The semi-weekly messenger. [volume] (Wilmington, N.C.) 1897-1908, 1902-05-16
LIE NO. S.
this Priyate.)

destroy this. Privately
My Dear Governor: All that hula
baloo about Impeachment comes
from J.. w. Wilson. 1 saw Fred Mer-
rift i'm there yesterday, and he was TAX
ing it down. ] ave letters from diff
ferent points and find public senti-
ment elsewhere as we'll as here is with
you.
AS you u~ropncsied, knowing the facts
are against them, they deny your juris-
diction, relying on the supplementary
act of 1891, p. 565. making them a Court
of Record. Ti:ey are a long time find
ing out they are judges, as Mason,
Be%ddingfield, Ohio Wilson, all can
vassed regularly. But there is moth
ing in the polnC any way. The act
creating them provided how their
terms could be ended. Besides, you are
only given power to suspend the power
of removal is vested in the legislature.
They have been trying to charge l had
part in drafting the notices so as to
affect my sitting. / did not see the no
tees till issued, and did not know they
would be issued. There were some type
written points, however, interlined or
corrected in my hands. Please get that
pap and destroy it.
Destroy this Send me any note you
wish by bearer. Yours, w. I.
This is the last letter and the one
upon which the v%irtuous advocates of
government By railroad set the most
store.
1t had been charged in the press that
Col. A. B. Andrews owning one-fourth
interest in a hotel at Round Knob, n
J. w. Wilson, Railroad Commissioner,
owning the other th~ree-fourths inter-
est, had rented it to s. Otho Wilson,,
another railroad commissioner, that
Ohio refused % rent unless it was
agreed by thu railroads that Round
Knob should be made the eating house
and stopping place for the trains( n
he could not pay rent unless this was
done), that in open defiance of the
law which these commissioners were
sworn to administer, the supplies, both
by freight and express were carried
free, Otho's family were also carried
free in defiance of the law against
| free passes, and his furniture was car
| ried at one-half rates and that one
half not paid. With such a scandal
before him Governor Russell was forced
to issue a notice to the two commits
sioners to appear before him to show
cause why they should not be suspend
ed till the legislature met. They ap-
| peared, the witnesses proved substan-
TALLY the above facts. he suspended
them. Upon the face of the Statute,
his action could not be reviewed by the
supreme court, but by the legislature
| alone. The Wilson's were tried by the
Legislature, anG Notwithstanding the
legislature was democratic, Governor
| Russell's action was sustained, for j.
w. Wilson, whose term expired, was
not reelected, n Ohio resigned. The
legislature generously allowed them
pay for the time they had been sus-
pended, otherwise the lawyers who de-
| Tended them would have gone unpaid
From above II will be seen that Gov
ernor Russell submitted TO me a type
written o of his notice to show
cause, or summons, to the wilson's TO
appear. / MADE in il as appears by
the document which / saw on yester-
day some half dozen corrections, most
ly of grammatical or verbal errors 1t
was sent to me because the proceeding
for removal OF an official by the Gov
ernor was new in this State, and this
was the first Statute authorizing it,
whereas IL Is very common in some of
the other States, n / was thought to
b. familiar with the practice in such
| cases.
Issuing the notice TO show cause, or
summons did not ~incapacitate Cover
nor Russell to sit on or try h case. II
| was in no way a prejudgment of the
facts by him, aid il the case could have
been carried by appeal to the Supreme
| Court il is clear that the fact that I
had corrected the m would not
! have debarrei me at second hand
| from sitting On the case when IL did
not debar the officer who issued Ii. In
] deed as every n knows a justice of