The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1909-02-16
ROASTS
THE LIBEL SUITS
u. S. Courts Have no
Jurisdiction, He Says
DEFENDS THE newspapers
New York Representative Again Stirs
Up the House With An Attack Upon
the Proceedings Begun in Connec
ton With the Panama Canal
Changes-QuOtes the Law i'll Sup
port of His Position.

AHS WI
port Of His Position.
(By the Associated Press.e
Washington, d. c.. Feb. 12.-Char-
acterizing as the most fragrant and
the most dangerous exercise OF uSurpL
power ever witnessed in this country.
the grand jury Investigations which
have been in prdogress Tor several
weeks past in connection with the
alleged Panama libel case. Represen-
tative Wil'ett. of New York. who. seN-
eral weeks ago vigorously attacked
President Roosevelt o nthe floor OF
the House. today came to the defense
Of the papers whose alleged hbelous
publications are being lnVestlgated,
declaring that the courts OF the
United States have no jurisdiction in
cases Of libel against the government
of the United States.
1T mas not been conferred upon
them by any legislative act" he as
serted, and they possess no criminal
jurisdiction derived from the com
mon law lie 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 or right here in
the District of Columbia. under the
very shadow Of the capitol, and seems
to have been i~nstigated, if not directly
ordered by the President"
A large part Of Mr.. Willett's speech
was taken up with extracts from va
rious court decisions b. which he at
tempted to prove that there is no legal
JuSt1ncatOn tor prosecuting cases OF
alleged libel against the government.
He declared that the old English
doctrine relating to the libeling OF
;! the Governments Of Great nyh3}n Of
ficers has been rejected in all the
States Of the Union since the Revo-
luton Of 1876, and that it had, before
that time, been rejected in England
by the act abolishing in the reign
of Charles II the Star Chamber
has ever since been regarded ''as
an unsafe, 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 Erskine in his defense
of Thomas Paine, when that philoso-
pher was indicted for libel upon the
! British government have fixed the
law on his subject in opposition to
the old despotic theory OF paternal-
. ism, on which he said, the present
T prosecution is founded
He ridiciuled the contention which
he said the governments attorneys
are reported to hold that, though the
principle that the government of a
Q country with a constitution like ours
cannot be libeled applies everywhere
else in the United States it does not
e apply in the District Of Columbia.
e 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
II Federal government as such, nor has
e It ever been; nor will it ever be sc
a long as Congress adheres to those
e principles on which the Revolution
: and the Constitution depended. Con.
It gress has not defined it in any Fed
erai statutes; nor has Congress giber
il any district or circuit court of the
n United States jurisdiction of the Of
q tense. for the reason. as stated by
Judge johnson in the Goodwin case
that Congress must first make an &C
g q crime and affiX a punishment there
to, before it can give to any court
jurisdiction Of the offense. And Ger
tainly," added Mr.. Willett. mo re
, pntable lawyer will contend that {
statute passed by Congress. acting a
a local legislature of the District OF
Columbia, can create a crime a3ains1