Vilas County news. [volume] (Eagle River, Vilas County, Wis.) 1896-1927, 1909-02-17
SEES DESPOT|SM
IN LIBEL SUITS
INVESTIGATION OF NEWSPAPER
uTTERANcEs ATTACKED BY
CONGRESSMAN WlLLETT.
WARNS OF DANGER-INvOkES
FREEDOM OF PRESS AND
SPEECH.

Washington, D. c., Feb. 9.-Charac-
terizing as the most fragrant and the
most dangerous exercise of usurped
power ever witnessed in this cOun-
try the grand jury Investigations
which have been in progress for sew
eral weeks past in connection with
the alleged Panama libel case, Repre-
sentative Willett of New York, who
several weeks ago vigorously attacked
President Roosevelt ON the floor of
the house yesterday came to the de-
Tense of the papers whose alleged Ii
belous publications are being investi-
gated, declaring that 'the courts of
the United States have no jurisdic-
tom in cases of libel against the gov
eminent of the United States.
''It has not been conferred upon
them by any legislative act he as
serted, and they possess no Grimm
al jurisdiction derived from the COM
mon law He called the present in
vestigation ''the most extraordinary
proceeding on the part of the federal
government which has shocked the
country since the days of the old fed
eralist party. This proceeding has for
weeks been going on right here in the
District of Columbia, under the very
shadow of the capitol, and seems to
have been instigated, if not directly
ordered by the president.
A large part of Mr.. Willett's speech
was taken up with extracts from var
ious court decisions by which he at
tempted to prove that there is no le-
gal justification for prosecuting cases
of alleged libel against the govern
ment. He declared that the old Eng
lish doctrines relating to the libeing
of the government of great public of
ficers has been rejected in all the
states of the union since the revolll-
ton of 1776 and that it had, before
that time, been rejected in England
by the act abolishing, in the reign of
Charles III, the star chamber court.
He asserted that the doctrine has
ever since been regarded cas- an I'M
safe, unreasonable, unjustifiable and
unconstitutional fiction" He held that
the views expressed by John Milton in
his famous speech on the freedom of
the press and the views of Lord Frs
kline in his defense of Thomas Paine,
when that philosopher was indicted
for libel upon the British government,
have fixed the law on this Sub
ject in opposition to the old despotic
theory of paternalism, on which he
said, 1.-THE present prosecution is
founded
He ridiculed the contention which
he said the governments attorneys
are reported to hold that though the
principle that the government of a
country with constitution like ours
cannot be libeled, applies everywhere
else in the United States it does not
apply in the District of Columbia.
Libel may be a crime against the
District of Columbia" he declared,
!" as it is against the state of New
York, but it is no crime against the
federal government as such, nor has it
ever been; nor will it ever be so long
as congress adheres to those princi
pies on which the revolution and the
constitution depended. Congress has
not defined it in amy federal statutes;
nor has congress given any district
Or circuit court of the United States
jurisdiction of the defense, for the
reason, as stated by Judge Johnson
in the Goodwin case, that congress
must first make an act a crime and
affix punishment thereto, before it
cam give to any court jurisdiction of
the offense. And certainly" added
Mr.. Willet, mo reputable lawyer will
contend that a statute passed by con-
gress, acting as, local legislature of
the District of Columbia, can create a
crime against the United States"
In conclusion, Mr. Willett defined
the present proceedings by the gov
eminent as "a usurpation which
seems to be intended to forstall this
house, the grand inquest of the ma
ton, in the exercise of it's right to
investigate charges of corruption
brought by responsible citizens
against the administration now in
power. And warn you that no such
usurpation should be allowed to en-
tangle itself in precedence lost by
repetition the abuse become inveter-
ate, and despotism firmly established
on the ruins of our republic