The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1902-01-19
KENTUCKY L||BELLED.
Judge Cantrill Did Not Drag
the Judicial Ermine in
the Mire.
He is an Honorable Gentleman and Learned
Lawyer Whose Decisions Were Upheld
by the Supreme Bench.
Especial to News and Observer

Especial to News and Observer)
Durham, N. c., JAM. 1S.-The Kentuck-
ian is always proud and fearless man
He stands upon his honor and the honor
of his State. There lives in the townsof
Durham Kentuckian of the right stamp.
He knows his State and is prompt to
repel attacks upon it's honest public
men. l will not give his name today. but
print the following statement by him
that is we'll put and to the point:
I'm the issue of the Raleigh Post of the
14th, they quote from the Washington
Post as follows: Judge Cantrill now
realizes that he dragged the judicial
ermine in the mire of politics in vain.
When politicians can use judicial Off
Ger they cannot respect him. They fol-
low w this extract from the Post with
the remark, among others equally as
untrue and Hbelous, that referring to
Judge CantrilD Judges who prostitute
the bench to promote partizanship or
personal malice, to secure their re-elec-
tion or election to some other position,
deserves just such rebuke as was ad-
II may be pardoned for paying more
attention to the editorial than it de-
serves, as any man conversant with the
facts in the Kentucky cases, which have
come before Judge Cantrill is aware of
the fact that the article in the Raleigh
Post is written without the least knowl-
edge of the facts in the case, starts with
borrowed language from the Washington
Post, and fills in with, material furnished
by an imaginary and i'll informed brain.
Judge Cantril stands above suspicion
in his State, and even the rankest politi-
cal enemy dares rot cast reflection upon
his honor, with the commandment, Thou
shalt not lie,' staring him in his face.
If any man will read the Nevidence fur
nished before Judge Cantrill in these
cases, he will readily see the business of
every instruction given by him. Again the
fate of every man was in the hands of
twelve men, and not Judge Cantrill. If
there be no facts to sustain his position
and the position taken by the several
Juries who sat in these cases, why should
such Republican leaders as Ex-Governor
Bradley give evidence for the Common
wealth. as well as ex-Judge Yost, who
was at one time an attorney for the de-
Tense?
IF the decision was based on politics
instead of the evidence, why should the
smartest of all the criminals accept the
verdict of the jury and go to the peniten-
tiary without appeal, while the notori-
Gus Howard, who has been an outlaw all
his life and an indiscriminate murder OF
men. appeal and clamor for re-trial?
fhn he
scrupulous as the brilliant editor of the
Post would picture them, why should
the Governor of the State. skilled in the
law himself, flee from trial to another
State, especially in view of the fact that
no one has been lvnched or killed who
has been arrested? If your answer be
he is afraid he cannot get justice before
Judge Cantrill. now that the State court
is Republican IN majority, why does he
not return with the assurance of fair
trial before that court, whose politics
are his own, staring him in his face
is it customary for a man without guilt
to flee, or is it the man conscious of the
fact that he is guilty that fees?
Even in the cases of the contest for
the State offices in which politics were
involved, with majority on the bench
OF the Court of Appeals Democratic. and
with three Republican judges, Judge
Csntrills position in those cases was
upheld by both the Democratic and Re-
publican judges, and this position was
not reversed until a Republican court
was placed upon the bench. In the form
er trial. as / stated, the Republicans
held with the Democrats as to Judge
Cantrill's good law; in the latter case
with full court and Republican ma
jority they held against him. Which
court seems to have been the most par
tizan?i
Judge Cantrill only sits as a judge
upon the law. He was not the author OF
the law, nor has he the power to revoke
1T. He would be a perjurer did he
not try the case on the law, whether he
considered it Just law or not There
fore the abuse upon his head is the pro-
duct of an Ill informed and diseased
brain.
Before the Post slaps it's pen in ink to
explode INSTRUMENTATION it might be well
to spend little money in a kinder
garden education for it's editor