Hopkinsville Kentuckian. [volume] (Hopkinsville, Ky.) 1889-1918, 1908-10-29
JUDGE JONES.
A New and Patriotic Leader
to the Front in Tennessee.


Union City, Tenn. Monday, Judge
Jos. E. Jones concluded his charge
to the jury in the following eloquent
and patriotic words:
1.-The court confidently appeals to
this jury, these officers and to every
good man in Obion county ard all
through this state, to uphold the
hands of our distinguished Governor,
and those of us who occupy subordi-
nate positions, in the administration
and enforcement of the law.
1.-THE blood Of Capt. Rankin, which
was shed upon the banks ofReelfoot
Lake, at midnight's holy hour, by q
band of men, alleged to have their
faces covered TO avoid detection,
cries out for legal vindication and
the punishment OF the horrible act
which has astonished the world. Our
own Tennessee and the beautiful
Southland, where the purest and
best strain of the Anglo-Saxon blood
flows through The veins of her peo-
pie, is mortified and Inundated by
the awful crime.
1.-The law is above and over US all,
to it our alteration mus, first be paid
With uplifted hands you, as a grand
jury, and l, as Judge, and the attor-
ney general and all of the peace Off
GERS have sworn by the eternal God
that it should be enforced. We owe
it as duty to those who have con-
fided in US to let the people here and
elsewhere know that God still reigns
and the law of the land survives.
May we not act our part today, and
through this term of the court that.
when we have finished life's battles
and played our part upon the stage
of action, we can feel that we have
contributed our mite to the glory of
our country, the preservation of our
homes, the maintenance of our free
institutions and the holding aloft OF
the pure, white, spotless banner Of
the law. When the infidel Emperor
Julian. in the early days of oul
Christianity, was fighting the army
of the lowly Nazarene and seeking
to demolish the Christian religion
he received, it is said, a fatal wounC
in the side from the shafts of tn,
Christian forces, and as his bod,
swayed, and was falling to tn
ground, we are told that he caugh
a handful of blood from his owl
bleeding side, and threw it in tn
sunlight of heaven, and with his ex
piring breath cried out, %! Naza
rene, thou hast conquered at last
I'm the name of the law, ant
Christianity, and in our great civil
zation, may we not by strict adher
ence to duty, call many an erin,
man back to the shining path of ODE
dience, to the better dictates of tn
human heart, and hear the cry iron
the swelling bosom of our peopl
that the law has conquered at last.
These are times that try men
souls. None but the just, faithfu
and true, need aspire to take from
rank in the great moral struggle 70
the supremacy of the law. In tn
fight between good and evil, RICH
and wrong, law and anarchy, be
tween those who battle in the ope
and those who hide their faces, t
do their devilish work: laggard
towards, shrinking timid, time serV
ers, are not wanted, and will nc
rise to the occasion.
Let duty and patriotism be tn
objects of the clarion call, to juriel
officers and people. If there be on
anywhere in the jury box, or in I'll
official family, from judges, alto
ney general, sheriffs. Justice or col
stable, who is unwilling to me,
the highest obligation of duty, Il
him here and now resign, and tai
off the robes of Office and hide h
. face in shame. The spirit of JacksC
urges officials everywhere in the
critical days to utter and act upC
the holy sentiment that law and o
der must and shall be preserved"