The Montgomery advertiser., 1904-10-12
gupan xonrs,s cHAner.

very able charge to the grand jury at 1 Efuntsville. in reference to the Hunts viile mob. which recently get the jail on nFs At Huntsvi11s and hung the negro Naples and also endangered the lives Of. Federal prisoners, in which Judge Jones. instructed them M Naples was hung by the mob. not merely be- cause of indignation at the offense charged against him. but because he was negro and on that account pre- vent his having a trial in the courts | of the State, that would be an offense ! asainst the iaws of the United States.
 l 1t win be seen that Judge Jones holds that. under the 18th admendment, and section 1 of the Civil Rights Act of April g. 1886. an Immunity had been ! created by the Constitution of the Unitsd States ihSfavor of Naples. as a citizen, which Congress could protect against lawiess acts of private indi- yiduais, directed against him on ac- count of race, to prevent him from en- toying the civil equality the law gave him with a white man. by deprivins him Of the right of a trial. and to be condemned by the courts. if guilty. when accused of crime. He charged the jury. If, under all the circumstances. they reached the conclusion if Naples had been a white man he would not have bsen mobbed. that 1t was their duty to return true bills against mem bers of q white mob. The offense was punishable under Section 5Sos of the Revised statutes of the United States. which makes fs crime to conspire to l injure or oppress . citisen of the United States. in the enjoyment of a 1 right secured to him under the Con- sfitution and laws of the United stateA
 Judge Jones in discussing the legal questions. charged the jury that the immunity. granted the citizen by the Fourtssnth Amendmsnt against ob- noxious state laws or Improper acts of State oficers in executing them, as the I Alabama laws were unobjectiona7bie and the oficers tried to protect that he might have trial. the State hadjnot denied him immunity granted by that amendment. Under that amendment, the isarned judge said that taking of a citizen from State officers. whoi were I holding him for trial according to law, when accused of crime, and lsswiessiy | batting him to death, could be made an offense by Congress, regardless of any question of race. because the Con- stitution intended tes secure protection of the citizen by the performances of that duty to him, and ConEess could secure it. The amendment put that duty upon the State and its ubhcers. and Congress having the power, to require the performance. of that duty could legisiate against the acts ofiprivate in- dividuaIs which tended to defeat the object sought thereby. The Constitu- ton gave Congress the power to legis- late to carry out the objects of the amendment; and unless it was forbidden by some other clause of the Constitu- tion to legislate in that way, 1t had the implied power to do SO although the state officers were executing State laws and performing duty they owed primarily to the State, yet one also im- posed upon them by the Constitution of the United States to secure the protec- ton of the citizen. Legislation pun ishing the acts of individuals for re- sisting State officers in such cases. the judge charged. did not fall within the principle upon which the act of Con- gress requiring equal accommodations on eenyeyanees and at hotels, etc, was declared unconstitutional in the Civil Rights cases. the reason those acts
 were declared unconstitutional being
 then such legislation entered the do-
 main of State power, and created rights
 between man and man, without any
 reference to State iawssor the correc-
 tion of any evil under them. which cor
 reetive power, as against State action.
 wasIt4e only power conferred by the
 Fourteenth Amendment.
 Judge Jones holds that if Congress
 should iegislats to punish of the acts
 of the mob which hung citizen to
 prevent his having a trial before the
 court which 1t is the duty of the State
 to afford him when accused of crime,
 1t would not enter or evade State au-
 thority or create any new right, or
 change state laws, but would simply
 aid by legislation the performance of a
 duty which the Constitution of the
 United States itself imposed upon
 State oficers. An instance of the
 principle of such legislation, the judge
 says. was found in the legislation for
 the punishment of individuals who re-
 sist the agent of the demanding State,
 when a fugitive from justice is deliver
 ed to him under the extradition laws.
 Under that article of the Constitution
 the duty was only. moral one, which
 Congress could not enforce, yet 1t had
 not been doubted for century past.
 that Congress could by penal laws, aid
 in the performance of the duty when
 the State undertook 1t. Under the
 recent amendment tho right of Con
 gress to enact such legislation was
 much stronger because Congress was
 given the power to enforce it. Judge
 Jones further charged the jury. if the
 members of the mob knew or ought to
 have known that Federal prisoners
 were In the jail at the timeytfey con
 spired to set the jail on fire or while
 they were doing so, they denied such