The gold leaf. [volume] (Henderson, N.C.) 1881-1911, 1909-05-27

He said. What is that writ said,
1t is a petition inquiring into the
lawfulness OF his Imprisonment, and
General Otis has issued the order
granting that writ or the allowance
of that writ, and you can have it
here
He aled me to draw up II petit
ton. which l did, and he took it into
| one of the local courts, which hap
! pened tn be presided over by an Amer
| lean. He went out to Bilibid prison
aud before he got through that day
he had filed ninety petitions for the
writ OF habeas corpus to release peo-
pie at Bilibid prison who had been
THERE from four to ten years. When
they heard how he had gotten them
out, they wanted To attend in mass
and come and thank me ut my house.
expressed my appreciation of their
gratitude. but as was not quite sure
but that hall OF them ought to have
been where they were anyhow, ex-
cused them from coming and received
an acknowledgements in the form ot
a table ornament such as they give
in the Philippines, which consists OF
n bundle OF toothp;eks. (Laughter.l
OTHER LEGAL PROCEDURE.
"To go on. the writ IL habeas cor
pus is one thing; an inGictment by n
grand jury is another. That is mere
procedure. That is not general
right. 1t is n mere form of procedure.
The right of trial by Jury is another
form of procedure Then there is the
fourteenth amendment and the other.
the fifteenth amendment to the Con
stitution, which accords to every
one the right not to be deprived of
his property without due process of
law. That does not say that you
are not to be deprived of your prop
erty unjustly. You may he. All
that it says is that you shall have II
hearing before n tribunal. and that
if man is going to rob you, he has
got to rob you in a regular way.
(Laughter)
Now, that is practical. The Anglo
Saxon ancestor knew that if he could
once get it before court he would
have n show for his white alley, that
he would have a day in that court.
and that was the true basis of civil
liberty. So it is with the declara-
tions that were made at Mecklenburg
You go over them and see that they
create selectment, they create mill
tary guards, they create courts with
jurisdiction, they create courts to
make collection of debts, and they
make every provision which a single
community like county could make.
together with commitments for fell
Ony, to await the decision of courts
to be created by the highest authority
under the authority of the General
Congress. Now there are things in
that Declaration that make me thrill
with pride, that there was II COM
munity in this country, and | ven
ture to say this was not the only
community, but it seems to have
been the one most charged with its
sense of ponsiblity-which knew
that self-gOvernment was not a mere
gift. but it was something when it is
to be enjoyed must be enjoyed with
a full sense of its responsibility, and
with the idea that there is q duty i'm
posed on everyone who enjoys it oil
seeing to it that it is carried on for
the benefit of ALL
THE DECLARATION A FACT.
THE Soctch-Irishmen who lived in
this community were hard headed
They were willing to takeupo them,
| hn rio o., Of
as traitors to Great Britain. They
: were willing to fight it out, as they
did SO often thereafter in the Hor
nets Nest; (cheers) but they recog
nized their responsibility as citizens
and as individuals. that if they wen,
into the business of self-government
they must make that government
worthy of the name. Now, it ia a
fact that by reason of the lax gov.
eminent which Great Britain was
able to give our colonies-I say lax
it was lax, but it was unjust by fits
and starts. We were-Our ancestors
were-the best prepared people for
self-government that ever assumed
an independent government. They
had had 200 years of independence
in the sense Of distance from the
home government When brought
to mind they were attacked oc-
casionally by such tyranny az Gov
ernOr Tryon manifested in North
/ Carolina and as was manifested by
other Governors at different times
throughout the other colonies, but
all that time we were gathering ex-
perience, we were gathering n sense
OF responsibility as to our own com
munities so that when i'm 70 YOU de-
clared your independence here, and
in &c we all declared our independ-
ence at Philadelphia, we were in a
condition with men as great, as able,
as full OF the knowledge of statecraft
as any nation in Europe or any
nation that ever lived, to step into
the ranks of nations and carry ON "A
government worthy the considera-
ton OF the entire world.
THE WAR is OVER.
NOW. we have had n great deal oil
experience since that time. We have
been through "a number OF wars. We
watched the institution of slavery
grow by unfortunate circumstances
until it seemed TO be an issue that
had to he fought out. and that We
could not cuEe the body polite ex-
cept by an excision that threatened
+ the whole physical structure Of the
nation. But We have lived that
through. You in the Southland had
the troubles, the suffering, the sad
loss burned into your hearts with
much more emphasis than We in
f the Northland, because here was the
centre of the war, and it il entirely
natural that in the forty years
which have succeeded the war. with
the continuance here of the RAGS
whose face was the cause OF the war
that their condition. even after ihs
magnanimous spirit shown on botl
, sides af AppomattOx was bIazOnea