The Montgomery advertiser., 1903-07-25

of the citizens, and shows deplorabie ignorance and tyranny. The charge against the defendant is. that he know ingly caused this man Hill to be held in a condition of peonage by Pace. Was the
 man at Faces, was he hired out to Pace,
 was he put there against his well. and by
 whom? We'll. if he was, what is the de-
 fense? It can not be that he has been convicted of anything, because he never
 was. He was not sentenced, even under
 this void proceeding, where the justice
 of the peace was trying to collect debt for his employer. There was no author
 ity whatever to take Pat Hill anywhere,
 or to hold him for judgment of any
 thing When a man goes to another and
 hires a man to him, the law says you
 must inquire at your peril; you must
 have a warrant; you must have com
 mitment; you must not take a man up
 without these; and if you do, it will not
 answer to say you thought you had the right
 If it were shown here that defendant was trying to do Pat Hill a kindness, and , that Hill had asked him to pay the $5 fine for him. promising to work a reason able length of time to pay it back. the court, although defendant would come
 within the letter of the law, if he forced
 him to work, without a written contract
 
 | the court would not allow him to be trap
 ped, even though the conviction was be-
 fore bogus magistrate.
 Is there anything of that kind here. The conviction was unlawful, and there was
 no right to hold Pat Hill for a second against his will It is not to be doubted that Hill was arrested by an officer car ried before Couse, who was represented
 to be an officer, and told by Couse that
 he had been tried and fined s. What
 was Franklin doing there? He was not
 an officer. He was telegraphed to, to ar- rest Hill with the others If you believe
 the evidence, 1t is clear Hill was not told what the costs were, and that Frank lin said he would arrange for the costs
 and fine. What then? These men were
 taken down to Faces, and Franklin does
 the bargaining for their services. Pruett. the officer who would naturally have that
 matter in charge. apparently has nothing
 to do with it.Why did Franklin do these things?
 Was the going of Hill to Paoe's volun- tary or involuntary? Did Hill voluntarily contract to be worked and treated as a | convict there? You must look at the cir cumstances, the relative situation of the | parties. Their intelligence, condition and ability Here is man who has been
 carried before an officer, said to be a
 magistrate, going through a trial, has l been put in prison told he had to work out a fine. and the arresting officer and | the defendant still with him. Do you | think that was voluntary contract. Many | man walks to the scaffold without as- | sistance or being compelled by physical force, because he knows he has to be hanged. Does the fact that he walks l there lead any one to believe that the | act is voluntary? What was this trans | action, was it paying a fine, or was 1t | speculating in the liberty of this defend-
 ant? If you believe from the evidence beyond a reasonable doubt that the de- fendant,. Franklin, these parties having been convicted at this so-called trial was | in the hands of an officer of the law, and Franklin, he having helped to bring him
 to Faces to guard him, and then sold his | services to Pace, knowing the labor to
 which he was going to be put to, and selling him for that purpose. why then
 on this evidence, gentlemen of the jury, the defendant would be guilty. It is a
 rule of law and of common sense that every man is presumed to design the known natural and ordinary effect of his
 act. Did Franklin know Pace was a convict contractor? Did he take him
 down there to be worked, put in his GUS
 tody and charge, so as to have to stay against his will or not? If he did, he Is
 guilty. On the other hand. if you have a reasonable doubt as to whether or not Hill went there of his own free will, and
 staid there of his own free will, to work | out this claim of debt, why then he Is not guilty. That Is the whole case, gentle
 men, and 1t Is submitted to you as hon.
 est, God-fearing, law-abiding citizens of the United States. We have heard some-
 thing here that such cases ought to be
 tried in our State courts. We are all
 proud of our citizenship of Alabama; but certainly it is a matter of qualification,
 rather than of complaint, that sometimes
 citizen of Alabama who is also a cit-
 izen of the United States, can look to two
 powers to protect the fundamental rights
 of the citizens of the United States Counsel sometimes use expressions not called for, and not proper and In their zeal, and arguing for q client, sometimes
 do not measure their words Now one of the counsel speaks of a negro as "a so- | called citizen" Gentlemen, a man is a
 citizen, though he cannot vote; our chil- dren are citizens. but they have no po- litical power. Whether a man can vote or not, he is a citizen, and under the protection of the law, precisely as if he could vote and was the proudest citizen
 in the State Nobody loves a Government which does not protect it's citizens, One
 reason why the Englishman values his al- legiance to the King of England. is be- cause no matter what 1t costs. wherever
 an English subject Is wronged, then the
 whole power of the British Empire Is
 back of him to redress that wrong. no
 mater how humble he is. You remember
 some years ago one man was imprisoned.
 think 1t was by the savage King The
 odore It required the sending of an ex-
 petition some hundred miles by land, and a long voyage by sea to reach him. Eng
 land sent an army and fleet. and march
 ed that distance, bombarded the kings
 palace and capitol, and overthrow his
 government, and all because they had oppressed one insignificant English citi-
 zen. That is the object of government.
 When it comes to the duty of protection,
 where wrong has been done. if we do our duty to God, if we do our duty to civili-
 zation, in the courts at least, We must
 have one measure for all men, high or
 low. I will read part of charge deliv-
 cred by Judge Alston, an honored State
 Judge, at Pel City. yesterday. He said:
 No people on earth are so dependent
 as are the negroes upon the whites for
 Justice They have been disfranchised
 by us They have no voice in the selec-
 ton of those who make the laws that
 govern them, nor do they exercise any
 other rights of citizenship They are help
 less and absolutely dependent upon us
 for their equal rights and protection. Our responsibility Is as great as their depend ence upon us. But I am sure We are equal to 1t. and that the great majority of the white people in Alabama desire to see the negro undisturbed in the enjoy
 ment of every right that the law gives