Year: 1876




TIE CHIEF JUSTICE OF TDE STATE


OPENS ON TAFT's ORDER.


Special to the Baltimore Gazette.


CHARLESTON, S. c., Oct. 15.-Party
lines have disappeared in the state politics
OF South Carolina, the contest being be-
tween honest men on one side and thieves
and their ignorant followers on the other,
political differences being ignored in the
struggle for honest government. The
honest republicans of this State, although
they may vote for Hayes, will vote for
Hampton for Governor. Chief Justice
Mackey, who is a republican, elected to
his Office by republican Legislature, is
indignant at the means by which Gran
intends 10 carry the State for Chamber
lain, and at the October term of tie Cor :
of Common. Pleas and General Sessions
for York County delivered the following
charge to the Grand Jury:


In charging the grand jury his honor
stated that he had heard, but had no facts
waranting the imputation, that armed
organizations existed in the county, hay
ing for their object the intimidation of
voters for the purpose of controlling the
approaching election. While nothing of
this kind had occurred in York county
for the past five years, and while the citl-
zens were never more peaceably inclined,
it is the duty of the court to instruct the
grand jury to inquire if such organiz-
ations do exist; aud if they find they
do to report the same to the cours
while if they find that they do not
exist, likewise to report the fact. The
court announced its readiness to move at
| all times TO secure an invoilable ballot,
aud 70 maintain the Jaw supreme without
the guidance OF an executive officer at
Washington.


His honor then stated that his attention
had been called TO the recent order of At
torney General Taft, which he character
lied as the most formidable and audacious
act of political intimidation at present
within the knowledge ofthe court and said
that the judge of court who would per-
init the provisions of that order to be en-
forced in his circuit void be false to his
duty. He said it is the duty of the courts
and Of every citizen of the state to aid the
United States civil and military authori-
tiles when such aid is required but the
law fixes limit to the authority of an
executive officer, and when he transcends
that limit he himself becomes amenable.
The circular of Attorney General Taft,
continued his honor, in effect expunges
and its duly constituted tribunals, and
substitutes the will of a subordinate
United States officer therefor. The law
is ample to check intimidation of voters
and to punish those guilty of intimidation;
and the right of no voter shall be tramp
led upon no matter what his political
sentiments or race or color may be. Uni
ted States marshals and deputy marshals
will not be permitted, on this judicial cir
cult, to carry out the provisions of the
order of the Attorney General to the extent
of disregarding the duly-issued process of
the state courts; and should they offer re,
sistance to judicial authority, adequate
/ force would be invoked to maintain that
authority, and the court would assume the
responsibility. He who acts upon the
provisions of that circular will do so at his
peril if he violates the constitutional or
legal rights of the humblest citizen. The
circular of the Attorney-General, in direc-
| ting United States marshals to disregard
the state officers in the execution of their
instr actions, virtually proposes that every
marshal and deputy marshal shall be con-
stituted supreme tribunal, whose acts
however flagrantly violative of the consti-
tuition and laws of the state, shall not be
subject to review by the courts of the
state.


The President of the United States
even cannot suspend the writ of habeas
corpus for single hour in the time OF
peace, unless specially authorized thereto
by the Congress of the United States. Yet
the Attorney General assumes to empow-
er deputy marshal not only to suspend
this great safeguard Of personal liberty at
will, but to annul, for the time being, the
whole body of criminal statutes of the
state enacted pursuant to the constitution
and laws of the United States for the due
protection of the life, liberty and property
of the citizen.


His honor also instructed the grand
jury that it constitutes intimidation
for an employer to threaten to
discharge his employees unless they vote a
certain way, and that it is likewise intim-
idation if laborer refuses to work unless
his emplOyer votes a certain Way