OFFICIAL oonaEsroxDEroE.

OFFICIAL CORRESPONDENCE Letter by the President te she
 Attorney General in Reference to the
 Obstruction Oaerea to Civil Processes
 in Florlda-The Attorney General's
 Letser-An Open Letter to the Prest-
 dent.
 WASHINGTON, D. O., April 27.-Ths fol- lowing correspondence hes been made public:
 Ex1cuTIyE MANSION. April s4, 1899. To the Attorney General:
 six months to confer with you in reference to the oostruotions offered in tho counties of Leon, Gads dep Madison and Jefferson in thof state of Florida to the execution of the process of the courts of the United States It is not necessary to say more of States are not suffered freely to eSefcise their iaW full functions Iris condition of things cannot longer State Marshal Weeks as sson as he has a1alified to to at once to execute such writs of arrest rssstsnce he will @ employ % such .ciy civ posse as may eeem adequate to discourage resistance and moderation n which % should % aiw.ys % attend '1s 2 public officer in the execution of his duty and a. at the same time with frmness and courage that will impress the lawless with a wholesome sense of the danger and futity of resistance.
 You will assure the officers of the law and those executive by the constitution and the laws will as and feasible to hold a federal commissien and to
 BENJAMIN H HARRISON.
 Following the presidents instructions, Attorney General Miller has written United States Marshal Weeks, at Jacksonville, Fla, directing him to proceed on the line in. dioated, and report promptly any attempts to interfere with the proper discharge of the duties. Mir. Miller says:
 I am informed that recently in some places the marshal M seeking to serve writs in ordinary civil tiODe. such horH0 hire. hotel entertainments etc to enable such service to be performed. By such means the officers of the government can be put to asd SD wherever it is necessary for them go in order JACKSONVILLE, Fla, April 27.-The fol- lowing open letter has been addressed to President Harrison by the editor of the Times Union in reply to the statements | contained in his letter to Attorney General Miller:
 JACKSONVILLE Fla, April 27, 1S9 o. To Benjamin Harrison, President of the United injury that the people of Flori1a read this morning your letter of April 2i addressed to Attorney reference to them which, they are convinced, must have been based upon transformation as to tho true condition of affairs in Leon. Gadsden, Madison and Jefferson counties.
 Yousay that in the four counties named ''ob
 a sS e6 the United States ara not suffered freely to exer else their lawful funetiors' there The source 9i tiors of ofserJ of the court for tsls district How | the following eircumstances. Shortly after youl appointment of Charles swayne as district judge an under officer of his court openly boasted that its the St! sr end threat wRicS nstaraiy put them or l the defensive and provoked widespread suspicion ! of Judge SWaype's tribunals,
 1 On July lest the judge appointed jury com missioner in open ana fragrant violation Of the court has only recently been charged with an ad: mission that this act was unlawful but wes done to l which le has never publicly denied. The marshal of this ordered his deputy e,lcct for jurors lation of the statute which directs that the selection shall be made without regard to party affiliations under this arrangement the grand jury contained twenty two republicans in total Of twenty y-three l men. Indictments against democrats for political offences were then found by the wholesale in many of indignation and fear; in the that came to trial, the rulings of the court were often partisan | grinding out indictment5
 Do you wonder, then: that the citizens of Leon large number of indictments had been found against Sl, men known to be innocent of any wrong court thus constituted to convict the guilty anc
 hoy of immediate communities and confronted witt serious difficulty in securine bail. Do you wonder that they evaded arrest? That inne cent men pre- ferred privatiors and hardships in conceament t, facing a court constituted to convict and holdni open the doors of the penitentiary for them? If Il ! under these circumstances can you wonder at it The condition in these counties hes Teen trI'y de 1 plorable
 Wives, mothers and children have lived in COT stant terror They have feared that at any day q hour their loved oses might be dragged from thei homes hundreds of miles away for trial before
 be baa ads to ad b l of their own rsople aud of the state in genera They ask you to consider these things
 The 1 the es of are not l They object to being held responsible for isolat: l individual acts They are not lawless nor do the seek to set law at defiance They are industrou been grossly misrepre cent ,d. They are not i l hesptable to officers of United States couyts. inc town of Madison, where it has Eeen charge | investigation proved the contrary. I have in n possession statement signed by eleven of u , posse to tho effect that they were "treated lil . | gentlemen"
 Yeu are charged with the responsibility of e , ecuting the laws. The people of these four corl
 ties do not desire to offer any obstruction or apy you in bringing wrong doers to punshmeIt, but know that voice their sentiments when assu you that they cannot resr 2ct the United Stat court for this district if it is to continl ) is fGla5i purlas5, I if ''S it is clean; ed
 sK1ed pp,esaen ot ts tda Gce
 evasion in Leon. Gadsden, Jefferson and Madist
 counties Constitute district court to mete O
 state in tho Union Very respectfully, e ". HAWTHORNE,