The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1904-06-05
TWO HISTORIC SCENES-"THE
PEOPLE RULE AND GOD is IN
THE SKY.'

attempt involved an attack upon per-
sonal liberty and a denial of the right
of appeal. Each attempt aroused the
wrath of a liberty loving people: and.
but for the interference OF a righteous
judge using that power most sacred to
Anglo-SaXons, the great writ of hab-
cas- corpus, each attempt would have
eliminated i'm Whirlwind of popular
indignation too terrible to picture. The
mistakable terms the fate of those
who i'm official station have attacked
the liberty of its citizens.
Thirty-four years ago, when the
State. PROSTATE under the heel of Fed
cral soldiers, was daily plundered and
degraded by carpet-baggers and scala
wags when public revenues were
sTuandered and public bonds issued
and public franchises granted without
return OF value TO the taxpayers;
natives mismanaged the States rail-
roads and plllndered its public institu-
tons for education and charity: when
the real citizens of North Carolina, its
men of intelligence, character and
property, were as pOwerless as the
dead i'm the management of its prop
erty and public affairs: then it was
that Josiah Turner, Jr., editor of the
Raleigh Sentinel, spoke out day after
day in tones so loud, SO clear, SO ring
ing. so alarming. and SO defiant, that
he enraged and frightened the desper-
ate crew who had banded together for
plumber of the State. lie was seized
by Kirk under HOlden's orders and
cast into jail. Judicial hearing was
denied; the right OF appeal was de-
MED: bail was denied. The Republic
can Chief Justice of the State, acting
under Holden's orders, refused to is
sue the writ of habeas corpus and de-
ciared that i'm the face of impriSon-
ment by order of the Governor. 1.-The
power of the judiciary was exhausted"
Application was then made to George
w. Brooks, Federal District Judge, at
Elizabeth City, for the writ of habeas
corpus. The messenger to the judge
from the people of North Carolina was
the peerless Ransom. The whole
State was aroused and indignant. 1t
was on the verge of civil war. The
writ was issued. Judge Brooks, with
conscience aroused and mind con-
WINGED and heart touched by the elo-
quence of Ransom, came to Raleigh
. 4 H. 81 In.
orable i'm our annals, surrounded by
tile bar of the city and many OF the
States leading lawyers and citizens,
with vast cOncOurse of people surg
ing through the building and around
it. with the prisoners, Turner and
Kerr and others, representing the out
ragged sovereignty of North Carolina
and oppressed freedom of speech, re-
leased the prisoners from captivity
and restored again to the sovereign
people the sccptre of power. Ii was
scene never to be forgotten.
And now. after lapse of nearly half
a century. this glorious and yet unhap-
by scene is re-enacted. Again public
plumber is the motive; again aliens
aided by natives have combined
10 wrest from the State control Of its
property; again exposure of their
plans calls for daily denunciation i'm
the press; again blood is irot, feeling
runs high and the atmosphere is
charged with lightning; again the
freedom of the press is attacked and
n
nv to law, the editor of the most wide
ly circulated paper in the
state is arrested and confined for crit
icising the acts of judge
who had appointed as receiver of the
States property man under indict-
ment i'm the State courts for conspiracy
to destroy that very property. Again
the States first (Jaryis,
Woodland, Gray, Busbee, POu, WOm-
ack, Winston, Holding and WatsOn)-
prisoned unjustIy and illegally. Again
the right of appeal is denied, again
bail is denied. Silence-Silence-
SiIence-must be enforced. To speak
out for the rights of the State iS,-
contempt Of Court! To plead against
damnable conspiracy against the
property and the sovereignty OF North
Carolina.-is contempt of court! Sill
ence-Silence-
g.. :. :. :. / am Sir Oracle
''And, when / ope my lips, let no
dog bark"
But the hour of deliverance is at
hand-again Federal Judge, Jeter G.
PritcEard, of the Circuit Court, grants
the writ of habeas corpus; again the
hearing is at Raleigh; again the bar of
the city, the leading citizens of the
State and the heart of the whole State
fill the court room, and surging
crowds overflow the building-AnOth-
er peerless orator, the brilliant and
incisiye Robert w. Winston, with
learning, with satire, with ridicule.
with inexhaustible common sense and
irresistible power of argument, sweeps
the case out of court and restores in
triumph TO the DeODIe the PeDreSeuta-