The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1898-11-04
HONEST MEN DRAGGED FROM THEIR
HOMES.

When u man is charged with an Of
Tense he should be tried in his own
vicnage. That is a fundamental prin-
ciple Of our laws, brought to America
by our ancestors, and under Democratic
administration jealousy guarded ana
scrupulousy observed. Surrounded ny
his ncighbors, the men who know the
tenor of his daily walk, his worth or his
lack of it, he is given an opportunity to
establish his innocence.
For this purpose courts>of high or low
degree have been ordained to sat III every
county, nay in every township. that the
sources of justice may be close To the
door OF every man and that none may
set hand against him with impunty.
1t is II provision as wise as it is well
established. No Democratic administra-
ton has disturbed IT,
How is it under the regime of the Ke-
pubicans? Charges were to be, brought
against Capt w. III. Kitchin and other
gentlemen There are courts i'll Halifax
county. where they reside. There are
justices of the peace there, white and
colored. before whom the prosecutors
might have arragned them. Did they
do it? They came TO Raleigh and mad
bench warrants issued against these
gentlemen. They are to be brought 70
the State capital and tried. They are
to be denied the privilege of an op-
portunity to establish their innocence by
and among their neighbors. If they
have witnesses, they must have them
brought from Halifax county to Raleigh.
They must come here and remain here
at considerable expense while their in
nocence is being established.
Why WAS this thing done? Why were
not the accused tried in their own
county according to the wise and clear
intention of our laws? The Fusionists
have the machinery in Halifax county
by which respect for the law should be
maintained and infringement of it pun
ished. Are they powerless to punish
law breakers? Can not a Eusionist
maintain his rights in his own court?
The treatment accorded Capt. Kitchin,
and the other gentlemen cited with him
to appear before the court here, is an
outrage and dangerous departure from
an honored custom of our Jurisprudence
If it is justifiable i'll one case it is justi-
fable in all. Before the law all men
are equal. If these men are to be de-
MED the privilege of trial in their own
county every man in the State can be
denied it with equal show of reason.
In pursuance of the Republican policy
of Capitalization are we to have but one
court of law, sitting at the State capital.
and must every man against whom the
vicious can be brbed to bring a charge
journey hither quitting his family, his
business and his pleasure in order to
show that malice, not justice. is his ac-
cuser? And are we to have an array
of Federal bayonets hard by the court
to stifle protest at these rank innova-
tons!
That at least seems the day that IS
about to dawn upon us. The law is to
be wrung from its natural course and
made a terror to the upright, by the aid
of hired perjurers, that fraud and vice
may walk abroad with mpunity. If
good men can not be convicted they
can be annoyed and put to- expense. If
they are vindicated by the one court
the Fusionists are to leave us, political
capital can be made of their arrest, and
every paid slanderer and .nangy camp
follower be given license to assail their
good name.
The Fusionist has looted and SANDER.
ed, debauched and threatened, polluted
public places and perverted the law,
quite long enough in this honored com
monwealth. BY the memory of an hon
orable past and for the sake of an hon
orable future. let us make an end of the