The Jeffersonian. [volume] (Atlanta, Ga.) 1907-1917, 1916-02-03
THE JEFFERSON1AN

and bleeding, and when the black Republicans
were raging with hatred against the seeding
States, nobody ever heard of proposition to carry
ex-Confederate soldiers and civilians into Yankee
land for trial.
Even those ex-Confederate soldiers accused of
Ku Kluxing and of murdering-not only negroes
but white Union soldiers-were tried by the
courts Of the district in which they lived
Our older citizens we'll remember the Column
bus case, where several white men of Georgia
were indicted for Ku Kluxing and murder: there
was no threat to drag them to New Jersey for
trial; they were tried in their own county, de-
tended by Alex Fl. Stephens, and acquitted.
Does the Government consider the failure of
one jury to convict me sufficient evidence upon
which to base the charge that all Jurors in our
State are incapable of jury duty? No Republican
President ever hurled such charge against the
State of Georgia: Republican Administration
ever put that stigma upon the South
Which was it that gave the greater offence to
this Democratic Administrations the legal convic-
ton of Leo Frank, or the failure to convict Thos
E. Watson?
The Government made no great outcry when it
failed to convict in the Naval Stores case in
Savannah; the Government failed to even follow
up the prosecution against the alleged bank
Wrecker of Macon.
Since when, has the notion prevailed with the
Department of Justice, that the failure of one
jury to convict in case, degrades, disqualifes
and dlsgraces every possible, jury in the State?
This case was already broad enough and suffi-
GENTLY ominous, because it directly threatens the
freedom of the press, which forefathers held
so dear that they said in the Constitution itself,
that Congress should never abridge it. Congress
has already considerably abridged it; bills are
pending to practically destroy it, and each one of
these bills is fathered and pushed by Democratic
Congressman.
If the Government rules that every news
dealer in Massachusetts who handles New York
publication is the agent of the publication and
confederate in the commission of alleged crime,
then no editor is safe from runous prosecution.
New England editors and publishers could be
hauled to the Pacific Coast for trial, and vice
versa; Southern editors could be transported to
Michigan or vice versa; no matter how unfounded
. the charges might be which the Government would
Bring against the publisher, he would simply be
Euined by that method of procedure.
President Roosevelt tried that during the last
fears of his administration, endeavoring to bring
RWestern editors to Washington for trial because
the papers circulated in the District of Co.
lumba. The Western courts refused to surrender
the accused editors holding properly that they
entitled to trial in the jurisdiction of their
residence. If President Roosevelt could not drag
Western editors to Washington for trial. how can
President Wilson legally do it?
The case is broader than the question of
free press, for it directly involves personal
liberty that is old Anglo-Saxon juris-
prudence
Under the construction which Mr.. Wallace
places upon the law, there isn't drummer.
merchant, fertilizer agent, nor insurance
agent who would be secure from Northern prose-
cution. On trumped-up charges of fraud in OBJ
tanning credit, of dishonesty in not paying bills
and similar offences, every Southern who
represents, travels for, and buys things from
Northern or Eastern firm individual, could be
dragged out of the State of Georgia and carried
to New York, Chicago or Boston, for trial.
Such condition of things would be absolutely
revolutionary, destructive that personal security
and personal right which Englishmen enjoyed
long before the days of Magma Cflarta.
What will the people of this and other States
think of the Georgia delegation if it silently
permits this outrage to be perpetrated upon
. Georgian?
a What will the people of other States think Of
he Governor of Georgia. elected in part by my
oluntary and unselt1sh support, if he files
protest against the wrong about to be inflicted
pom one of his supporters and old friend and
rmer colleague?