The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1916-02-10
Hon. Rufe Hutcbens Denounccs the Outrage
Threatened to the State Of Georgia.
February 8, 1915.

February 8, 1915.
Dear Mr. Watson: I intended to write you i'm
medately upon the termination OF the case
against you in Augusta, but delayed from time
to tine until now.
| trust you will not take the neglect to mean
any lack on my part Of interest in your Welfare,
or Of personal esteem and friend ship
| have never been able to the ST: htcst ex-
cuse i'll law for the prosecution, determine
how any such interpretation could be placed uJOn
the statute to make it APPLY 10 the matter in
question. But this is not much the subject If
this cpistie, you will notwithstanding . ow
niuuh convinced as the Correctness. Of the
conclusion stated
In a&i>e Of my inclination toward o. i,3,Hr7,
am for@ed to Inquire Whittier are We drifting?
Have we forgotten the days when the C0uniEts
We're transported to d foreign Jurisdiction tGe1e
to be t1ieU in Forum where .e.s ard pa~
litical enmities furnished means To @ubiu e AID
it not subjus&ted, tried convicted md punished.
Where is the individuality OF the citizen. and
what are the rights OF such citizen, " no vcr he
may be, or wherever he may be, if what hare
seen threatened by the Dera Gtme1t OF Justice is
done. It noans tfat man may he indicted in
Maryla1d for cf;me ALLEGED t. b. committed
there, When in fact, if committed at T. wzs com
mittod in Georgia, a. 4 vice versa.
1t means that a may be taken into COM
mun1ty of enemies and tried; and il it be
done once it be thousand times What Of
the venue, and where the Forum 10 viii any
might be carried?
| was made to quake this morning when read
an account of the visit Of the entire Gnorgia
Delegation in Congress from this State, Holse
and Hardwick, to the Department Of justice, and
the Treasury Head in effort to try to dicsuade
the Attorney General from making an effort to
indict for certain publications in reference to
the Frank case, in The Jeffersonian This SUP
posed effort to be made to indict you in some
state other than Georgia, and based the Frank
case at that Why not in Georgia. pray?
Well may those Congressman take this matter
up. 1t would not only be an indictment against
you, but it would be worse than an indi tment Of
the State of Georgia, and a most gTieV0us insult
to her people. 1t would mean more than q viola
ton Of your rights a citizen Of Georgia. it
would mean that State is unworthy of place
among the others, and her people unworthy of
the trust of citizenship in the eyes of the pres
ent administration, supposedly Democratic though
it be- and therefore, of her citizens must be
transported to a foreign Forum TO try him for
what he has admittedly done in Georgia, if done
at all.
Strange it is that private citizen should be the
subject of discussion with the Department OF Jus
tce and that it should arise in this fashion. What
could be more foreign to the spirit of our law, to
say nothing as othe merits of the proposed
charge. 1t has already gone far enough to dis
grace u.s. whether it goes any further not.
Does not the Federal Laws apply as we'll in
Georgia as in any other State? Has not the Fed
eral Government much power to institute a
prosecution in this State as in any other?
Are our people to be denied trial in the Fed
eral Courts of Georgia, where the overt act, if
violation of law, was unquestionably commit
ted. and carried to some other State perhaps to
Maryland, perchanee to the STATE of Wyoming,
where maybe stray copy of The Jeffersonan
found it's way? Why could not the publisher of
the Menace be brought to Georgia and be tried!
Or why not carry him to the Philippians Islands
and there give him fair and impartial trial by
jury of his peers?