Richmond planet. [volume] (Richmond, Va.) 1883-1938, 1904-08-27

less even had he prevailed. Besides
the sentence against him is void Void
for want of due process of law.
AN oUTBURST OF ELoQUENCE.
Void because one man cannot ad.
judge infamy. Like thousands of the
oppressed and down -trodden, through h
all the centuries since that glorious day
in the history of human liberty when
the Great Charter made forever imper.
lshable the principle that ''no free man
may be taken or imprisoned, but by the
lawful Judgment of his peers or by the
law of the land" he applies for the
great writ of right, the writ of habeas
corpus, and he humbly seeks the per
tails of that court whose Judges are
sworn TO know no difference between
the rich and the poor, where justice
ever bends the listening ear to catch
the plsint of tho humble and the lowly,
and through all whose generous and be-
nlgn Jurisprudence is needed the admo-
milton of the Master, "Inasmuch as We
have done it TO one of the least of these
my brethren, We have done it unto me. "
If the prayer of this man must be de-
MED then the statutes authorizing the
United States courts and the Judges
thereof to issue the writ of habeas cor.
pus to protect the rights of the citizen
guaranteed by the national constitution
have at last been successfully nullified
and hereafter the petitioner in like case
must have recourse alone to the courts
of the stIte.
PECULIAR REASONING.
Not a little has been said in the ar
gument TO the effect that the majority
of those who are sentenced to this chain
gang merit ali the punishment they re-
ceive. One witness, formerly a road
commissioner, who was familiar with
the operations or the chaingang, testi-
fed that in his opinion, while a SEN
tence there would forever ruin a white
man previously respectable, it had no
such effect on a respectable negro.
Such considerations do not appeal TO a
court charged with the equal enforce
ment of the law. Nor do | believe
that they meet the appreciation of the
rejecting people of the Southern s5ates.
Nor are such sentiments conducive to
our welfare or hopeful for our future
Twenty one years ago, when at the bar,
IN an argument TO a jury, in the great
case of Exparte Marlborough, / declared
the conviction that;
GREAT PRINCIPLE STATED.
Never in the history of the world
has any considerable class of people
been debased aDd degraded by force
and lawlessness, but that the entire
people suffered because of that degra-
dation. The white people of this coun-
try control the government, state and
federal. They enjoy every conceivable
advantage. They have superiority in
wealth, education, social influence,
everything A magnanimous people,
just people, they owe it to themselves
to be magnanimous and just to the COL
ored people,"
1t was true then. 1t is true now. I
further declared:
''For my part 1 love my country. 1
am proud Of its traditions. l glory in
the heroism and manhood of it's people.
l know that they despise cruelty and
barbarity to the helpless and oppressed >"
This was true then, 1t is true now.
Though the oolor-line expert may so
paint it, this is no color line case. 1t is
negro to-day. 1t may be a white man,
aye, white child or a white woman
tomorrow. In this court, the law is
equal for all.
Judgment absolute will be ordered in
favor of the petitioner and he will be
discharged from custody and be per-
mitted to go hence.
THE END