Edgefield advertiser. [volume] (Edgefield, S.C.) 1836-current, 1921-10-19
Civil Law, and What ii Stands

Civil Law, and What it Stands
For.
Civil law stand for every thing that
is high and holy. 1t protects our
homes, our lives and property. 1t
gives US a free press, free speech and
a free ballot. II is the foundation of
our national life, the bedrock upon
which the pillars of u liberty rest.
Without civil law, dissolution and
ruin would follow. A mans home is
where he places his single, bakes his
bread and pulls off his shoes; this is
his castle, and no man OF set of men
can invade that home without a legal
warrant signed and sealed by a prop
er officer of the law. So we need no
other agency for the suppression of
the lawlessness.
/ am bitterly opposed to mob vio-
lence in any form. A mob has neith-
er sense or reason when once start
ed. They have no respect for life or
property.4A man that will v his
face with a mask to do mischief is
in my opinion, the biggest coward
that lives. And I have no respect OF
sympathy for a coward. In my opin-
ion, every one who tramples under
their dusty:feet the laws that protect
them, should be brought before the
courts and given a fair trial, regard
less of race or color; and if proven
guilty of crime should be made to
serve his sentence to the limit of the
law. A man that violates the prohi-
bition law, and is so proven in the
court, should be made to pay for his
crime with pick and shovel in the
gang to the limit. If he is allowed to
pay for his crime in money he a
pay it off with a few gallons of shine,
and step across the branch into the
swamp and make more shine the next
day.
1 believe the fine for a fellow car
rying a gun in his left hand Sunday
school coat pocket is from ten to
twenty-five dollars. Just as long as a
man can pay in money for selling
bootleg shine and toating pistols,
they will never stop it, but if the
courts would give them a sentence of
from six to twelve months and let
them pay the same with stripes, pick
and shovel, that would teach them
what civil law means. I believe if a
man won't keep the law like other cit
liens. he should wear the stripes like
other criminals.
The jury box should be filled with
men of steady purpose, men with
brain and backbone and nerve; men
with high ideals of civil law. Bue we
have so much law, it seems that the
courts are at fault in not having the
laws executed. I believe it is the lax
ity of the law that is the cause of so
much lawlessness in the land. If the
law was executed and crime was Sc
verely punished, there would be less
crime committed. I have always
thought, and now think that the pen
itentiary was built for convicts, but
it seems now that it is a place of
refuge for the man-slayer. / noticed
some time ago that there were fifteen
penned there for safe keeping, and a
big. bunch of convicts, there waiting
to see what the supreme court and
the governor will, or "a do for them;
and there are some five or six in the
death house. The three fellows that
were sentenced to die in the chair
October 21st, have had their SEN
fences stayed; then Ed Bigham, who
killed only five of his family in one
evening was to die last March, but
he still sits in the big rocking chair,
living, moving and having his being.
The Book avs "Whoso sheddeth
mans blood, by man shall his blood
be shed"-Gen. go.
1 attended court sometime ago in
another state where a nan was tried
for murder. This was the third time
that the case had been tried. The
man killed another in a hotel, wit
messed by a big crowd, but he was &C
quilted and walked out of the court
room as free as a jack rabbit in a
briar patch. But like Lady Macbeth,
he will always smell blood on his fin
gers, and all the rich perfume of
.1 - -ka. 4l1~,