Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1908-11-03
AN ELOQUENT JUDGE.
The Grand Jury Charge In the Reel
foot OUTRAGE

foot Outrage.
Union City, Tenn, Oct. 29.-Judge
Joseph E. Jones, in his charge to the
grand jury concerning the murder Of
Rankin and the outrage Of the night
riders, said:
- THE blood Of Captain Rankin,
which was shed upon the banks OF
Reelfoot Lake, at midnights holy hour,
by a band of men, alleged to have their
faces covered to avoid detection, cries
out for legal vindication and the pun
ishment of the horrible act which has
astonished the world. Our own Ten
nessee and the beautiful southland,
where the purest and best strain Of the
Anglo Saxon blood flows through the
veins of her people, is mortified and
numiiated by the awful crime.
The law is above and over US all, to
it our alteration must first be paid.
With uplifted hands you, as a grand
jury, and l, as judge and the attorney
general and all the peace officers have
sworn by the eternal God that 1t should
those who have confided in us to let
the people here and elsewhere know
that God still reigns and the law Of
the land survives. May we so 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
ne have contributed our mite to the
glory Of our country, the preservation
If our free institutions and the hold
ing aloft the pure, white, spotless pan
ner of the law. When the infidel, Elm
Jeror Julian, in the early days of our
blessed Christianity, was fighting the
army of the lowly NaZarene and seek
ng to demolish the Christian religion,
he received, it is said, fatal wound
in the side from the shafts of the
Christian forces, and as his body
swayed and was falling to the ground,
we are told that he caught handful
Of blood from his own bleeding side
and threw it in the sunlight toward
heaven, and with his expiring breath
cried out, %! Nazarene, thou hast
conquered at last
IN the name Of the law and Chris
tianity and our great civilization, may
we by strict adherence to duty, call
many an erring man back to the shin
ing path of obedience, to the better
dictates of the human heart, and hear
the cry from the swelling bosom Of our
people that the law has conquered at
last.
These are times that try mems
souls. None but the just, faithful and
true need aspire to take front rank in
the great moral struggle for the su-
premacy of the law. In the fight be-
tween good and evil, right and wrong,
law and anarchy; between those who
battle in the open and those who hide
their faces, to do their devilish work,
laggards, towards, shrinking, timid,
time servers. are not wanted, and will
not rise to the occasion.
Let duty and patriotism be the OBJ
jects of the clarion call, to juries, Of
ficers and people. If there be those
anywhere in the jury box, or in the
official family, from judge, attorney
general. sheriff. justice or constable,
who are unwilling to meet the highest
obligation of duty, let him here and
now resign, and take off the robes Of
office and hide his face in shame. The
spirit of Jackson urges officials every
where in these critical days to utter
and act upon the sentiment that law
and order must and shall be pre-
served"